Buying The Package Lyrics & Chords By Malvina Reynolds

Chorus:
You're buying the package,
You're buying the dream,
You pay for the ads
On the television screen,
They sell you a story,
They sell you a mood,
But what they don't deliver is food.

Colors, preservatives,
Poison or not.
Just so it sells
And is sure not to rot.
Colorings, additives,
Nothing is real,
No sensible maggot
Would call it a meal.

(Chorus)

Movie star glamour,
The ad man's display,
Pay at the check out
And take it away,
The package it comes in
More nourishing far
Than stuff in the box
Or the jar.

(Chorus)

The label it reads
Like an alchemist's dream,
You look at the contents
And what does it mean?
Profits for business
And nothing for you,
But sugar and grief,
And a wheat flake or two.

(Chorus)

Refined till its tasteless,
And taste added in,
The stockmarket rises,
Executives grin,
They'd never get rich
If you ate what you should,
There's profit in ads
So why bother with food?

(Chorus)

Movie star glamour
And slogans that stick,
What do they care
If the stuff makes you sick?
Big corporations
Have better to do
Than think of the health
Of the customer, too.

(Chorus)