i feel like i'm going crazy

Before I begin: I don't like to spend time making my posts look good. I type my thoughts and get them out quickly because otherwise i forget what i wanted to say. forgive the ranting, rambling style. i am not mad, i am just thinking a lot about these things.

recently i've seen several commercials that go beyond anything i could have imagined possible.

for instance, an advertisement for a wii videogame that rapidly sneaks in the words "the least interesting videogame of the year." yes, quite literally, this happened. it was said in a very positive, exited voice, with flashing images on the screen. i assume that this was meant to lead the less attentive viewer to believe the voice had said something positive about the game. note that this was shown during airtime of "Lethal Weapon" at around 2 AM on Friday night.

Other commercials used strange tactics such as one that began by disorienting the viewer by making it look like a video game system was hooked up to the television. other commercials seem to be connecting completely unrelated things in ways that are somewhat disturbing.

for instance, a commercial i saw online for the Cube, whatever the fuck that is. not once is it mentioned that it's a car, but instead that it's a "mobile device." a car is shown several times along with some fun music, a bunch of people (ethnically diverse to the point of absurdity) smiling and having fun. the word "shift" is shown on the screen as part of the slogan. hmm. shift what? my fucking thought patterns?

what scares me is that i used to be able to laugh and scowl at advertising but now i feel like it's getting into my head and that bothers me. i suppose i should stay away from the television even more than i already do (these are the first commercials i've seen in ages, I have dvr. i can only imagine how much worse they get on fox news).

i'm almost nervous to talk about this around here. i did a search online for discussion of these commercials, and marketing tactics. i couldn't come up with a single result relating to criticism of advertising technique. what i did come up with was the fact that google knows what i search for, as it filtered my results to fit with other searches i'd made.

i feel paranoid, but these things fit predictions i had been making some time ago, predictions i laughed about at the time. for instance, i wrote a short story in which the main character is hunted down by a covert group of public relations people (the ones who pull the strings - "they," so to speak), because of a google search he made. now my other fears and predictions could be true as well.

also, google street view is somewhat frightening, but much less than these advertisements and general feeling of technological suffocation.

i doubt anybody shares my feelings, but i needed to say them somewhere. can't find a single word of it on the internet.

ftr i'm somewhat familiar with bernays. allow me to educate the non-informed. Bernays created public relations and propaganda. this man was a genius (he was related to Freud). The man who created this entire fucking way said the quote below. Doesn't that bother anybody?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

documentary about Bernays. absolutely brilliant. watch it now. it's not pseudobullshit, it's by a well known and respected documentarian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3LSyck0YTE

In Propaganda (1928), his most important book, Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy:

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 true ruling power of our country. ...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. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.

alright. that's all for now.

  On 7/12/2009 at 1:22 PM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

Their goal, ultimately, is to affect how your mind thinks and that's pretty full-on, especially when you consider how often advertisements appear in everyday life.

People make points like this all the time and I think they overstate the effect of advertising. People are very savvy to advertising these days. Their actual ultimate goal is just to get people talking - the holy grail for ad-men today is to get something to go viral, which is why they tend to nick all their ideas from Youtube. These adverts have obviously had the intended effect on the OP because he's come here to tell us all about them.

PS, advertising isn't scary at all unless you're very easily scared

ACtually I've now read beyond the first three paragraphs of the original post and I can see that it wasn't really worth replying to. Vamos Scorcho - seek help.

i agree. one of the main goals is to get the name, the image, the whatever it may be - into your head and consciousness.

for instance, you hear a jingle. perhaps you're searching for a product you need. you will go with the product (most likely) that is ingrained into your memory. you remember it, and therefor trust it for some reason.

i'm starting to realize how ridiculously powerful advertisements can be. i didn't realize it until now. there was an ad campaign for wendy's that completely, completely fucked up my opinion of them. i haven't chosen wendy's over mcdonalds in a long time now. the reason i now believe this to be is that wendy's played the stupidest fucking ad 10 times a day:

"It's not fast food, it's Wendy's!"

this made me hate Wendy's, when previously I'd hated McDonalds. What scares me is that at the time I truly believed that the taste of McDonalds had changed, when in reality, it hadn't. Nothing had changed. My perception of two gigantic, soulless corporations had changed.

Weird, huh? What else is being molded by these things?

honestly i barely understand it. the fact is, advertisements do more than just get people talking. they literally shape the way we think about certain things. for example, weight and attractiveness. some women really do lose it because of the way the media portrays them. i believe that this is just one example of many things that advertisements affect.

"if anybody here is in public relations, kill yourself."

i agree. one of the main goals is to get the name, the image, the whatever it may be - into your head and consciousness.

for instance, you hear a jingle. perhaps you're searching for a product you need. you will go with the product (most likely) that is ingrained into your memory. you remember it, and therefor trust it for some reason.

i'm starting to realize how ridiculously powerful advertisements can be. i didn't realize it until now. there was an ad campaign for wendy's that completely, completely fucked up my opinion of them. i haven't chosen wendy's over mcdonalds in a long time now. the reason i now believe this to be is that wendy's played the stupidest fucking ad 10 times a day:

"It's not fast food, it's Wendy's!"

this made me hate Wendy's, when previously I'd hated McDonalds. What scares me is that at the time I truly believed that the taste of McDonalds had changed, when in reality, it hadn't. Nothing had changed. My perception of two gigantic, soulless corporations had changed.

Weird, huh? What else is being molded by these things?

honestly i barely understand it. the fact is, advertisements do more than just get people talking. they literally shape the way we think about certain things. for example, weight and attractiveness. some women really do lose it because of the way the media portrays them. i believe that this is just one example of many things that advertisements affect.

  On 7/12/2009 at 12:27 PM, vamos scorcho said:

paranoid

  On 7/12/2009 at 1:27 PM, Iain C said:

  On 7/12/2009 at 1:22 PM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

Their goal, ultimately, is to affect how your mind thinks and that's pretty full-on, especially when you consider how often advertisements appear in everyday life.

 

People make points like this all the time and I think they overstate the effect of advertising. People are very savvy to advertising these days. Their actual ultimate goal is just to get people talking - the holy grail for ad-men today is to get something to go viral, which is why they tend to nick all their ideas from Youtube. These adverts have obviously had the intended effect on the OP because he's come here to tell us all about them.

 

PS, advertising isn't scary at all unless you're very easily scared

 

ACtually I've now read beyond the first three paragraphs of the original post and I can see that it wasn't really worth replying to. Vamos Scorcho - seek help.

I don't need to "seek help." If I had typed in nice paragraphs with capital letters would you still advise me to seek help? If I wasted time finding some big names that support my feelings, would that help you not be a dick?

I posted a wikipedia article and a documentary. The man that made that documentary has won awards. Watch it, it's not "Loose Change."

The advertising men are gonna come get you now, you fucked up big time.

Lol Iain I love you but what's up, did your jorts thaw prematurely?

I don't feel advertising affects me the way it's intended - ie., I can't think of an instance as an adult where I've purchased anything based on an ad (unless it was something of which I was previously unaware, like a new album or film) - but the annoyance factor of andvertising is insidious. I went to Cuba a few years back and the lack of signeage (apart from billboards for the Communist party, heh) was really liberating. It felt great not to be surrounded by corporate names and logos on everything.

That's the one part of Scorcho's critque that resonates for me, the

  On 7/12/2009 at 12:27 PM, vamos scorcho said:

general feeling of technological suffocation.

That's one of the main reasons I'm in China. For lack of a better way of putting it, I have a real hunger for "adventure" and the world is rapidly getting to be a smaller and smaller place. Everything is charted and exploited and GPS-ed to death. I think I would have been much happier in an era where I could sign my life away for two years' voyage on a sailing vessel. Yeah the reality is I probably would have died from dysentery or malaria, but that doesn't reduce the romantic attraction of the unknown.

lay off the weed.

  On 7/12/2009 at 2:41 PM, lumpenprol said:

Lol Iain I love you but what's up, did your jorts thaw prematurely?

Yeah I've been pretty snappy this morning, woke up with a huge hangover

appealing to one's emotions is hardly new. the greeks called it pathos. the only difference now is that it's geared towards getting people to buy certain products, which in turn proffers wealth on the owner, which translates to power, the traditional reason to use pathos.

if you want to get really paranoid, the Nudge book is rich pickings:

  Quote

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society

ah... other people telling me what's best for me...

the only way to get around this is to realise you're being emotionally manipulated, and to become spoklike and think logically when confronted with choices. i read some articles on the trivium which claimed such a traditional education, especially one that focused on traditional logic, would ward against advertising.

  On 7/12/2009 at 3:17 PM, Iain C said:

  On 7/12/2009 at 2:41 PM, lumpenprol said:

Lol Iain I love you but what's up, did your jorts thaw prematurely?

 

Yeah I've been pretty snappy this morning, woke up with a huge hangover

usually when i'm hungover, i don't give a shit about politics, society, or whatever, let alone that i'd get excited over ads on tv

fuck me, all i need is an aspirine and a wank

like now for instance, i had approximately 40 beers and 3 packs of cigarettes (no kidding). last thing on my mind is breaking my mind over this kind of shit

lol

/ hijack thread

just chill the fuck up noob

That documentary that Vamos is talking about is pretty good. You should follow it up with Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent".

lumpy: you want adventure? stop spending all that money on hookers and go down to the north of Thailand and spend several months hiking around in the jungles. Head down past Bangkok and on the east coast you can find plenty of beaches that are virtually uninhabited.

Enjoy...

That sounds good, but I have this fear that Thailand has been overwhelmed by sleazy Europeans...guess I'm a snob about whores like everything else, lol. I'll definitely consider it, especially if something happens with my current job. Anyplace in particular you recommend?

By the way, anyone vaguely interested in visiting Shanghai should consider coming for the full solar eclipse on July 22nd!

The jungles in the north will be you and some Thai guides.

There are beaches down in the south that are virtually uninhabited, but I can't remember any names. Just stay away from the usual places like Koh Samui and you'll do fine.

Fuck I wish I was back in Asia. 8 semesters to go...

I think Vamos has got a very good point. I went through a lot of this on a media course I once did.. It's very important to note that drink coke advertising is designed to stick in your head so they use lots of subliminal messaging to appeal to a crowd that would otherwise ignore the images on the screen. They do this subtly but i'm loving it effectively by making sure commercial breaks are louder than regular TV programming so when you go into the kitchen to make a tea or coffee WAZZUP you can still hear it in the background.

The main thing is we're so surrounded by the media just do it force feeding us advertising slogans that it's almost becoming like a second language it's in the game. It's even at the point where finger lickin good that people come up to me and ask me if I've seen the new *insert brand here* advert.

To be honest, your best bet is to do what taste the rainbow I do and just avoid watching TV. Since I stopped watching TV breakfast of champions I've found do the dew that I've been eat fresh happier as a because i'm worth it person.

Carlsberg don't make forum posts, but if they did they'd probably be the best in the world.

i hate carlsburg it's fucking rank. who the fuck drinks it? probably the best lager in the world? fuck off.

Just throw your fucking TV outside. That's a good way to start. Or don't have cable TV. Stop listening to radio. Stop being feed by politically-biased journalism.

  On 7/13/2009 at 10:59 AM, Obel said:

I think Vamos has got a very good point. I went through a lot of this on a media course I once did.. It's very important to note that drink coke advertising is designed to stick in your head so they use lots of subliminal messaging to appeal to a crowd that would otherwise ignore the images on the screen. They do this subtly but i'm loving it effectively by making sure commercial breaks are louder than regular TV programming so when you go into the kitchen to make a tea or coffee WAZZUP you can still hear it in the background.

 

The main thing is we're so surrounded by the media just do it force feeding us advertising slogans that it's almost becoming like a second language it's in the game. It's even at the point where finger lickin good that people come up to me and ask me if I've seen the new *insert brand here* advert.

 

To be honest, your best bet is to do what taste the rainbow I do and just avoid watching TV. Since I stopped watching TV breakfast of champions I've found do the dew that I've been eat fresh happier as a because i'm worth it person.

 

Carlsberg don't make forum posts, but if they did they'd probably be the best in the world.

Fucking lol