How are people influenced by advertising? Is it brainwashing or is it just innocent advertising.

Sometimes it’s plain annoying and sometimes entertaining. Is it easy to ignore or is the extra volume that adverts seem to have too overwhelming to ignore. Are advertisements all about getting you to part with your money or propaganda to change your beliefs. It’s not all about selling a product sometimes it’s about a political agenda. Television can reach hundreds of millions of people at the same time. In this respect it is more powerful than any other communication method.

At the end of the day adverts are there to influence us in some way. Adverts are there to change our minds or to reinforce our minds in a particular way. It’s all packaged as "information” doing us “a favour to let us know something”. Sometimes it’s "news", but it’s not difficult to see beyond the package.

Do you see beyond the package?

I for one see through most ads, infomercial and government adverts alike. It’s almost painful to see them change from month to month but with the same basic message.

Do those close to you get influenced, do you see what they DON’T see. I guess at this point I haven’t told ATSers much they don't know. You know what I’m not going too, instead I’d like you tell me and others what you think about advertising or better still a particular advert and if there is a web-ad of the same please post.

Even better if there is a conspiracy attached please share.

MJ2

reply to post by majestictwo


So to be fair here is my input.

I hate the part at the end of a political add when someone says that this particular ad is authorised by and then it bursts into speech so fast that no body can make sense of it. At the same time text of same is so small that you can't read it.
Something to hide !!
What is this all about if they don't want us to hear it or read it why bother.



Then there are the ads that appear to be a movie only to find its some trick of a bank ad – very smart get me once and put me off. I’m put off by trickery but I guess not everyone is. So is anyone caught out by this or are they wasting their money.

Here is a staggering statistic I have learned. The average American is advertised too 1500 times a day.

And we wonder why we have spending problems.

it is brainwashing, and it creates an impulse to spend. there are gonna be those who say that people have control over their own actions. But think of it like this:

If someone told you 1500 times by 1500 different people a day that you were ugly, what are you gonna think?

With the economy, I think Americans are learning that they can do with less.


There is a facinating book called" the Paradox of Choice". where we have so many choices of items that it is actually causing anxiety and depression. Before you poo poo this, the author explains why.

When you are faced with so many choices, and he makes a point that there are 50 some varieties of ketchup alone. You have to make these decisions hundreds of times a day. When you are left with so many decisions, you are nagged with a sense of making the wrong one. With so many options,you are uninformed, you know you are uniformed, so you always have a doubt that you could of chosen something better.

And you deal with this hundreds of times a day. But not just ketchup, there are major decisiions such as buying cars, houses, and retirement plans.

Retirement plans are so complicated now, that people REALLY worry if they chose the right one, since they really are not informed of what the choices are.

Studies have shown that when the choices are a lot more limited. Such as 3 kinds of ketchup, people are actually a lot more secure with this decision, since they can easily pick which one fits them.

By the way, I saw the ad and bought my entire family a snuggie the other day.

*ducks and covers*

I've never understood advertising except for new products.

I've never bought a disposable nappy, tampon, car, stairlift, insurance policy, breakfast cereal, brand of coffee or lager, or any of the myriad of other things I see advertised every day ...... Indeed, I cannot think of anything I have every bought as a result - direct or indirect - of advertising.

I see Bells and Famous Grouse whisky advertised all the time ..... yet would always but Black Bottle given the choice. Which I've never seen advertised!

All advertising says to me is a) the product is common and/or b) the advertiser is desperate to increase sales. So it can't be that good .

Or maybe I just think for myself too much?

reply to post by nixie_nox


Absolutely right particularly about repetitiveness.
I think it was Joseph Goebbels that said “a message repeated a thousand times becomes the truth”

If you ask why they repeat so much the answer is something like to make sure everyone gets chance to view the message because everyone is not watching at the same time. I suspect though that it’s the thousand times repeated angle.

I think a couple of you nailed it on the head.

Seeing through, or being able to rationalize an advertisment is not going to stop you from subconsciously recognizing that product in say, a supermarket. That inch of recognition may be enough enough to tip the scales in terms of choice, even though you are not aware of the process.

reply to post by Essan


I suspect you think for yourself but not too much.

There are those that are influenced easily and those that are not – you are not and I am not and I would imagine a high percentage on ATS’ers are not. About the only advertising I take notice of is when I cover up the “no junk mail” sign on my mail box at Christmas time to actually get the junk. I’ve missed out on too many deals.

TV advertising is different to junk mail it has sound and it’s louder, bangs buzzes and all manner of things to make you take notice.

In regards to the commercials on TV for pharmaceuticals, if they weren't so horrifying, it would be sheer comedy. For example, an ad for a sleeping pill, or pain remedy or antihistamine, etc., then at the end of the ad, someone's voice reads --extremely (unhumanly) rapidly-- the possible side effects of this drug, which are life threataning!!! I've heard stuff ranging from nausea, stomach cramps, diahrea, and migranes, to risk of heart failure, siezures, and warnings to pregnant and nursing women. Um, think I'll stick with my little sniffles and insomnia thanks.

I think this video will answer your question..good watch.I dont watch much tv anymore,but when i do i certainly dont take it as serious as i used to.

video.google.co.uk...

I do not pay attention to ads.. I just block them out.
Some have catchy tunes that become ingrained...can't be helped.

I realized this the other day while in the produce section, and encountered a young lady humming the ENZYTE theme while picking out salad veggies...carrots,cucumbers,zucchini...

Call your doctor immediately if you have an erection lasting more than 4 hours... he will be impressed...

You think they may have figured the lowest IQ level is the most suitable target for their advertising dollars?

Talk to your doctor...
Before taking this, or any other medication... like I'm bypassing my drug pusher? No way, man, he'd cut me off for sure if I talked to my doctor

Don't you just hate those ads that come on at the beginning of the ad segment then some how they repeat it at the end of the ad segment. That reinforcement for you twice in 2-3 minutes.

The ads are really annoying, and they sometimes even repeat the same ad for several years!
I stopped watching TV because of this. It's rare, when the ad's funny, and (almost) never truth.
They probably couldn't sell their rubbish without brainwashing people into buying it.

Advertising is tapping into the symbols and imagery that the mind automatically knows and has associated emotions for. So if you have a toy, you want an older child (meaning cooler than you) with a huge grin on his/her face.