The Power of Advertising
Posted on 16 August 2008 by Chastidy Craig
Until very recently, I never had television. I didn't get any reception whatsoever, and I always had a boyfriend or something else to keep me busy and out of the house so that I never really watched anything that wasn't on a TV or a computer. Fortunately, I have a job that keeps me rather well informed of current events and things, and I also used to have this amazing phone that kept the world at my fingertips. Alas, the phone came to it's demise, and I got a roommate who is in love with her cable.
In the beginning, it was so wierd to have so many different channels within my reach. I felt like this supreme television goddess and I would just sit and watch random things for hours on end. I could tell it when to record, what to show....It was more entertainment than what I'd previously been accustomed to. Now I'm a huge fan of many shows- Dexter, Californication, Swingtown (I'm so blogging about that show soon), Project Runway and Diary of a Call Girl are my favorites. I've fallen victim to and now worship the big box in the living room. Never mind that currently the living room is also my bedroom (another story for another time), I'm hooked. I can't imagine life without TV.
However, all of this television watching has really brought to my attention the amount of advertising that gets pumped into our brains on a daily basis, and to be quite frank- I'm uncomfortable with it. There are at least eight commercials in a commercial break, and they're all selling something. They're all just there to make you feel like you need something else. You need this lotion or gym membership to be attractive. If you advertise on this dating website you'll find the man you're going to marry. It's sickening.
What if I have better things to worry about than whether or not I'm attractive? What if I just broke up with my fiance and you're making me feel like crap? And it may seem like I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but each and every one of those ads is just another drop in the bucket about what I'm "supposed" to be. While I do worship the big box, I refuse to take orders from it. That's just me.
It's all just too 1982 for me. It gives me the same hives as when my mother tells me not to laugh when my two year old niece farts because she wants her to be a "lady". Ladies don't fart? Yeah- and they also don't go poop. My mother also complains because my niece likes to play with trucks and that's not a "girl" toy. People are who they are, and I think advertising and certain social norms tend to squash creativity and adventuresome-ness.
Advertising creates these norms, defines what the ideal is in a society, and these are organizations that are trying to sell a product. They don't care about you, your children or your financial well being. All they care about is making money. People complain about the oil companies, but the thing is this- they made you think you needed them, and kept on inventing new products to get you hooked on it. Now, we can't quit even though it's costing us everything. It's too ingrained, and there is some fat cat sitting there with his millions- no, billions- of dollars.
I am being a bit dramatic, but it's the same point. I don't think it's wrong to buy popular products (although I think the 3G iPhone is the epitome of overrated and don't get me started on the iPod), I just think it's important to know who's selling them.
Popularity: 8% [?]
August 16th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I love the show Swingtown, it is our guilty pleasure
August 19th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
The only reason TV shows exist is because of advertising. Advertisers pay the costs of production. So if a show is popular and gets a lot of watchers and those watchers go buy the things that are advertised during the commercials, the show thrives. As soon as the advertiser’s profits start plateuing or going down, the show is yanked or some crazy plot line is formulated to bring back watchers. It’s the nasty, ugly truth of almost everything in life. People used to say that the only certainties were death and taxes. I think advertising/propaganda/sales - whatever you want to call it - in the 20th and 21st centuries probably makes that duo a trio.