Information Related to ""Sometimes You Have to Break the Rules"?"
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In
the United States most teens have seen the television commercial for
a popular hamburger chain that uses the phrase "Sometimes
you have to break the rules." Since most restaurants are willing to prepare
food according to personal preference, this advertising phrase wasn't
really applicable to specific rules about how one could order a hamburger.
There simply is no rule that says hamburgers must always include cheese,
pickles, onions, mustard, ketchup, tomatoes, and lettuce. As the chain's
accompanying jingle says, "Have it your way."
The marketing phrase "Sometimes you have to break the rules" was used for a reason other than ordering hamburgers. It was used to appeal to a basic trait of human nature—the desire to resist rules and authority. The logic behind the phrase was to identify with this common human tendency and thereby create good will toward the company. And if there are good feelings toward the company, there is the increased likelihood that more hamburgers will be sold.
Hamburgers aside, consider the implications of this phrase. It appeals to what some might term our "wild" side—the part of us that likes to do as we please, when we desire, without regard to what others may think. But is breaking rules really in our best interest? Is wrong ever right? Should young people be encouraged to decide for themselves which rules they want to follow?
Rugged, unrestrained individualism, often described as freedom to be what you want to be, is considered an integral part of our basic human rights and is highly prized in western society. The United States, called a melting-pot of peoples and customs, is especially noted as a land of opportunity because it allows and promotes such diversity. While freedom of religion is a wonderful privilege in such an environment and economic opportunities abound, consider the social consequences of this approach that says there are no moral absolutes—that everyone should decide for himself or herself what is good or bad.
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