Advertising is propaganda.

[bemildred]

I just wanted to point that out before the holiday season gets really cranked up.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

1. Yes, I've been thinking that lately as I see all the ridiculous commercials ...

Especially the ones with graphics of talking antigens killing bacteria. All the false gimmicks ... it's totally obnoxious shit.

And why are car insurance commercials so fucking stupid? They each have some kind of mascot to hawk their bullshit product.

[lonestarnot]

4. I like Redbull's zebra/alligator commercial!

:evilgrin:

[LWolf]

2. Did someone question that? nt

[bemildred]

3. No but it's easy to forget with all the noise. nt

[Odin2005]

5. It's sick psychological manipulation.

[Blecht]

6. TV is propaganda

Why limit it to advertising? The whole package is designed to manipulate.

[bemildred]

7. All TV is advertising, QED.

There are the commercials and there is the filler designed to maintain the buying mood.

Didn't start out that way, but it's been there a long time now.

[truedelphi]

12. There is also the proven fact that much advertising is done, not to seduce the

Consumer into buying something, but to keep the local and national Talking Heads on point.

For instance, it has been shown that the pharmaceutical ads no longer get much response from a drug-weary public.

But the real reason for those ads is to make sure that no one on any news program ever offers up any stories related to how the nation's health care system still sucks. I mean, did anyone here even hear a mention of Single Payer Universal HC, on the Big Five networks during the Summer of 2009? Or that in the USA, 38 to forty thousand people a year die from lack of health insurance?

When you heard those items being mentioned, it was on the internet, not on TV or radio.

[bemildred]

14. Yep, there is a reason it's all Pablum, it's not an accident or because they are cheap. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

8. A pitch is a pitch

Was there confusion in that regard? Was it suggested to you that sales has any goal other than getting you to buy? Will the next OP be 'water is wet'?

[bemildred]

10. I'm not trying to copyright the message, what's your point?

Things should only be said once? You think if we explain how traffic intersections work once, you don't need the stop signs and red lights any more?

[Speck Tater]

9. Hey! You'r right. I looked up "advertising" in my English-Spanish dictionary and....

One of the Spanish words for the English "advertising" is "la propaganda".

How about that?

[bemildred]

11. Spain would know. nt

[truedelphi]

16. Thank you for sharing that.

Would be laughing if it weren't so sad.

[lunatica]

13. It never hurts to state the obvious because it is too often overlooked.

OK. Did that sentence even make sense?

[bemildred]

15. Thank you.

I understood it, one could probably quibble about the grammar.

[BrendaBrick]

17. For a long time I took the bait...

I mean to tell ya.....hook, line & sinker.

Then...I started to become a bit cynical.

To question.

I started to envision the folks in these commercials with the word: "ACTOR" splashed a crossed their foreheads in an effort to gain some well-needed distance and perspective. (Not an easy task, by the way..given what we are up against.)

A dear friend of mine clued me into this via Charlie Brooker: (Breaking it down: )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4

(Gotta love "Dowdy Kitchen Man").

But see here, I think, for the most part, advertising is soooo successful because they actively seek out and thus put their pulse on EXACTLY the things in our society which we are either most secretly ashamed of and would like to change, if we could - in just a wave of some kind of "magic wand" or something or other...and/or something that we desire about ourselves which really isn't, afterall - ALL that realistic anyways...and thus exploit that to the nth degree...hopefully without any of us being the wiser, nor questioning to their very cunning tactics and strategies.

Either way, I think, they try to get us both 'coming and going' in our confusion about all of this and thus...like a knight in shining armor..offer such and such a product or service in an effort to 'save us'...or at least, offer some sort of temporary *remedy* - be that as it may ~

Thing is...its all BS.

Just a big ole pile of convoluted, still steaming BS!

But the very fact that they try and are indeed able to tap into such a vulnerable, visceral part of the overall subconscious human condition...is what really gives these bastards license to play - only to the extent that we let them and can see right through their obviously shoddy and manipulative charade!

Oh what a tangled web they (TRY TO) weave....

OK. Officially stepping off of said soapbox!

'nuff said ~

[bemildred]

18. +1.

We are easily manipulated, and we are manipulated.