Melbourne BrandingThe greatest trick advertising pulled was convincing people it doesn’t work
The idea that we can simply ignore advertising through “free will” is an amazingly powerful and pervasive myth. It needs no secret cabal to push it, just everyone’s silence to maintain it. Given how much of what we see and hear on TV, radio, search engines, maps, magazines, sports and more, is funded by advertising, it’s really in nobody’s interest to discuss how utterly effective advertising has been in getting us to want more, more, more, regardless of the personal, societal and climate impacts it has. Having us believe that advertising is a harmless background to our lives, that we can all ignore, is a key part of its success and a key part of suppressing any opposition to it.
In reality advertising has been devastatingly effective in shaping how we view the world and ourselves through the material purchases we make. Yet I personally don’t know anyone who openly says, “I am a victim of advertising.” or “I bought this car because of the great ads.” There are some honest souls out there who do honestly admit “We are victims of advertising!” but they will be the first to tell you they are exercising free will, and they are only choosing the items they want.
The reason why we are all voracious consumers is because that’s what we are taught to be every day. We are taught in the 1000’s adverts we see each day [1] that THIS PRODUCT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY. If you buy this product you will be more popular and have more friends. If you buy this product you are becoming a better version of yourself. In Brand Communication we have this well known formula.
Brand + Self = Ideal Self
People buy things to become better versions of themselves. That’s the reality of our brand choices. We are buying things in the belief that we will be transformed into a better version of ourselves: more masculine, more desirable, more confident, more…
Because absolutely nobody wants to admit that they are so gullible, so credulous and so weak minded that they let a little advert tell them what to do, we all pretend we are above all of that. THIS INCLUDE ME. I am not above all of this. Even having worked in the industry and knowing all of the tricks, I am still just as susceptible. Why? Because advertising is far more insidious than a fun little jingle, it’s a cumulative weight on humanity and creates a “hive mind” that we all buy into.
It’s not just the ads, it’s the whole ecosystem around them. We have product reviews on Youtube channels like MKBHD, that are not there to sell you a phone, but they do! We have TV shows like Top Gear, which are not selling us a car but sell us on the idea that our lives are better, more fun, more rewarding because of cars. We have influencers who tell us about what they own, and as we desired to be like them, we think owning the same things makes us like them. We have cooking shows, that blend supermarket advertising, cooking utensil promotions and countless other products. It’s a whole ecosystem and it’s everywhere.
Ad Free Cities VideoAdvertising in one form or another is so pernicious, so pervasive that the long term effect on all of humanity is we can’t even imagine a life without ALL of these products. If you try talking to some people about degrowth or buying and living with less, they absolutely lose their minds. The idea of not being able to acquire ever more stuff sparks such deep fear and dread in us. Just look at the Black Friday shopping videos from the USA[2] or what happened during Covid when people were worried they would not be able to shop for their favourite items. Panic! In the 21st Century we can almost only see progress in our lives as a series of new acquisitions. Progress means buying more of the things we see in the adverts. ”We buy stuff because that’s what the advertising/marketing ecosystem all around us tells us to do and we are just not strong enough to resist.” That’s the honest truth!
The trick advertising plays with our minds is that we all look at garbage ad’s and think “that’s shit! I would never buy that” and we fool ourselves into thinking we have that ability to resist all adverts and advertising in general. We fool ourselves into thinking we are only making practical choices with our purchases. We fool ourselves into thinking we only buy stuff we “need.” We look at others who have been “brainwashed” by those ads we don’t like and smugly think “that’s not me I am smarter than that.” That’s the trick! That’s our self delusion.
I have worked in this industry for 30 years, and I can say with 100% confidence OUR DESIRES ARE BEING MANUFACTURED. Ad agencies spend most of their time, not on creating adverts but trying to find out what buttons to press. They have vast banks of data on us, on our habits, our hopes, our desires and our anxieties, and they use that data to specifically target people. They find the things we desire the most or worry us the most and offer their product/brand as a solution in a clever advert.
So let’s keep reminding ourselves, ADVERTISING DOES WORK. IT WORKS ON US ALL. (It would not be a $100 Billion industry if it didn’t.) Any choices we can make that involves seeing less adverts, the better we are for it. Choosing platforms and media with no advertising is good for us all. Like joining the Fediverse or signing up to Nebula. Or using reading mode on your phone browser. While adverts are not avoidable in public there are orgs pushing back on this, like Ad Free Cities. In Sao Palo they banned billboards! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cidade_Limpa
Pushing back on the advertising of products and services that do us the most noticeable harm, like Gambling Ads or Junk Food Ads is someting we should all support because we know they work.
#Fediverse #Nebula #EndGamblingAds #AdFreeCities #CommsDeclare #Melbourne
Alliance For gambling Reform: https://www.agr.org.au/endgamblingads
Comms Declare: https://commsdeclare.org/
Junk Food Advertising Laws: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-19/junk-food-ads-ban-bill-hoped-to-decrease-childhood-obesity/102496782
The Australia Institute: https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/should-australia-ban-fossil-fuel-advertising/
#AdFreeCities #CommsDeclare #EndGamblingAds #Fediverse #Melbourne #Nebula
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