Steals and Deals

I watch the Today show pretty much every morning. I don't know why, because half the time it just makes me irritable.

Anyway, there's this segment they do in the 9am hour, called "Steals and Deals". It's on right now, so it reminded me that I wanted to talk about it.

The premise is, this woman comes on who finds really great deals on products that would normally cost 60-90% more than the price she's offering. Usually it's stuff I would consider junk, things that you don't need. Today there's bracelets, men's briefs, DVDs that claim to teach your toddler speech, and some other things I already forgot.

What gets me is, with nearly every product, she feels the need to name-drop the celebrities who also like that product. The Kardashians get mentioned a lot. Her intention, I'm sure, is to appeal to that part of us that wants to be a celebrity as well. And it's very clear that she's targeting women.

So why does marketing towards women try to make us feel like we need the same things celebrities have? Does marketing towards men do that? I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Even when the woman on Today features men's products, she mentions them as things that women could buy as gifts for men. She doesn't appeal to a male audience at all.

We make women feel like they have to live up to the celebrity standard. We should try to look like them, act like them, emulate them in every way. Celebrities present an ideal that no woman could possibly imitate unless she were also surrounded by stylists and handlers.

Sorry, these thoughts aren't very organized right now. But that's just something for you to think about this morning.