May 15
I came across an article that ponders the effects of continual bombardment of advertisments upon us, and thought it had some good insights. Below are a few excerpts.
The rampant commercialization of the U.S. becomes powerfully evident whenever I return from an extended trip to a country where people don’t wallow in materialism (on this exact point, see this post by Mindy Carney). Americans are professional buyers and horders of things they don’t need.
Many people would argue that we can freely ignore advertisements. Therefore, it’s OK to make the all-American deal: allow as many ads as necessary to pay for news and entertainment.
I disagree. Yes, we can ignore particular commercials or even dozens of commercials. But the average person is exposed to two million television commercials by age 65. In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (2005), Barry Schwartz writes that “The average American sees three thousands ads a day.” As advertising professor James Twitchell puts it, “Ads are what we know about the world around us.” Just listen to Americans! They have become the commercials they have been exposed to. They just can’t stop craving the things they see advertised. They recite skits they hear on commercials just like people often used to sing the melodies they heard on cigarette commercials from the 1960’s. It is naive to assume that we can subject ourselves to this onslaught without ill effect.
Again, what harm can such advertising do? Lots, according to some writers. We are afflicted with “affluenza,” an all-consuming epidemic, according authors of the 2005 book of that title. The authors quote T.S. Eliot’s “We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men.” What exactly is affluenza? “A painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.”
I once asked a friend how it was that our government could be so corrupt and unresponsive to the citizens, yet I don’t see any mobs with pitchforks and torches in the streets. He said that the people will never revolt as long as they have their television. Sitcoms, sports and glamorous cops solving murders as opiate of the people.
Our obsessions with advertised goods distracts us and makes us complacent as citizens. It’s OK to let politicians take huge (mostly legal) bribes from corporations that then get huge amounts of public money. Just walk up to someone on the street. Compare how much they know about their own government with how much they know about commonly advertised products. Commercial media favors the manipulation of glitzy images over critical thought. Who cares about our soldiers dying or about the integrity of our voting system as long as we can watch clever commercials.
Again, how can we as a nation expect things to get better in the US if we are too preoccupied with entertaining ourselves with TV, buying the newest thing or latest gadget, or other worthless things? We need to take the time to be involved in our government both local and non-local and hold our elected officials accountable in order for things to get better.
Read the full article, here.
