By Heather Gates

In the consumer-based culture we live in, product marketing appeals make it easy to avoid thinking about the downsides of the things we buy and whether we really need them. At this time of year, with gift-giving and gift-buying at its annual peak, the problem is especially acute, as many rush to buy gifts because we feel we have to.

This makes it even harder to take the time to consider how we are being manipulated to think that “newer, better” products are desirable. It might be helpful to know what the marketers know: that an appeal to our “Homer Simpson side,” the automatic, unconscious associative system of reasoning, works much better than an appeal to our “Spock side,” the system that is conscious, rational, and deliberate.

It is through understanding the “Homer Simpson” side that I can see why someone might buy the “gourmet single cup home brewing system” that is the Keurig coffee maker. Featured prominently in Bed Bath & Beyond advertisements, this product offers the ease of plugging in a plastic pod for a single cup of coffee and, “presto chango,” the coffee is ready to drink. Homer would likely love it. But, Doh! No!

Spock would find it to be the poster product for wastefulness, as the single-serving plastic pouches are the heavily packaged goods we should be trying to eliminate from product manufacturing, and this new-fangled coffee-maker would likely replace perfectly functioning coffee-makers. In addition, the cost of the convenience seduces the user into buying the branded coffee pods for the life of the machine. It’s very smart marketing—quite similar to buying an inexpensive printer and then having to pay high prices for the ink—but the product isn’t smart, and Spock would have none of it.

If you’ve received the mailings from Bed Bath & Beyond, your Spock side has likely noticed that their offerings at this time of year fit this model: things that seem to be useful and fill a need, but which are likely to be stored at the back of your cabinet by February or put in the garage sale in May. The gadgets appeal to the “my friend has everything they need already, so what the heck can I get for him or her” problem by offering new contraptions and gizmos that they couldn’t possibly own already. Do you own the “Hollywood Kettle Popcorn Maker” or the “Soft Pretzel Factory” yet? No? Well, of course not. You already make popcorn without needing a “Hollywood Kettle” device, and you likely aren’t in such need of soft pretzels that you need a “factory” to manufacture them for you.

So, what’s the big deal? Who cares if we buy things people don’t need in the frenzy of holiday shopping?

How about one good Spock fact for you: According to the Worldwatch Institute, for every can of garbage we put out to the curb, 70 times that amount of garbage has been put to landfill or incinerated up stream in the making of the things we’re throwing away.

That fact alone should be enough to move you toward Spock ideas for your holiday gifts. Here are some: Homemade foods; handmade crafts from reused materials; dinner out on the town; gift certificates for local services, such as a massage, or for local classes, such as yoga, cooking, language, art, or music; a share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture); a membership in a local non-profit organization (Hey! The Natural Step Monona has those!); a state park pass; tickets to a museum exhibition, play, local movie theater, concert, or a sports event; or gift certificates for groceries or utilities (Yes! They exist!).

So, please, this holiday season, leave Homer Simpson in the car when you shop. You’ll shop differently—more intelligently and with less harm to the natural systems that sustain us—without him. With Spock, future generations and ours will be better able to “live long and prosper.”