NETRADIO: 'Corporate Independence Day' - A Commentary (2003-07-23)

This year, while watching the fireworks in New York City on TV, I was in for a bigger pyrotechnic surprise than I expected.

A huge, lighted Macy's sign - as bright as the fireworks going off around it - kept showing up.

My first thought was, "I guess Macy's paid for the fireworks."

My second thought was, "Does that entitle them to inject themselves into the actual fireworks display?"

I thought we were celebrating the birth of a nation, not the branding of our country.

Their goal is easy to see. Identify Macy's with everything all-American and wholesome.

But it was a little too much like watching one of those commercial logos pop up on the TV screen in the middle of a favorite movie. Hype is everywhere these days. We've gotten so used to seeing sports arenas and tournaments, state fairs and parades named for a product or company. It doesn't faze us anymore.

Over the past 15 years, for example, we've become used to seeing structures christened with the name of a corporation instead of a person. It used to be that buildings were named after people who had made a significant cultural or social contribution. Those individuals usually embodied aspirations or attributes that the rest of us try to emulate.

Now structures are named after faceless entities or institutions who give the most money. Period. What qualities of a corporation - such as Enron or WorldCom - would you aspire to have?

Yes, we know there's a place for advertising. It's the price we pay for capitalism - for living in a consumer-driven society.

But a good sign that people are getting tired of in-your-face advertising and marketing is the "Do-Not-Call Registry" that the Federal Trade Commission recently conducted. In the space of two days, more than 10 million people jumped at the chance to stop harassing telemarketers by registering at the FTC's website. I was one of them.

I don't mind some of those pop-ups on Internet websites, because I know I can click them off. And some advertising on websites actually helps non-profits and health-awareness organizations.

But there was no way I could click off that Macy's sign during those fireworks. Even Tivo wouldn't have helped.

Marketing has invaded every aspect of our daily lives - from mass media to billboards to classrooms. No one can escape! Even watching Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France has become irritating, with that candy bar stuck in the right-hand corner of the screen, as part of a so-called "commercial-free" half-hour.

So what's next? Parks? Churches? The White House?

Every inch of space around us is being claimed.

And we've become so desensitized to seeing this kind of commercialism that it's now integrated itself into one of our most cherished national celebrations - Independence Day.

Some of us may not have even blinked when we saw it - which says a lot about how far we've come.

But I'm sure our country's founders would have been just as startled and disappointed.

Because they would have seen another message that came through loud and clear: Everything has a price.

And I'm pretty sure that's not the message they had in mind when they founded this country.

Merecedes Olivera writes for the Dallas Morning News. If you have opinions or rebuttals about this commentary, please call (214) 740-9338 or contact us through our website at kera.org.