Advertising and Advent

This isn't exactly what you might think from the title.

Our pastor used a very good analogy in his homily about Advent and all the Christmas advertising that we see. He said that advertising works by making us dissatisfied with what we have and makes us long for something newer and better.

He then pointed out that "advertising has taken our Advent gig" because that is the feeling we should have during Advent: dissatisfied with what we have and longing for something better. Which is Christ.

It made me realize that we can then use Christmas ads to our advantage for Advent contemplation. If that analogy makes me divert my attention to Christ and the longing I should be feeling even half of the times that I see advertising ... then it is a job well done! And that's what I'm going to try to do.