RUTH: Watch and learn

“Please make sure you have read the safety card for this flight. As we come through the cabin to preform our final safety checks, please make sure your seatbelt is fastened,” I heard the flight attendant say in an enthusiastic tone.

I’m always marveled about how calm and collected they are. Here they are, telling us how to access our life-dependent information and all everyone seems to be doing is reading the complimentary SkyMall catalog that’s tucked right behind the safety card.

I decided to follow the trend and distract myself with the SkyMall catalog as we prepared for takeoff. It really is everyone’s in-flight guilty pleasure whether they’d like to admit it or not. You could purchase a replica of Hermione’s wand and transform into an angsty yet loveable know-it-all. You could even buy a hat with a beard attachment on it because we all know that the Red Sox made #GetBeard become something particularly desirable. SkyMall offers every useless invention that has no real application in our daily life, but also it’s that time you get to pretend what you would do with each trivial object.

However, what stuck out to me wasn’t extraordinarily useless, it was something that was your every day household object. I quickly opened to the first page and took a deep breath. Before I knew it, I was looking at heaven. I saw the sky opening up, welcoming me with open arms. There it was on the first page of the magazine: a Samsung Ultra Slim 46-inch LED TV.

With its sleek composure, it begged the attention of any avid television-watcher. It didn’t even seem like I was looking at a picture of a television. The borders of the screen and monitor stand itself were so thin that they were almost invisible. The only blatantly visible part of this devise was the strategically placed yellow tulips on the screen.

These tulips had a pristine, relaxed composure, like they were gently tucked away from their nap, kissed by the cool drops of the morning rain. Nonetheless, I could feel their aura poisoning my thoughts with their devilish advertising scheme. The deep yellow of the flowers made my mind take a trip down memory lane and suddenly my 8-year-old self was in Provence in southwestern France, looking up at golden sunflowers towering over me.

Not only was I surrounded by nature, but I was lovingly encased by it. Wherever I looked, I felt like I was part of a Paul Cezanne painting, forever immobilized in the sweeping landscapes of Provence. Flowers are something that appeal to everyone’s emotions for their supernatural ability to lighten the mood of any occasion. They’re used for apologies, romantic sentiments, sympathy, and thoughtful gestures.

It’s quite clear how a simple flower can change our moods. So it’s quite clear why these tulips are on the television screen.

Odds are, I wasn’t going to use this majestic piece of machinery to watch motionless yellow tulips. I can assure you that watching the Bruins and Pretty Little Liars would be the sole usage of this television. So why did the yellow flowers make me remotely consider purchasing this $1,399.99 item?

This television projection of tulips appeals to our false hopes of manufacturing. Using the environment as means to increase profits and consumer interest in their product is just senseless.  Televisions have no symbiotic relationship with the environment whatsoever. In fact, they really just add to the detriment of it.

Of course, it seems that everything we do impacts the future of our climate in some shape or form, so it pays to do some research. Samsung’s booming technology realm has allowed for vast improvements, especially with the LED television that I saw in the SkyMall catalog.

According to Samsung, they have decreased their CO₂ emissions by 15 percent by encompassing high efficiency LED and extra transparent polarizing film. They have also taken steps to ensure that all concentrations of pollutants are legally compliant. Samsung has taken charge of another environment issue by reducing the water pollutant concentrations by 30 percent in their Gwangiu Plant in Korea.

Whether we like it or not, televisions have become a necessity in our society. The best environmental option is to simply end the manufacturing of these products, but it’s not that feasible at all. And it would be cruel to deprive a college student of the easy-access to all of the Bruins and Red Sox games.

So if I ever started a television company, I’d be honest with my customers. I don’t want people to say, “Wow, look at the pretty flowers,” when they see my advertisement and just continue on their merry way. I want them to say, “Wow, look at Mike Napoli’s beard. We need to get this television so we can watch the World Series tonight.”

You don’t need to deceive people in order for them to buy their product; you need to appeal to their interests. And in Massachusetts, it’s not that difficult.

Jennifer Ruth is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying environmental analysis and policy. She can be reached atjenruth@bu.edu.