Did you decide to read this blog because you are interested in arts and culture?  Or did you choose to read it because you know me?  Was it, perhaps, the suggestion of a changed life that enticed you?

In one episode of The Simpsons, Homer is driving home from work and he is excited because it is the day that all the new billboard advertising comes out.  As he drives, he dutifully stops at each billboard, writes down what he is ‘supposed’ to buy and drives on.  Finally, he sees a billboard advertising clown school, which he rejects as a waste of time.  Yet this is the billboard that stays on his mind until he announces that he is going to become a clown.

Billboards are an interesting form of advertising.  These signs have only a few seconds to catch our attention and make the product appealing in that short time.  Most of them seem ridiculous.  Everybody knows the drinking that beer from the vortex bottle will not make life better than if it were out of a normal bottle.  So why advertise?  How much of advertising is capitalizing on a supposed need, like the need to be liked and accepted?

 Could it be that advertisers are creating idols in our lives by telling us what we need to be happy, popular, sexy, or even educated?  In Homer’s case, he became convinced that the way to a fulfilled life was through Krusty’s Clown School.  Christian’s claim that the only way to a truly fulfilled life is through Jesus.  If a life in Christ is what we need then does being filled and guided by the Holy Spirit make us immune to advertising?  How should we respond to the ‘wants’ communicated by the billboards?  How do billboards impact your desires and wants?