“The Happiest Place on Earth.” “There’s no Substitute.” “I’m Loving It.” Ordinary sentences, however behind these ordinary phrases billion dollar corporations have taken ownership of these slogans. They have spent a great amount of time and money to come up with a sentence, which they think would entice consumers the best in order to choose their product over the abundance of alternatives, if you can afford it that is.Every year hundred thousands of dollars are spent on advertising and publicity budgets in order to create a world where the consumer is the protagonist and as the hero of this world you really cannot live without their product or brand. In order to make a profit, one needs to be prepared to invest. In this case the investment is the numerous research in human behavior, human expenditures and how to link these two together. Roderick White, writer of many advertising books points out that an American Advertising agency adheres to the following rules:
Rule 1: There are no rules
Rule 2: There may be exceptions to rule 1
But also, there are 5 general rules:
1. Every ad should embody a clear, straightforward proposition
2. Say what you want to say in as few words as possible
3. There is no place for humor in advertising
4. Give the consumer credit for some intelligence
5. Be original[1]
Rule 4 clearly points out their perception of the average consumer they wish to target. In addition David Ogilvy once wrote: “Products, like people, have personalities which can make or break them in the market place.”[2]With this in mind companies assign emotional appeal to their products or brand creating the ultimate emotional selling proposition[3]. They offer their aid in order to ensure that the perception of others on your role in society is flawless. The perception of reality is easily distorted; the basic fears, insecurities and inabilities are easily identified which the companies will gladly take advantage of as their products will complete you and make you superior to anybody else.
Why should we pay attention to the ugly truth anyway? If you can choose to look at your handsome IPhone 5 retina screen or the fact that the phone you are looking at in question was actually built by teenagers who earn, about 70 cents an hour, while you paid, let’s say $700-$800 for it. The only party who celebrates this difference is a small percentage of the world who is cashing in their money either way.
The surge of information available these days makes it hard to actually find what you are looking for. Distraction is all around. Whether by brands and products claiming that you need them, not to mention the discounts that brings you a step closer to them, or channels that provide you with information or entertainment, also called infotainment. One click and you are further removed from your destination.
While you had a route planned you actually end up taking side roads, (a cute dress), alleyways (information on the Boston bombing and becoming an investigative reporter crosses your mind), high ways, (Washington re-opens peace talks between Israel and Palestine and you actually think you have the solution), and even go cross continent (all inclusive holidays to Thailand, you are on the verge of booking a ticket). It does make your journey more exciting, however you never seem to reach your destination - and you never made it to Thailand either. In a matter of minutes a wave of information has been presented to you, all the while you try to figure out how to avoid paying shipping costs for that cute dress, you have forgotten what you were looking for in the first place.
The supply of information on the internet is endless, in fact every two days the amount of information posted on the internet equals all the information that has ever been gathered from the start of civilization until 2003. This equals to 5 Exabytes[4]. The below graph indicates how much an Exabyte actually is.
Prefixes for multiples of bits (b) or bytes (B) | |
Figure 1.[5]
In this sense the Internet is the number one source to gather information. It has turned people into information junkies. Information junkies like to collect as much information is possible, whether the information is relevant is not important. They like to share what they know. Some would consider knowledge is power. A fierce competition of cerebral data harboring seems to be at hand. They perpetually munch on data and regurgitate the information while being completely indifferent of the situation they are in.
In essence the amount of information you can store in your brain could enhance your role within society adding to all the new products you have just purchased and brands you associate yourself with, well equipped to play any role society deems you worthy to portray. A first impression can have you classified in four categories,
- without even having said one word - the clothes you are wearing, the color of your skin, your hairstyle and the expression on your face. Finally the words that come out of your mouth can either confirm the classification or inconveniently confuse the categorization process, also knows as cognitive dissonance.
Whether you are perfectly fine living in your own warped reality or you are being violently pulled from your dormant state the reality is that you believe what you want to believe.
By Julie Ng
© [Freethinkersclub] [2013]
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No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author and blog, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.
All Rights Reserved
No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author and blog, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials.
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