Children and Advertising

I chose to talk about Ali's blog because it was very interesting and really got me thinking. She mentioned children are our future, it's true they will be the one's running our governments and becoming the inventors of our world. And with the ways advertising affects them it is harming their health and their minds. One major thing that is worrisome is children and obesity is directly linked to advertising. I believe that the government needs to take further precautions and stricter laws about commercials on tv during children t.v. shows or eliminate them altogether. If something doesn't change about advertising and how it is presented to our children its evil affects will be irreversible.

Celebration, Condemnation, and Critical Use

 According to David Trend, author of “Consumption Ideology,” there are three

viewpoints regarding the relationship between mass media and consumer culture: celebration, condemnation, and critical use. Dittmar, author of “To have is to be,” would endorse both the condemnation and critical use approaches because consumers make "poor decisions from a system of marketing and advertising that promotes false consciousness by distorting needs and instilling irrational  desires" (46). And "the critical use model confronts discrimination by recognizing that some goods are not available to all people and that certain consuming practices are destructive both to people and to the environment" (47). Both Trend and Dittmar contribute to the understanding of the way in which identity is formed in postmodern culture is all about outward image and materialistic possessions. Trend explains that modern capitalism has gotten people to believe the road to happiness lies in material possessions and superficial signs of success (43). And Dittmar affirms, material possessions systematically influence how we perceive the identity of other people; not only that but people use them to express who they are and to construct a sense of who they would like to be. Which give people control, independence, enjoyment, or emotional comfort (43). Ultimately they both assert that postmodern culture is all about image, material possessions, and being a good consumer. 

Sweatshops and Third World Economics

Jess Worth, the author of “Buy Now, Pay Later,” would argue that the conditions and reasons behind the multinational industry was unethical and socially irresponsible of the company in response to Johan Norberg, the author of “The Noble Feat of Nike” with regard to the claim that Nike’s presence in Vietnam has benefitted their culture. Worth would argue that, "the more positive pastime of trying to buy things that don't cause harm to people and the planet" (2). However, the Nike sweatshops may have air conditioning but employees are used only for their productivity, the more the workers make, the higher the demand, and thus the more products sold and the more profits the company makes. The company is not sincerely interested in the workers best interest which is socially and ethically irresponsible which negatively reflects upon the industry not only Nike but other Multinational industries and companies. Making "ethical sales only account for a tiny part  of the global economy" (2). Honestly, I believe Jess Worth would assert that even though, working for Nike gives workers a steady and higher wage than working on farms and Vietnam's economy has benefitted from Nike's presence there, she argue that the motives behind Nike are not to benefit the Vietnamese but to benefit and maximize their own profit selfishly and for capitalist reasons only.                              

Consumption, the environment, and ourselves...

In today's society overconsumption is encouraged by advertisers and the media. Not only is this harmful to our environment but also harmful to our perception of identity and who we are. As explained in Faustian Economics, "The idea of a limitless economy implies and requires a doctrine of general human limitlessness: all are entitled to pursue without limit whatever they conceive as desirable - a license that classifies the most exalted Christian capitalist with the lowliest pornographer" (27, 28). Therefore, we believe their is a possibility of limitless wants, wealth, natural resources, energy, and debt (27). As we know is not true in the film Advertising and the end of the world, Sut Jhally aserts that if the human race does not change their ways of consumption in 70 to 100 years life will forever be changed as we know it. Our natural resources will be depleted and we will have further contributed to the global climate change since it rests on consumer consumption. Thus, we are limited humans not limitless creatures with limitless desires and wealth because there is a limit for everything and we are rapidly reaching those limits.

Connections and Manipulation

The film Shop Til' You Drop stresses the fact that advertising has become "subliminal" and subconscious in today's society. That is scary if you think about it! Advertisers have manipulated us so much that we don't even notice anymore or at least consciously we don't realize product placement and marketing. Advertisers have used what they learned about psychology and our brains to manipulate and brain wash us into buying their products using certain fonts, layouts, pictures, and playing upon our emotions to catch our attention and capture us. As I mentioned in my previous blog in Making Connections Anthony J. Greene confirms, "we tend to remember the people and events that resonate emotionally." Therefore advertisers use our emotions to make us remember and add onto our ever growing web of connections. Then they add a story or a narrative to also help us remember what product they are advertising affirmed in the film Shop Til' You Drop. Not only do advertisers play upon our emotions they use certain psychological techniques just to capture our attention to take the time to look at their advertisements. For example, in Layouts and Illustrations that Attract the Most Readers, advertisers use certain pictures, fonts, and layouts to attract the audience. For instance, a picture that has a "high attention value is a romantic picture, such as a man carrying a woman across a rushing brook or picture of people in odd costumes." Thus, advertisers use all the technologies we have today to their advantage so that we as consumers encounter advertising everyday and everywhere wo go whether we want to or whether we realize it either. In conclusion, this causes the over-consumption of goods because of the subliminal and conscious advertising that happens everywhere.

Web of Connections

Today's society is all about technology and media. We live in an electronic world from our phones, computers, and television. So advertisers have an opportunity to form a basis of our identity and to get us hooked onto their product. They use ethos, pathos, and logos to captivate our attention and connect to who we are. As explained in Making Connections by Anthony J. Green, "we also tend to remember the people and events that resonate emotionally." So in most cases advertisers use pathos to connect with us emotionally so we will remember their product and even want to purchase it too. For example, on t.v. advertisers use celebrities with sad or stories that can relate with many people in order to form a connection and emotionally reside with us. Because of course we seem to be so influenced by the media and how and what the actors are using we will want to use it too! Also in Madison Avenue and Your Brain, Matthew Blakeslee affirms that, "When revved up by a potent emotion-which a good thrumming in the nucleus accumbens will generate-the amygdala stamps the engendering event firmly into memory." Thats why advertisers make it so important to connect to our emotions because we will not forget what they are advertising. Personally I think it's sad they have to go through all that work to connect to our emotions just to buy what they are selling. If it were truly a remarkable product they should not have to go through all that trouble to try and convince us, it should be by the word of mouth.

Mindfulness

I believe some benefits that can be gained from practicing the concept of minfulness in Me, Myself, and I are to be purposeful, attentive, and nonjudgmental. Basically to live in the here and now and accept it as it comes. But our culture discourages the practice of mindfulness because we are so overwhelmed by the media and social networking that we become consumed in it and can not be calm and just be ourselves. Because of this i believe people are so worried with their image and what they drive and how much money that they make that we forget how to be happy with who and what we are in the moment. We are always thinking ahead but never in the now. I know this first hand be cause I over analyze everything I do no matter how insignificant that task I can't stop thinking about the what if's. Honestly I don't really think that our culture encourages mindfulness at all; it is all about the materialistic things in life that seem to be the most important thing not our happiness and being. Like Uwe Herwig researchers studies show that, "By honing our powers of self-reflection, we can actively work to keep our self-image in step with reality." But this day in age it is almost impossible to have a consistent view of ourselves and our image because the discouragement of mindfulness in our media and culture.