Do You Really Know What You Want?
Advertising is a cut-throat business. If you’ve watched HBO’s hit show Mad Men, you’ve seen the dramatization of America’s voracious advertising industry first-hand. Thanks to billion-dollar ad spends using basic psychology to influence our desires, we’ve become pawns in a centuries-old market-share chess game. We don’t always know what we really want; the advertisers think they do.
When it comes to desires and preferences, keep in mind that Americans are heavily marketed. The average person is the target of around 5,000 ads per day.
No Protection from Ads
Relatedly, if you watch television via a streaming platform, unless you elect to go ad-free, you are besieged by one advertisement after another. I was stunned that while watching a movie on Amazon Prime, ads included a ‘click to buy’ option emblazoned on the bottom left of the television screen.
These ads are more than annoying. They manipulate what we believe, why we believe it, and how we act in response. Ads plant the seeds that our conscious — and subconscious — minds water.
This Isn’t Benign
One consequence of living in a heavily marketed environment is that it makes us susceptible to overconsumption. Overconsumption contributes to overproduction where manufacturers strive to meet demand, while also telling us what we should want.
Additionally, overproduction and overconsumption contribute to pollution, which contributes to the climate crisis. This is on full display in the United States, which is a standout – and not in a good way. From calorie consumption to waste production to emitting greenhouse gases, we do more than other countries. For instance, the United States accounts for just 5% of the world’s population but consumed 17% of the world’s energy in 2022, according to the University of Michigan. This is driven by a lot of factors, including overproduction and overconsumption.
Just One More Purchase
We are a nation conditioned to want more, do more, be more and all of that comes with a cost. The abundance of advertisements sends a direct message to consumers, advising on what is important, what should be purchased, and how a person’s life will be positively improved by their next purchase.
Remember the “Got Milk” campaign? It was sponsored by the California Milk Processor Board and later Dairy Management Inc. Why? Because milk consumption was declining. Farmers needed us to drink more milk; not necessarily because milk is good for us but because the industry needed more sales to survive. In fact, our food pyramid, which encouraged us to eat dairy and grains, received criticism due to a belief that the USDA used it as a marketing tool for manufacturers rather than a health barometer for consumers.
Adverse Impacts
The adverse impact of excessive (and often negative) advertising also extends to politics (and every other area). Many people in the United States are becoming more less tolerant, less welcoming of difference, and less open-minded. Even how people refer to persons of opposing political parties is frightening. If Americans can distance themselves in this regard, they may be more tolerant of political violence, which we know is rising.
My point in raising this is that we must be diligent during this modern era of consumerism. Buying has been made ridiculously easy, as has embracing harmful messages. Advertisers want it this way. Persons who sow discord and division, also want it this way. But consumers must be aware of who is sending us messages and why.
It’s okay to want what we want, but as sentient humans, we must take breath before buying or embracing a message. We must take a beat to discern if what we are consuming is in response to a basic need, or because the 5,001st ad has deemed it so. I hope we understand this before we all go mad.
Jennifer R. Farmer is a crisis communications expert and founder Spotlight PR LLC. The firm helps clients build their platforms and protect their brands.