My ears couldn't believe what I was hearing but my gut wasn't surprised. You could see this coming.
In listening to a talk show host, he highlighted a new market that has alot of demand. For the discretion of my readers I'll be vague but it is a part of our body hardly ever discussed in private among close peers let alone in public!! But evidently this loose culture I live in has decided that this area of privacy needs to be public and it needs to be public so much that a new industry is needed. The slight hope that there was still decency in this culture has been snuffed out. (This is my dramatic side talking. I know with God there is always hope!)
Combine the afore mentioned with this revelation: marketers are having to resort to such low levels to garner the attention of young to middle age adults so they are using brute language. Because the consumers they want to engage are so numbed down to normal words that would stimulate action, they now have to use words with strong sex appeal just so we'll pay attention.
We've grown up in a generation that is more loose with our bodies and our mouths regarding our bodies than possibly any generation before. Things that were ghastly to mention at the dinner table in your home, are now blatantly paraded in the faces of little ones.
Because we've grown up so "loose" little shocks us or causes us to blush. So if you want to grab our attention you use crude words. Great. Can one go any lower?
Commercials addressing drugs to enhance husband and wife pleasures. Ads on facebook where all ages gather displaying scantily clad young women. Images in store windows that should be only for the eyes of one's spouse to see. Is there no room for discretion? Is the allusion of secrecy and intimacy for one's spouse even thought of anymore? There are healthy environments for these conversations but not in the public marketplace!
Things deserving utmost privacy - are they being supported in shameful publicity? STOP! If we don't draw a line in the sand somewhere... what will happen to us as a people?
There will always be a market place for evil because we live in a fallen world. To assume that this world will be perfect is un-reasonable. But we can become a louder voice for desiring the clean and good content. Our human nature might enjoy seeing the physically pleasing model in the magazine but it's our choice whether we gravitate towards, seek out, or run away from those environments, images and values.
Shame is a good thing! It means our conscience or our inner GPS has collided with God's Holiness and something doesn't register or sync therefore it needs to be resolved. Blushing is synonymous for being exposed, in either a good or bad format. It should be a sign of innocence, vs a sign of guilt when being apprehended. But when a blush (concept) is in need of being defined in a culture, so foreign that it's not even looked for, and so un-neccessary because the indecent has become our reality - shouldn't we be gravely concerned?
What has happened to our moral guidelines? Our sense of private and public discrepancy? Not everything has to be made public! Somethings are meant to be hidden - and should be off limits to "new markets", new marketer's strategies and for that fact - not even an option in the mind fo the business owners who are selling these ads, running these commercials and so on.
Instead of moving further into our base human sinful pleasures, aren't you tempted to see what the results would be in the market place if we swung for the high ground? Fine. Laugh all you want at my "seemingly" innocent suggestion but can't we start going back towards the holy destination? Who knows, maybe your product will benefit. Shock and gasp! How could we ever expect God's way to be the best market plan around? And He doesn't need sex appeal, shock and awe to accomplish His good and perfect plan. He has plenty of other brilliant marketing strategies up His sleeve.
Try Him. And hurry up - let's get our blushing back as a community, culture and nation. It's become a bit too foreign around here.
(Thoughts? Email me at amyjaynehawkins@gmail.com - or share this article on your facebook wall and create a conversation with your peers!)