Keeping up with the Joneses

I was interested on hearing the news to-day to learn that an American firm, specialised in Marketing, had engaged an entire family to promote its products around their neighbours, relatives, and more generally to people they are likely to meet in their everyday life. They are supposed to be showing off in every possible way, by using the products as much and as often as possible and as ostentatiously as possible,so as to attract as many people as possible, and make them buy the products as well.
This is indeed a perfect example to illustrate the way one can take advantage of one aspect of the American well-known syndrome of keeping-up with the Joneses.

You might be interrested in that expresson origin ?
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/216400.html