2006年NPR美国国家公共电台二月-It's Valentine's Day. How About a Furnace

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This is Valentine’s Day and this morning, we have a few words about love and money. According to research from a major credit card company, the average man spends about $130 on his sweetheart.

Women, spend about half that. For people who want to spend more, they are,of course, the usual luxury items, and, Steve, you can never go around with diamonds.

Oh, thanks for the suggestion. But the gifts I was wondering about are the ones that do not seem like Valentine gifts at all. We've been looking at ads this week and how about this? A new furnace with a free digital thermostat¹. It's listed on the website under the heading "great Valentine gift ideas".

Maybe the important thing about this is that the woman in that ad is wearing a devil-may-care tank top. Well, of course she does get a new furnace.

For $400 less, you could have bought her a cashmere sweater.

Heat is apparently² a big item this year. One store ran an ad. with Cupid sitting on top of a propane fireplace. The ad. promises that it can be installed by Valentine’s Day.

But even with a 20% discount on logs, we are not convinced this is the proper way to say 'I love you. '
Maybe it's something about the word－propane.
Maybe, we also saw a blushing pink ad for high-speed internet service. "Show each other how much you care." it says.

And the woman in that ad is reclining seductively on the couch, not with her lover, but with her laptop. Her head is arched back and she looks ecstatic.

For just $19.99 a month, for three months.

Here is another one. Ad. copy that says "renew the one you love". It’s for a beauty saloon and it offers, among other things, laser hair removal. Steve, can we stop a moment here and can I say to you and to all the men who are listening out there: do not get any woman you love laser hair removal as a Valentine's present, your day will end badly.

And with that, let's just say here's to love and to commerce. Happy Valentine's Day.

This is morning edition for NPR News,I'm Steven Rosenfeld. And I'm R M .