Would you like Love with that?

As a non-drinking, non-smoking, vegetarian pacifist, I do not have many visible vices. However, one of them is my addiction to McDonalds (as a vego I eat the cheeseburger without the meat – don’t knock it till you try it!!). This is a source of guilt for me as they are shamelessly a multi-national corporation, which does little good and much harm. Yet, I have a problem and find myself eating their food at least once a week. Recently, I was appalled to find on the bag of my purchase in big bold letters the words; COURAGE, HOPE and LOVE. On closer inspection it was referring to its work with cancer patients etc. While I am not trying to diminish the work that happens with this branch of the corporation, what is behind the master stroke of advertising that is trying to market non-purchasable commodities such as courage, hope and faith and subversively putting them out there for retail? There really isn’t room in this blog for indepth discussion on the topic of hyper reality and the tricks advertisers play, I would advise you check out Mark Sayers blog http://marksayers.wordpress.com/ and his book called ‘The Trouble with Paris’. What I want to have a look at is the devaluing of the terms that Maccas casually has used to advertise itself. Faith, Hope and Love are 3 of the essential traits of Christianity and many of the worlds religions. Yet these spiritual attributes, which any spiritual leader of any worth would advise you takes years to develop, are cheapened by association with the popular culture of the day. The word love is so overused that it has no real or tangible meaning. The notion of romantic love which is pushed so hard in most media outlets is a pasty imitation of what love should be. When looking at love within the context of Judeo-Christian thought, what we have presented to us as love today is a lie which creates a sense of dissatisfaction and subsequently fuels our drive to consume arbitrary and unfulfilling things to fill that aching dissatisfaction in our souls. Part of the issue is the lack of a word to sufficiently describe what love is. The Hebrew and Greek meaning of the word love was classified in many different words to express what type of love was trying to be conveyed. When the average Christian thinks of love though, they think of the love Jesus spoke about. A better word for love that was used in earlier translations of the bible is ‘charity’. I think that this word more fully describes love. Love in this form ceases to be a self indulgent, self-serving, personally gratifying experience and becomes about compassion, justice, service, hope, courage and faith. This type of love fills us with a sense of purpose and connects us with other people, enhancing our lives and giving us resilience during suffering….Hmm, now how can we market that??