Advertisements: The Most Dangerous Temptation For All Human Beings



Gordon Moore

In 1965, Gordon Moore found something very amazing. His discovery is called "Moore's Law". and it is a theory that the amount of information we can store in our microchips increase double every 18 months. When Gordon Moore first found the theory, it was such nice information for consumers since they could know when was the proper time to buy new electronics. Also Moore's Law was gorgeous information for corporations since the companys thought that they could make people change the electronics more frequently than before. And, with the help of Moore's law and a 'small method' to fuel people's infinite desire, the corporations achieved their goal. As the result, the earth became more polluted and people started suffering from horrible natural disasters much more than before.

So what, do you think, was the special method the corporations used to fuel people's desire? As you might guess through the title of this post, it was "advertisement". The effort the corporations put to make people buy more products created a horrible vicious cycle. As soon as they finish their hectic day at the workplaces, most people loll on their sofas and watch TV. It is obvious that they need to watch some advertisements while watching TV programs. Oh, actually not "some advertisements" but "NUMEROUS advertisements". Annie Leonard, the narrator of the famous video Story of Stuff, insists that nowadays people watch more advertisements in a year than the people of 1960s watched in their lifetime. The advertisements keep telling people that they need to buy something new. So, as the result, after watching the ads, people go to their workplaces again and work more dilligently. And, when they are payed their salaries, they go shopping and buy the products that are, in most cases, unnecessary for them. Then they return home, turn on the TVs, and watch new advertisements. And then... they take all the previous actions again. In the vicious cycle, people not only lose their money but also destroy the earth.

Most of us are in the vicious cycle. We are programmed by the advertisements and, if we don't escape from the vicious cycle right now, we will be the slaves of the corporations in the near future. So it is obvious that we should get out of the circle. However, it is totally impossible to escape from it if we do not know how advertisements work. We should know what strategies the advertisers are using first.

Narcissism

So today, I'm going to explain top three ways the advertisers use to make people purchase the goods. First, they satisfy people's narcissism. Narcissism is basic human instinct that we all have. All of us want to be famous and be treated as heroes. I heard that some young villains who are full of narcissism often request police officers to give them newspaper. When they finally find the picture of themselves on the newspaper, they think they become famous at last and become very delighted. Advertisers use our narcissism to sell their products. The famous movie stars or atheletes often appears in advertisements and say something like, "you are very special. Thus you have the right to be the owner of this car". Consumers in front of televisions feel great since they are respected and, when they go shopping, they willlingly buy the products.

Advertisers not always praise or respect consumers. Sometimes advertisers threaten people by making consumers think if they do not buy the product or take the action, they will be heretics. We all have the fear of being bullied. So the advertisers, who know our thoughts very well, keep telling us, "do you wanna just follow others or lead others?", "oh, didn't you use this awesome product? 20000 people are already using this!" Everytime we watch those advertisements, our inner voices tell us that since they don't want their owners to be ugly ducklings, we should buy the famous stuff. If we follow our irrational inner voices, we will eventually fall into the vicious cycle and put a lot of efforts to buy the products. Therefore it's very important to be rational and think whether or not this product is useful before we buy the stuff.

Lastly, advertisers are using the words that have positive and good meanings such as "special", "good", "best", "courage", "family", "happiness", "love", "patriotism", and "friends". While using the words to describe certain product, the advertisers are trying to "brainwash" us. Our brains tend to connect the words with the object other people are describing using the positive words. So, if we watch the advertisements that are describing a product with the positive words again and again, we end up thinking that the product is truly awesome and our lives with the product will be very charming. As the result, when we go shopping, we unconciously choose the product.

These days, mankind is faced with a huge crisis which will destroy every human being at last: the global warming.  While we are watching the advertisements, the earth is becoming hotter and hotter. While we are fueling our desire to buy the new products, polar bears are starving at the north pole. And while we are unconciously buying useless products after watching the advertisements, the Tuvalu residents are losing the place to live. It's time to do something for them. We should resist the temptation of purchasing fancy but useless products for the mother earth and for the future generation.