“Cars that make you look good, at any price.”

That was the catch line for one of the news items rotating across the screen when I logged on to the Internet.

I was stunned. Is that really the reason we buy a particular car? Because it makes us look good?

I’ve ridden in a lot of different vehicles in my life, but I don’t recall ever riding in one that made me look good. Unless maybe it was my dad’s old farm tractor that I had to stand up to brake because I wasn’t heavy or strong enough to simply step on the pedal.

Or maybe it was the Veteran’s Day Homecoming float back in 1970, or the 2½-ton International Harvester truck my family rodeoed in. How about the white Jeep Cherokee in a blizzard with my son hanging out the window so he could see if we were about to run off the highway?

Did we look good? Did we care? Did anybody else?

No, no, and no.

American advertisers will stop at nothing to get us to buy their product of choice. But what about our choice? Shouldn’t we be considering affordability, feasibility, safety, and other issues?

Marketing is a powerful tool in this nation of freedom. Whom do we date? What type of home do we live in? What about our jobs, our social affiliations, even our churches? Do we choose based on what will make us “look good?”

School starts this week in most communities, and parents have doled out plenty to help their youngsters get the supplies and clothes they need.

Sadly, as a teacher, I have seen students turn up their noses at classmates who didn’t wear the latest fashion or the hottest brand name. It is one of the signs of innocence lost, but they didn’t learn it on their own. They gleaned it from parents and television and magazines and movies.

Yes, we all want to look our best; it is human nature to do so. The opposite extreme of poor hygiene and inappropriate dress is just as bad. But at what price (not just monetary) will we follow the trend setters?

This year, let’s change the status quo. Instead of paying too much to look good, let’s take a good look at who’s really making our choices.