Negative advertising

Build.com has an ad running on TV just now that is truly disturbing.

Okay, so I find most current advertising campaigns disturbing for a range of reasons but this one really promotes a negative approach to life.

This guy is seen in a series of homeowner fix-it situations. First he has a wobbly ceiling fan and when he contemplates fixing it, his wife says he should just chuck it and buy a new fan at Build.com. So, then he’s working on a leaky faucet and again she suggests replacement over repair. The theme continues, including the stinger at the end in which the now-savvy homeowner sees a neighbor repairing a path light and suggests – you guessed it – tossing it in favor of  buying a new lamp from our favorite distributor.

The explicit message is that it’s easier and faster to just throw away any household item that needs repair.

Forget that this speaks to the worst (largely accurate) image of Americans as wasteful, lazy over-consumers. Or that the commercials promote tossing easily repaired items. Forget that many Dads in many corners of the globe would gladly repair any of those items in exchange for enough food to feed their kids for just one day.

These are really disgusting ads. Please do not patronize Build.com. They deserve our censure and in the commercial world, censure means silent phones and empty in- boxes.

(By the bye, if you want to know how to fix any of these items, call me. Build.com is not only socially irresponsible, they’re basic premise is just plain dumb. In every case, fixing the existing item is orders of magnitude simpler than removing the old and installing the new. If you want ‘faster’ or ‘easier,’ and certainly cheaper, fix the old one.)