Entitlement in America: In the media

One or two years ago, Kia ran a series of ads “reminding” Americans they were entitled to certain things — things like 100,000 mile warranties. The commericals, as I recall, actually told the viewer “this is your right” and “you’re entitled to.” I can’t find these ads online, although a bunch of other innocuous Kia ads can be seen on YouTube.

What is it that entitles us to certain vehicular features and warranties?

I’m reading a very interesting book right now called Branded: The buying and selling of teenagers. Author Alissa Quart, while talking about the surge in consumerism following 9/11, writes this:

The Los Angeles Times, in one of its many consumer-as-upright-citizen stories, quoted a Marina del Ray resident who told a reporter that “we need to put more money into the economy now.” The telling detail? The woman was “balancing a shopping bag and garment bag, while trying to stuff cash into her wallet in front of an ATM.”

The kids got the message. “It’s patriotic to shop,” Amy tells me. Two of the Teen People trendspotters echoed the sentiment. Buying and spending on luxury goods were reaffirmed as the keys to citizenship. It was a message that the adolescents I spoke with in the months after September 11 took to heart. [page 33]

Citizenship tied to consumerism? Patriotic to go shopping? Who are these people?

Or who am I? I fear that me and my friends, most of which would find the above ideas completely absurd, are in a thinking minority. Quart worries in her book that the teenagers of the late 1990s and early 2000s (who she interviewed for her book) are lured into a brand and consumer mentality without any other frame of reference — without thinking about potential repercussions.

And rightly so.