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.