"There's Nothing We Can't Sell You..." (Sheryl Crow)

Mme took me shopping with her this afternoon so I could see the big stores outside Aix. I thought the French didn't do superstores - boy was I wrong! Carrefour is HUGE. Think Meijer, Wal-Mart, Target - whatevever your preferred superstore is... only bigger, like half of a mall big. The grocery store section takes up half the store and it's bigger than the Signature Kroger I go to in Houston. I didn't ever make it through the whole store. In fact, I felt badly that I didn't find the international foods section because that was the whole reason Mme took me. (We had split up and agreed to meet an hour later.)

The whole thing made me realize what a large role advertising plays in my life - more than I was ever aware of or would like to acknowledge. I walked by the toiletries and it occurred to me that I would need to buy more face wash one of these days. And suddenly, I was faced with 20+ brands and no quick way to discriminate among them. So I thought about how I choose in the States and it hit me that I go for price and whatever I saw the most recent ad for. Whoa. Do I honestly think that my skin will look just like the model's if I use her product? No. But if I think it works for someone else, be it a friend or a model, I'm more likely to buy the product. And there's certainly something to be said for name recognition. AHH! The marketers are winning! So how would I choose here? Well, first of all, it would take a lot longer. But it would probably be based on price, brand recognition and the presence of instructions/ingredients in English. I guess you never really know if you're getting the best product for you until you try anyway.