Proof That The Advertising Industry Is A Form Of Mind Control Part 2

The average America is advertised too 1200 times a day.
Then we wonder why people have materialistic and spending problems. It is not about willpower, it is hard not to be affected by the constant stream of information forced on you.

If you were told 1200 times a day you were ugly, no amount of willpower over an extended period of time is going to hold you up against that.

What is also interesting is to study the hidden sexual innuendos in commercial advertising, stuff that is placed, It is not obvious, but subliminal.

reply to post by nixie_nox


This is why I started this thread...because I think that the attention, if indirect, given to advertisment influence the psychologies of people. Random thoughts, in my experience, can be attributed to undesired mental interaction with advertisments.

It's just something I think we need to be aware about because it's not going away...

reply to post by TruthMagnet


Yeah me too. I used to chat while the ads were on but now it's impossible unless you turn the volume down.

Must say though, that I've recently discovered the MUTE button.
Since I last responded in this thread, I've noticed that all 3 of our major tv stations have synchronised their advertisement times. So changing channels while one channel is having a commercial break is no longer possible.
So Muting is now the only solution to the onslaught!!

This was a lot of great information to take in.

This comment is spot on 100% correct and could have been lifted out of a P.R. textbook.

The goal, if I interpret correctly, is to instill a brand with the associations of core personal values that allow the consumer to recall an abstract in relation to the brand that minimizes the variance in memory, kind of like being patriotic to a particular brand. Or, likely to be more specific, the goal of this strategy is to induce a recollection of a core belief/feeling and to then transfer that core belief/feeling to the brand so as to instill a sense of familiarity and unconscious preference based on personal identification.

That is textbook public relations.

Always cater to the irrational, uncontrollable, behaviors and processes in receivers.
(and I wanted to add in an edit that if you ask any PR person what they are doing they will most likely say something like "We manage the instrument that facilitates communication between large groups, individuals, and companies both large and small"
They will steer away from tying PR with advertising, but is it not really one in the same. Look at the guy who created the concept)

The concept of public relations was created by Edward Bernays, and in the early 1900's he employed it to aid in the explosion(figuratively speaking) of the corporation that is now known as the US of A.

Edward Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and is the one individual most responsible for the vogue status given to Freudian Psychotherapy.
He was a trained Psychotherapist himself and he used Freud's theories on Psychosexual Development in the creation of very, very successful advertisement campaigns. He is the one person most responsible for women smoking in America today. It was his guerrilla-advertising campaign using models smoking "Freedom Torches" at a Macy's day parade that then posted on the front page of every major newspaper in the states that changed the public opinion on women smoking. He theorized that women wanted to smoke so that they could have their own penises. They wanted power and the penis symbolized power, and so he gave it to them using models and the abstract idea of freedom.

Because of WWI & II, the states had a ton of industrial capacity, thus the states becoming the superpower of today, but what the tycoons of industry were the most afraid of was that people would not buy things that they do not need.
This would then lead to a downward spiral of surplus of goods and lowered profits.

These corporate schmucks had to come up with a new way to get people to buy things that they did not need...

And that is where Bernays came to the rescue with the concept of...

Consumerism.

In order to create this beautifully sadistic, slave-status driven, instantaneously self-rewarding concept, he applied the core principles of Freudian Psychology, which states that people are driven by innate, uncontrollable animal-like behaviors and thought processes, with the earliest studies on Crowd Pychology, which is now more similar in function to social engineering.

What a guy.

And these advertising campaigns are being designed to take advantage of the ignorance that the average human has regarding their own conscious awareness.

The core of Freud's beliefs is that people are inherently bad and totally unconscious of their behaviors and the resulting effects on others and themselves. He thinks that we are animal evolving into man.
(And the Egyptian/Babylonian Mystery Schools think that we are animal evolved into man evolving into God. Think about the riddle of the sphinx for a sec on that one)


Man is thus the rational choice maker. (the ego)
The rules created out of a societal group coming together to form a common mind is the latest evolutionary step in Freudian belief. (the superego)
And this is all an evolutionary leap done to suppress the lower animal driven forces that we cannot control. (the id)

Link to id, ego, and superego.

If someone wants to understand the questionably devilish intentions of the advertising agencies, then look no further than Freud.

As a matter of fact Matthew Freud is now, through the power of P.R., one of the most powerful forces in shaping world opinion.
They, like all powerful people, keep it in the family.


EDIT 1:

I am reading a 1929 book by Bernays titled Propaganda (link to the short on the book) and I wanted to quoted the opening paragraph from the book, remember this was written in 1929.

First paragraph.

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the ruling power of the country.

Second paragraph.

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Sounds a bit like Skyfloating's comment.

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reply to post by MemoryShock


These random thoughts were what Freud termed urges that were filtered through the super-ego into the ego. When the urge met an in-congruent and superficially imposed statute in the form of superego, then anxiety was expressed.

These commercials play to these urges, which Freud thought were our animal nature, most of which are sexual.
Then when an anxiety is experienced, the commercial offers some kind of consonance. This theme is THE MAJOR theme in EVERY commercial out for anti-depressants, sleeping pills, cholesterol pills, etc...etc...

Also, commercials employ contradictory (in-congruent) command, buy/save, buy now/pay later, you get the picture, and then this is immediately paired with the product in a way as to make the product relief.
This is operant conditioning paired with classical conditioning (negative reinforcement paired with a conditioned stimulus for all those Psychology geeks out there)

Advertisers already use this type of manipulation, and have since the very first of the 20th century.
This is manipulation of the psyche. We always seek consonance. And when we experience consonance after purposefully removed dissonance then we condition ourselves to the experience of the moment, which is usually paired with some type of consumerist item.

BF Skinner and Albert Bandura were the pioneers in the field of Strict Behaviorism and Cognitive-Behavioral Theory, in my opinion.

But they all owe it to Bernays and his approach to selling the irrational.

Selling to our most base animal self, that which is irrational and foreign to the superego.

[edit on 3/17/2010 by Josephus23]

Of course advertising uses mind control, that's why it works so good when crafted well.

Heck, I use some NLP on some of my clients in a real subtle way, they never even realize what is going on. It's like jedi mind tricks. When I first started incorporating some of those things in my closing of a sale, I thought they would see right through it in a minute. I was actually shocked how well it worked for me. Some claim NLP is junk, but it works for me more often than it doesn't and I am not even good doing it.

reply to post by pavil


As much as I hate to say it, Obama is a master of NLP. His voice roll technique and timing is the best around, hands down.

His pauses are so well placed as to induce an alpha state, and his association of abstract words that convey a positive emotion to irrational feelings that play on our sense of safety, self-assuredness, and quality community values (whatever those things are) really sway people.

He even goes a step further by creating memes that he uses like a preacher at revival.
"Yes We Can!!" (whatever)

I don't care for him, but he is a master at crowd control and NLP.

i ahve a great bbc documanetary about this and how freud is behind it all.

anyone know the name?

i forget but watch that it shows everything discussed in this thread.

Originally posted by tigpoppa
i ahve a great bbc documanetary about this and how freud is behind it all.

anyone know the name?

i forget but watch that it shows everything discussed in this thread.

The name of the BBC documentary is "Century of the Self".

Here is a link, but I couldn't get the first part of the movie, so click on the google video link and go to part 1 of 4 for the movie.

Google Video Link

Some interesting research opportunities here; I wonder how many advertising firms are bidding on these?

OSD10-HS3
TITLE: Neuromorphic Models of Human Social Cultural Behavior (HSCB)
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Human Systems

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this topic is to develop techniques for modeling human cognition using neural signals that drive human cognitive processes, instead of observed behaviors that result from cognitive processes.

DESCRIPTION: To handle today’s complex military environments we must make our warfighters as cognitively strong as they are physically strong. The key to doing this is to accurately model cognition. Human Social Cultural Behavioral (HSCB) models provide an important technology for decision makers at all levels to understand the impact that their actions can have on the mission at hand [1]. The predicted outcomes of these models are only as good as the fidelity of the human behavior representations (HBR) that form them [2]. Often, these models have poor fidelity due to factors that were not included in the original model that may impact the overall behavioral response; these factors include but are not limited to: fatigue, stress, cognitive overload, and changes in context.

Human behavior is the result of the brain’s cognitive processes [5]. Cognition is the interaction & integration of ‘building blocks’ like perception, attention & memory which is how the brain makes sense of information. Each of these building blocks results from activity across multiple brain regions forming ‘ad hoc’ networks across the physical substrate of the brain [6]. Current cognitive models are based on observed human behavior and do not account for the functions of the brain that give rise to actual human cognition [3]. Traditionally, these models are based on high level representations of individual or aggregate human behavior [4]. Even the best models don’t precisely represent these actions – let alone, cognition because they ignore the brain. Because these representations provide only a snapshot of behavior, when they are included in HSCB models they produce predictions and simulations that are limited to specific activities in a given context.

The focus of this topic is on developing the tools and technologies to create higher resolution and more dynamic representations of human behavior, by including neurally-based representations of human cognitive processes. Current neuroimaging techniques provide the ability to identify individual cognitive processes as they arise, and recent advances in signal analysis technologies provide the means to quickly and accurately decode these processes [7]. These processes can be analyzed in terms of temporal measures (eg how long a ''neural circuit'' is active), in terms of spatial measures (eg which regions of the brain are active or co-active during the process) or both. Once identified and decoded, these processes could be modeled to understand their impact on alternate cognitive processes that may co-occur during a given military mission. These models would provide the needed fidelity by including the ability to model behavior in a wider array of cognitive situations and alternate contexts. Potential metrics by which to assess model improvement include, but are not limited to: speed metrics (how quickly the model arrives at a solution); accuracy metrics (how close to correct the model solution is); convergence metrics (how closely the model''s speed and accuracy measures reflect actual human performance); comparison metrics (neurocognitive based model perofrmance compared to traditionally developed models); and, completion metrics (how much of what is currently known about the neural action underlying a given cognitive process is captured by the model). Additionally, it is very likely that choice or specific metric set will depend on the chosen task that will be modeled - this choice together with the actual metrics should be clearly identified during Phase 1 and provided in appropriate Phase 1 reports.

OSD10-HS4
TITLE: Dynamic Meta-Network Analysis
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Human Systems

OBJECTIVE: To develop methods and tools to visualize dynamic meta-data social networks and to assist with the analysis of the interdependencies of complex social networks.

DESCRIPTION: Terrorist organizations and other covert groups have network structures that are cellular and distributed, distinct from those in typical hierarchical organizations. Therefore, determining how to attack dynamic networked organizations or how they are likely to evolve, change, and adapt is extremely problematic. Most intelligence sources construct social networks with multiple node classes and multiple different relations between nodes. Research that narrowly focuses on single mode networks does not provide adequate information on interdependent relationships and effects (i.e. being able to distinguish between nodes that are high in information vs. brokers of resources for example is an important capability).

Dynamic meta-network analysis is an emergent scientific field that extends the power of thinking about networks to the realm of large scale, dynamic systems with multiple co-evolving networks involving cognitively realistic agents. With a meta-network perspective, a set of networks connecting various entities such as people, groups, knowledge, resources, events, or tasks are combined to describe and predict system behavior. What is needed is a series of tools and techniques for collecting data on and reasoning about these covert networks even in the face of incomplete or uncertain information.

OSD10-HS2
TITLE: In Situ Collection of Human Social Cultural Behavioral Data
TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Human Systems

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this topic is to develop novel technologies for collecting, storing and making available Human Social Cultural Behavior (HSCB) data for use in both HSCB model verification and validation and in HSCB applications for decision making and course of action development.

DESCRIPTION: With the increasing emphasis placed on non-kinetic, asymmetric and sustainability operations, a growing emphasis is placed on modeling dynamic and complex human social cultural behavior in order to project the consequences of intended actions [1]. These models are only as refined as the data that is provided to them. Today, these models use available HSCB data sets, [2] in order to understand a given population’s organization, modes of communication, behavioral trends and such.

Unfortunately, these data sets are limited in number and scope due to the complex and lengthy processes required to populate them. As human behavior is continuously modified though ever changing aspects of the environment, family relationships, and cultural activity [3], HSCB data sets can quickly become out of date or inaccurate. Time constraints and the need for “instant analysis” have increasingly exposed the limitations of traditional SME based analysis and the capabilities of current HSCB analysis frameworks [4]. Lack of current HSCB data availability and flexibility poses significant challenges to understanding and forecasting human activity. Models are limited in their ability to test additional theories and perform verification and validation. As a result, it is difficult if not impossible to effectively utilize current HSCB data sets for novel investigations, often requiring the creation of a unique data set for each novel effort.

The focus of this topic is on developing the capability for long term, sustained data collection technologies from cultural and social regions of interest. The desired data collection capability would include: processes that incorporate techniques to pull in unfiltered data at the source from areas such as multimedia (e.g. Web, television, radio), online record storage, and individual inputs; techniques for representing these data in a standardized, searchable format; and tool sets for visualizing and analyzing these data. Additionally the proposed capability should be able to work in an untended manner, for prolonged durations and include a remote operation capability in order to sustain long-term data collection efforts. Potential Solution types may be either software based, hardware based or both. Proposals should be explicit in indicating what type of solution they will provide at project end, and this must be included as part of the Phase 1 feasibility study, proposed system specifications and preliminary design/architecture.

www.dodsbir.net...

reply to post by Ian McLean

Now that the internet hasbeen integrated witin the lifestyles of many it is time to define how best to interpret the implicit data within browsing techniques and how best to infer persnality models and consumer habits.

You won't see this offered in a University Class for years to come I am thinking...

reply to post by MemoryShock


This is not too far off from the Stanford Research Institute's creation of their Values, Attutides, and Lifestyles model of human behavior regarding consumerism.

Except that with the advent of computer networking and A.I., the effectiveness of this once profound model can be multiplied by an ever accelerating number.

reply to post by Josephus23

This is not too far off from the Stanford Research Institute's creation of their Values, Attutides, and Lifestyles model of human behavior regarding consumerism.

VALS is 'psychographics'. The two terms refer to the same type of consumer profiling. It was big in the Eighties, but it's old hat now.

Except that with the advent of computer networking and A.I., the effectiveness of this once profound model can be multiplied by an ever accelerating number.

It would be more true to say that the advent of computer networking, ie the internet, has fragmented mass markets and mass audiences for media. This makes the VALS approach, which is simply a means of grouping people together based on some common characteristic so they can be treated as a target group for mass-media advertising, less powerful and less important than it used to be. As mass audiences shrink and every market becomes a niche, mass communications, including advertising, grow irrelevant.

reply to post by Astyanax


I totally agree.

The VALS approach to marketing is quite antiquated, but the foundation of the idea is to profile a person and use said profile to engage in the basic idea behind marketing....

Sell them products.

With the advent of the internet this idea can be individualized and personalized.

I see this all of the time.

I recently had a car die on me and I used an internet search engine to find a "sell my junk car".

Now, every time I click on google, I see adverts for selling my junked car.
While this is ummmm....

Not quite a refined form of advertising, the idea of Total Information Awareness will allow for individual profiles to be created on everyone.

This is happening as we speak.

The next logical step is to employ some kind of A.I. to evaluate and profile each potential consumer.
The adverts will literally become personalized to such a high degree that it will appear as though our minds are being read.

And to piggyback those thoughts with the basic notion of the OP, these will continue to become ever more refined, eventually being applied directly to the pre-frontal cortex.

All in the name of "choice".

I would rather be profiled by the VALS system of modeling human behavior.

At least then I have a "choice"

Bwahhhh.... hahaha...hahaha... (evil laughter)

Originally posted by Astyanax
VALS is 'psychographics'. The two terms refer to the same type of consumer profiling. It was big in the Eighties, but it's old hat now.

Old hat to whom?

Some of the world has no idea what VALS is...that's the point...

reply to post by MemoryShock


I could not agree more MemoryShock.

That was my intent on bringing up the idea of VALS.

Most of what we are privy to in the form of succinctly presented and well understood information regarding the advertising industry has only become universally accepted some 30 to 40 years after the fact. We can validly discuss the true casual nature of advertising that was published in the 70's and 80's.

But the techniques currently being used are more speculation than fact.
(This probably has something to do with intellectual property rights)

But from what I can see with my own two eyes and read and comprehend, this push toward massive social engineering through the manipulation of group behavior by using modeling and object relations theory has been ongoing since the early 1900's. (i.e. Public Relations)

With the advancing rate of technology, due specifically to Moore's Law, the future is so bright that I gotta where shades.

At least I have a choice in the matter today.

Cheers.

reply to post by MemoryShock


Much gratitude MemoryShock.

Tis a great thread in which I can hopefully add something insightful.

Cheers. and Thank you.

I encourage anyone interested in this topic to check out the long but fascinating 4-part series called The Century of Self. (The previous link takes you directly to the video). This describes how psychological theories were used to directly craft approaches to advertising over the past 100 years, with increasing precision. It is a very well-made and balanced documentary that is also terrifying in its implications.

It is fascinating how the approaches towards advertising and mind-control have changed in tandem with both psychological theories and broad cultural movements. The overall drift has been to greater and greater (yet subtler and subtler) effectiveness. The interaction of advertising and politics has also ramped up over the past 30 years in particular, something examined in amazing detail in the series's last segment.

Originally posted by MemoryShock
Old hat to whom? Some of the world has no idea what VALS is...that's the point...

Well, if some of the world isn't aware of VALS, whose fault is it?

It isn't as if it's being kept a secret or something. The system originated at Stanford Research Institute in 1978. It was based on Maslow's famous 'hierarchy of needs' model, which has been around since the Fifties. It has been public knowledge among sociologists, marketing and market-research professionals and advertising people since the early Eighties. It's a commonplace element in mass communications and MBA courses like this one from Northwestern University. And, as I pointed out in my post, it's much less useful to marketers now that media are no longer so - to use Marshall McLuhan's term - 'massified'.

Tools like this are commonly discussed in academia, in marketing and advertising forums and journals, as well as elsewhere. Access to the information is as easy as a Google search or a trip to the library. What more could you possibly want?

Originally posted by Josephus23
Most of what we are privy to in the form of succinctly presented and well understood information regarding the advertising industry has only become universally accepted some 30 to 40 years after the fact.

Cobblers. Most research and profiling tools are based on generally available scientific, psychological and sociological research. Your tacit suggestion that they're kept under wraps by the industry until they're obsolete is utterly unfounded. Most people just don't bother to look, or don't know where to, that's all. And why should they? It's specialist knowledge, of interest only to people in the field.

Agencies do sometimes develop proprietary tools and techniques, but these don't stay secret long because people in the ad industry tend to switch jobs every couple of years, taking their knowledge of the agency's precious secrets along with them when they leave.

Originally posted by Josephus23
We can validly discuss the true casual nature of advertising that was published in the 70's and 80's.

Not because they are being hidden from the public, as MemoryShock seems to think and as you are implying (although I suspect you know better and are simply being disingenuous). It is partly because players in a competitive industry like to keep to themselves for as long as possible anything that gives them a temporary edge in the game, and also because...

Originally posted by Josephus23
...the techniques currently being used are more speculation than fact...

...and their efficacy is somewhat doubtful. Time will tell.

[edit on 4/5/10 by Astyanax]

Originally posted by Astyanax
Well, if some of the world isn't aware of VALS, whose fault is it?

I haven't even read the rest of your post...I will though...

But media manipulations and the proprietary information contained in the designing of such is the fault of the layman? Is that what you are suggesting? Even pre-internet, when media was in the hands of a few?

The fact that there is even a term for "Layman" suggests social heirarchy...and who is making money off of that heirarchy?

Right...reading the rest of your post.