"Reclaim your Education - Global Week of Action 2009"
Ads & their impact on society
"Every time you turn on the Television, your mind is being sold. Networks sell viewers to advertisers. Those advertisers then try their absolute hardest to make you a passive, automatic being.
They don't want you to think, they want you to buy."
(FreeShell.org)
Hey guys, as some of you know I hold a presentation about ads and commercials and their impacts on our, or for that matter any, society. So I decided to publish some of my own opinions here and roughly explain my thoughts and theories.
Again, these are just my thoughts and opinions and therefore the following are not facts, but merely my own theories.
We are being surrounded by commercials and advertisement each day and hour. Constantly we are being manipulated, if we like it or not, told to buy and consume non-stop. Well, I would like to sort of analyse the pros & cons of commercials from the society's perspective. I will start with the advantages.
Increasing advertising can lead to greater consumer confidence
==> increased consumption
==> positive economic development
==> decreasing unemployment rate
==> increasing tax revenues
The marketing industry itself also creates new jobs.
Advertising/Marketing can also be used to educate the public about certain diseases or dangers (e.g. anti-drug-campaign, anti-smoking-campaign, HIV awareness campaign).
Charities can use the media to advertise and spread awareness of the illnesses in this world and encourage donations.
Advertising can also be used to inform the public about social events like concerts or performances, although I have to add that there are also alternatives (like a board could be introduced where ALL events in town will be posted instead of making the public aware of only a few shows through TV commercials, posters and such. People would simply go to the board and look for an event they like there. This would be much fairer system to all artists.
TV, news papers and such are being heavily subsidized by their sponsors, which makes them rather affordable for the public <==> on the other hand one must also consider, that through these practises the corporations also have great influences on the content in such media (e.g. what is being published and what is not / how the media reports on certain issues and how it doesn't; like corporate crimes for example or certain political backgrounds in foreign countries)
Hyper consumption, as we can clearly see in nowadays society, is a consequence of constant advertising everywhere we go
==> increasing consumption
==> increasing environmental destruction in every aspect
==> increasing destruction of ecosystems
==> extinction of animals (estimated 100 species per day; click here for more info)
Materialism is being glorified in almost all commercials which also shape the publics´ values, which again I think can have dangerous consequences
Trendsetter - commercials tell people what is hip and what they have to buy to be "trendy", manipulating the public and creating artificial needs:
==> commercials have a great impact on the publics´ ideals (e.g. cosmetic industry / strive for material goods)
==> development of an artificial pressure within societies
==> perfectionism: we are constantly being told thru commercials that we have to strive for perfection and by buying
their products we'll be a step closer to perfection and happiness
Society in general becomes more ignorant towards social or world issues because we are too obsessed with satisfying our newly created needs and focus all our energy on working hard, so we can earn more & more money and buy happiness in form of products, which I believe is an illusion because we will never be happy, if we are striving for material goals, because we always just want more!
=> this kind of attitude is being encouraged by all sort of ads
=> people are being encouraged to be self centred & ignorant
Products which are being heavily advertised for need to be more expensive than their actual value due to the extra expenses caused by the ads which can be up to several millions or even billions of dollars.
Ads are very one sided & give potential consumers a wrong comfort that he/she could just buy as much as he/she wants to of the product ignoring possible negative consequences for anybody:
==> the total opposite is the case: the more we consume - the more we also destroy the environment, because if
demand increases production will increase as well. Tons of corporations are enslaving and exploiting poor
people around the world and are destroying the environment on a tremendous scale, tests on animals are not too
rare as well
==> all those aspects are not being mentioned & people turn a blind eye to those. Even if people discover those dirty
business practices commercials still give them a perfect excuse to just keep buying the product & therefore also
support their policies.
==> Ads suck the energy out of people to resist hyper consumption, because we are constantly being seduced to buy their
products and ignore everything else. I would call it "a machine of misinformation and manipulation".
~GlobalPeace&Solidarity~