"I cannot tell you how annoyed I am with back-to-school sales," says Becky Mitchell, mother of three school-aged children. "You can't turn on the television or radio without some terrible commercial for a back-to-school sale. I heard one on the radio the other day that said, 'It's time to say goodbye to summer and hello to shopping!' and I spent about an hour trying to figure out what that meant. Luckily, they played it six more times in that hour. I think my head almost exploded."
For others it's not the saturation of the media with ads but the targeting of the ads that bothers them.
"I try to get the kids whatever they need for school," starts Ken Lundy, father of two teenagers who is concerned that high priced items get pushed on the public as necessary. "It's bad enough that all the office supply stores imply you are a bad parent if you don't get the kid a brand new computer every year, but it's gone too far. I just can't afford to get them each a new Subaru just because the dealer put up a 'Back-to-School Clearance' banner. And I don't really care if the Smith twins' father did."
Other more adult oriented products also rub parents the wrong way. "I can appreciate that colleges are also starting school," continues Lundy, "but our local liquor store is having a back-to-school sale on half kegs. There is no college in this town and the liquor store is right next to the high school. How dumb do they think we are? And if the girls think they are getting the credit card to check out the back-to-school sale at the tattoo and piercing place down the road, they can forget it. I don't care what MTV says, one nipple piercing is enough for tenth grade."
Market analysts warn that while it is good that consumer confidence can be expected to go up it should be taken into account that people actually "fall for this shit and buy a lot of stuff" which is immeasurably better for the economy than confidence alone.
