Advertising: Twenty-First Century Hypnosis

By P.H. Reis

It’s six o’clock on Christmas Eve and Steve’s son, Bobby, has asked specifically and monotonously, to say the least, for the new Tickle Me Elmo doll, a bright red colored doll that when squeezed at specific locations would giggle. The mall is packed. The line at KB Toys is unbearable. Every shopping center in all of the country seems to have signs at its toy store doors stating in large legible print that they are all out of ‘Elmos.’ Why had Bobby so persistently, so stubbornly, so confidently asked, demanded even, for such a useless and honestly tasteless red creature in doll form? The answer lies months before the holiday season. Tickle Me Elmo is a brand from children’s’ toys tycoon, Tyco. The toy was advertised everywhere a child could have and would have looked. Other versions of the product such as Ernie or Cookie Monster from were made. But, none compared to the prestige that Elmo held to his toddler audience. The toy was popular that it was priced almost sixty-seven times more than it appropriate retail price. TV, radio, Internet, billboard, even buses held Elmo’s propaganda. All of this created the want, no, not the want, the need in children to have Elmo. Advertising not only targets children but it targets the minds of all ages. It is an intelligent and resourceful business. It affects the morals, self-image, finances, and even speech of people. Advertising uses specific images to manipulate the consumer into believing he/she must have the presented product, therefore, impacting the consumer’s perception on his/her needs and wants.

One of the biggest anchors in American civilization is Mass Production. When mass production first began in the 1800’s, advertising took its start as well. In 1843, Volney Palmer opened the first ad agency in the US in Philadelphia, PA. The more factories appeared, presenting more choice to a product, the more agencies one would see. About 150 years after, in 1994, the first Internet ads appear on HotWired as banners to run across the top of the web page. Only ten years after, Internet ads grew to be 80% of the size of magazine advertising. Expanding at a startling rate of 34.5% since 2003. In the last 160 years, the advertising has grown from a small agency developing Philadelphia to a major multi-billion dollar corporation.

A couple years back, in Tasmania, thirty-two people died at the hands of one gunman. He had a supposed obsession with violent Japanese anime and other cartoons. Speculations say that his obsession with violent and merciless massacre was the cause for the murders. The more a person sees something, whatever it may be, the more one becomes accustom to it. Murder became a normal activity for the assassin. From all the hours watching, reading, listening, and breathing violence, the murderer came to think of killing as a common household action. Advertising has the same effect. For example, advertising for movies these past days have become more violent. The Boston Globe recently released an article by Joanna Weiss where parents complained of the commercials during the Fox hit show; American Idol. Idol is the top rated show among children 2 and above. Should such advertising be allowed on a family show? No. If the excessive view of violent behavior turns violence less severe, thus evading the truth, then the only significant thing broadcasted violence to children is doing is creating more and more ‘Tasmanian Assassins.’ Questions arise if banning violent commercials is the solution. Banning a violent movie increases the desire to see it. Advertising has become such a fact of life that even banning it increases its power. When a movie commercial is banned, the desire to see it increases, therefore making seeing the movie less of a want and more of need. Either way you spin it, advertising still wins. It’s a win/win situation

If someone sees a certain item as a need, one will not mind wasting his/her hard earned money on it. Statistics show that non-stop buying due to advertising frequently results in increases consumer debt. Ads have led to recent increase in personal bankruptcies. Advertising has not just taken over the American media and communications but it is even starting to take over the American wallet. People have come to rely on others to tell them what to spend their money on. With all the commercials, billboards, jingles and flashy signs buzzing through the air one can’t help look both ways before buying a product. One now is not buying a product on its value and efficiency but on its fame and attraction.

Stereotypes are all around us. Examples include all African American are good at basketball. Why is it? Advertising is the main cause. Many Nike ads for their famed basketball sneakers include a group of African American men playing basketball with great skill. Stereotypes, such as women being perceived as sexual toys, are also strengthened through the media. On February 5, 2007, Dolce & Gabana released an ad where several men are susceptibly raping one woman. NOW: National Organization for women said, “The ad indisputably promotes violence towards women.” Such ads affect the needs and wants of the consumer. For a man, seeing the ad subconsciously convinces him that using Dolce & Gabana will increase his sexual abilities. For a woman this not only degrades her as an individual and presents her as an object to grope and rape at one’s pleasing, but it tells her that with Dolce & Gabana she will be wanted. The ad tells her that she will be loved. The ad tells her that the anonymous woman wearing D&G is loved because she fits an ideal. She fits the D&G ideal.

One’s self-image is also affected by advertising. One in two 11-and-12-year-old girls in Britain say they have problems with their weight. Many say the causes of weight concerns of these Britannic girls are the various ads of thin, beautiful models in fashion magazines, trailing down runways with gorgeous posture and elegant pose, while other gaze and marvel at their beauty. All of this attention focused on these almost surreal models attracts envy in younger girls. Like the murderer in Tasmania, coexisting with something so frequently makes that something ideal, especially if it is attractive. The point of fashion shows is to promote the designer’s creations. It’s one big advertisement. Since the beauty ideal comes from fashion, and since fashion is just advertisement, and the beauty ideal creates envy, then advertisement is creating the want in young girls to be a certain ideal therefore making them buy the product the ideal is using and promoting.

Obesity is growing in America at groundbreaking rates. The main causes for obesity is a mal-nutrition. The staff at the Federal Trade Commission or FDA considered a standard in which advertising for junk food would not be permitted on any program where half the audience was age six and younger. Only one show would have been affected – Captain Kangaroo. Also, any governmental ban on junk food ads would raise First Amendment implications. It’s one thing to control the wallets of a society but to control the food, the very thing that keeps us humans alive should not just be illegal but should be decreed immorally wrong. America is beginning to be known as the ‘fat capital’ of the world. America is letting such corporations like McDonald’s and Burger King to rule the diet of the American citizen. If one has no control over the food he/she eats then what’s to say to say that he/she has control over his/her own well-being.

The only way to sell a product effectively is to target the advertising to a specific group. Many strategies are used in doing so, such an omission. Omission is when an ad does not give the consumer the full story on the product being promoted. Ideal is also used. This is when a perfect situation and identity is shown in the ad, such as an ideal family. The kids are good looking with fashionable clothes. All the members are attractive and they all get along perfectly. Deceptive phrase advertising is also strategy commonly used. Even though laws decree that ads should tell the truth, advertisers use misleading words such as ‘the taste of real…’ or ‘New, better tasting…’

Many perceive advertising to be a blunt and unintelligent business. This is wrong. Advertising is not just 30-second entertainment bits during commercial break of one's favorite soap opera. Advertisers are intelligent individuals. They use the human psyche against itself in order to sell a product. Strategies used are not just affective in manipulating one's needs and wants but it is also deceptive in its promises.

In 1998, In Georgia, A student wore a Pepsi T-shirt on his university's 'Coke Day' and was suspended. The new provoked the question as to whether corporations should be able to buy student brand loyalty or not. They should not. A campus or a school or any place where learning is taken place is, or at least should be, a sanctuary of knowledge. A corporation has no right to interfere in learning. One should have the right to pick what he wears no matter what the day is. Clothing is a way of expressing one's self. If advertising controls on what day one can express individuality, then it controls yet another aspect of what a person is.

Ronald McDonald House Charities commonly sponsor schools in turn advertising its name throughout the students. McDonald's shows it's a 'good citizen' through its charities. Showing that a corporation is a good citizen even though it's one of the main causes of obesity is hypocritical. The sad thing is, is that no one seems to notice it. Through the charities McDonald's touches the heart of the consumer making him/her believe that it is close to home, that I can be trusted. By this the consumer is more willing to spend his/her money on the product such company is offering.

Political advertising also targets specific groups. Most voters rely on the media for information on the running candidates and parties. Most Politicians rely on TV ads to publicize his/her message. If the media favors a certain politician than he/she will get more airtime. Therefore, increasing the probability for that politician to win. It's not fair to that since TV ads publicize a message, a party that is less wealthy loses to a more financially set party. In the end, not the politician with the best views is chosen but the one with the fullest wallet is. Advertising is so integral in the American society that even the selection to choose the ones who lead this country is controlled by the media. If America is of the people, the people who elect leaders who control this country, who are actually chosen by the media, then Advertising controls America.

Advertising has saturated the American life. Everywhere one goes he/she sees an ad. On the bus, in their cars on the radio, on the clothes of other while walking down the street. Advertising is not just ruining the physical world but it is beginning to saturate the digital one as well. Many businesses advertise by E-Mail. The volume of unsolicited email or in other words; Spam, is causing such a profound depletion of confidence of the public that it can destroy email as a tool for communication. E-mail is such a great tool. The ability to send and receive information in the blink of an eye is powerful. Email needs to be protected by useless ads such as ‘Genital Enlargement!’ and ‘Win a Free Ringtone!’

Advertising is beginning to control all aspects of the American citizen. There is still hope. America cannot and should not let corporations run its self-image, wallets and states of mind. With such tactics and groups as Media Literacy and Culture Jamming, America, as a whole can reduce ads and bring back the true American culture that the fathers of this country fought so hard to win and protect. America is a fee country. That should not just refer to politics. Advertising has already taken control of society; do not let it take control of American freedom.