Advertising today.

6 December 2014

The more unaware and reactive someone is, the easier they are to be controled.

Imagine this scenario:

There is a dog in a small room where a juicy fresh cut steak is put in front of him. The dog is held by a leash so he can't jump to grab the steak but he is inches away. He can smell it but not eat it.

How do you think the dog feels? Do you think his whole body is ready to jump? Do you think he’s salivating? Do you think that maybe his whole purpose in life at that moment is to eat the steak?

Now think about this:

There’s a man sitting in front of a TV. The TV is showing him constant images of a very attractive woman who is almost naked.

Generally speaking: What do you think his body is feeling?

Most likely he feels desirous, he feels a strong want towards that body, he wants to jump and grab it, but he can’t. He only can watch but can not touch. He can feel the desire but not satisfy it with the image of the person.

What do you think the man is thinking? Where do you think his mind is focused?

Now imagine that half a minute later from the moment when he was shown the almost naked woman, a product comes into the picture, it's a beer. The almost naked woman grabs the beer and flirts with it, using it to entice, to invite, as if she was calling him into…..

What do you think is going on with the man at that moment?

How do you think the woman and the beer relate to the steak and the dog?

Note: I’m using the above example to make a point, not to set a moral judgement on women or men in general.

Do you think that the desire the man is feeling could be transferred to the object of the beer? Do you think once the man sees the images of the attractive woman and beer several times, he may start to feel desire towards the beer as he does for the woman?

If the process I’m describing here is possible and true, then it is possible to link the feelings of desire in people towards an object.

Do you think corporations and advertising experts know about this process? Do you think they may use this knowledhe to link specific feelings in people towards their products or services?

Consider this:

Most people are not introspective or very aware of their feelings and emotions. Most are not even aware of their own thoughts.

Do you think this may help or not help advertisers?

The more unaware and reactive someone is, the easier they are to control.

Think about this:

How many forms of advertising does an average person experience every day?

From the New York Times:

“Yankelovich, a market research firm, estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today. About half the 4,110 people surveyed last spring by Yankelovich said they thought marketing and advertising today was out of control”. 1

What do you think the effects are of all this advertising on our psychology, on how we feel and what we think?

Do you believe advertising as it is today influence us to be more or less materialistic? Do you think it help us be more joyful, introspective, present and aware?

Do you believe the ads we see assume we are valuable and strong? Or do you think they assume we're not good enough unless we……………… buy their products, wear they cologne, own specific cars, unique phones, vacation in certain places, etc.

I don’t know what came first, the chicken or the egg, but what I can say is that a society bombarded by commercial ads as we are today, is very likely to become materialistic. Which then creates a society of people who do not believe they are "enough" or valuable, which makes them want to “own” things, look a certain way, for them to be….. “someone”, be “worthy”, be valuable and attractive.

Advertising can be a great tool to communicate to people the existence of products and services we may want. But if it is not used ethically, it can be a covert manipulative weapon that creates mindless consumer “robots“ out of people. This feeds a vicious materialistic cycle which has created (in my opinion) more psychological, emotional and physiological ailments that any other illness in the western world.

Materialism is an easily spread virus injected into society through advertising.

How do we stop this?

We can stop it by becoming more conscious, by becoming more present and by developing our awareness.

Don’t let your impulses drive you, don’t let your reactive mind decide for you. Choose your thoughts, choose your emotions and evaluate why you do everything you do, specially why you would buy anything.

And for those who are parents:

Do you want your children’s minds and hearts to be owned by corporations? Do you want your children to be mindless puppets controlled by the commercial trends of the day?

If you don't, be mindful of how much TV they watch, be mindful of the environment in which they grow up.

Remember it is us, each of us (the consumers) who make corporations big or small, successful or not. Use this power wisely, use this power ethically and most of all, take back the control of your feelings and your mind.

This is a worthy endeavor, an endeavor that most likely will not swim with the currents and fashions of the day, but it is one that will give you a sense of well being, a sense of being real, of being human and a feeling of being ok with who and what you are.

MAD MEN