April 30, 1999
Calvin College Chimes

























EDITORIAL:
COMMERCIALISM FINDS ITS NICHE AT CALVIN

Like everyone else out there in collegiate-land, the editorial staff is counting down the seconds until May 19th, half wishing the last three weeks would be over, half knowing that we need another six weeks to finish all the papers we haven’t even written titles for. But May 19th doesn’t signify the end of the past academic year, remember, after you take your tests you still have to call for your grades.
And that (in a terrible backdoor kind of a way) leads to the real issue at hand — commercialism. Yes commercialism will pop it’s ugly little head up even when you think you have escaped all the Pepsi Inflatable Raft and Towel Days in the dining hall. Companies want to make sure your last activity of the academic year has commercials. When you call Get Grades (the service Calvin uses to distribute student’s grades over the phone) you are bombarded with advertisements geared toward us “college aged kids.” This is because someone once did a survey and found that most habits are formed during college, and they want to be your habit.

When the commercials begin to play on the receiver there is technically no way to stop them. All you can do is sit and wait or lay the phone on the counter. We suggest the later. Don’t let be subjected to any kind of trap advertising. God has called us to be loving, creative beings, and the manner that some companies turn image bearers of God into demographics, billboards or numbers should appall us. Junk mail, telemarketing phone calls, and even things as simple as advertising on clothing and other products given away as “free” are all ways that companies try to pry their way into your life.

Pepsi “owning the rights” to Calvin is doing that exact thing. First, they have a virtual monopoly on campus, then they throw cheesy parties in the dining halls giving away free stuff for you to parade around with, advertising for them. This year every one of these happened in both dining halls simultaneously, not even giving students a choice if they wanted to take part. (To this we say: drink coke, drink coke, drink coke, etc.)

But we must be careful to remain perceptive and not cynical. There is a difference between believing that everyone is out to get you and understanding that some companies are interested in providing profit for their stockholders by somewhat underhanded means. We should, for example, be a bit cautious of the way we are targeted by advertising and commercialism. Each of us has a dignity that we should try to protect from those who try to sell us more of what we really don’t need.

Look hard at how a company is trying to get your money. Are they honest? Sensationalistic? Do they use advertising gimmick or try to convince people using the basest of human wants and sins (greed, lust, envy)? Living in America (where ever you may be from) we must be discerning of the images and ideas that we are approached with, and unfortunately, advertising usually gets past us without notice. Be an active participant in culture, passivity breeds apathy.