Shop Till You Drop

Going to the mall is such a normal activity in my life. Although I am not a super huge fan of shopping, I nonetheless get roped into going with my friends and family quite often. This morning, though when I went to Woodland Mall, I walked in with a different purpose. I wanted to walk around the mall and think about and analyze it in light of the article and film we watched in class.

The first thing that I noticed upon entering the mall was the plethora of advertisements that I was immediately bombarded with. There were numerous signs down the middle of the walkway that had advertisements for anything from universities to movies. Another thing that I noticed, which I probably would not have noticed without watching the film in class, is that all these ads were trying to appeal to my emotions. In the movie, it was explained that advertising companies are no longer trying to just sell you the product but they are trying to sell you a happy life. In one advertisement for University of Michigan, the slogan was emphasizing the very low teacher-student ratio, which is probably trying to make its viewers feel like they will be special and focused on at this school.

Another thing that I was especially paying attention to was the layout and decorations of the mall in light of Pahls’ chapter concerning malls becoming “sacred places.” I first noticed all the fake trees scattered all over the mall. Pahl states that “…the powerful symbols of the tree and vegetarian are commonly employed in mall design. Growing things are held sacred in almost every religion…” (75). Another thing that reminded me about churches was the high, vaulted ceilings, especially in the middle of the mall. I connected that to the sanctuary in my church that has that type of ceiling.

As far as the nontangible aspects of the mall, I was paying close attention to the signs outside of stores, such as signs telling about big sales or trying to convince customers to buy its products. The majority of the signs that I saw were trying to convince the customers that they needed that product, whether to make them happier or because it’s the “in” thing or just to make a bold statement. Before entering the mall I told my friend not to let me buy anything because I was solely going to observe, but without even realizing it I was walking into stores and wanting to buy things. When my friend called me out on this, I realized that I was so easily persuaded by the advertisements around me and that they actually are very appealing. That made me think about how advertisers are digging into the minds of Americans and persuading them, possibly even without their knowledge of it, to turn the malls into a sacred place and to start to place more emphasis on the market over faith itself, like Pahl suggests.