Marketing Works

by: DaveJ

Sun Jun 20, 2010 at 14:00

Marketing often manipulates people in very deep ways that many people cannot overcome.  Today they're even using brain scans to learn how to take advantage the brain's wiring to manipulate people.  Marketing can be so powerful that it can even convince people to kill themselves, but to hand over their money first.  Think tobacco.

We have societal marketing diseases.  Obeisity.  The housing bubble.  Global warming.  Deforestation.

Modern marketing is truly a case of people on their own vs the wealthy and powerful.  When a company spends $15 million on a marketing campaign that isn't $15 million divided by 300 million people in the US, that is each of us being exposed to $15 million worth of marketing.

THIS is marketing:

This is not as subtle as most marketing but it's the same thing.  Pushed around by bullies?  Feel bad about yourself?  Want to protect your family?  (Also, note that the only trouble involved in buying a Hummer is 5 seconds spent signing something: debt.)

Marketing works.  Wall Street is in the business of getting people into debt.  "Borrowing to make up for stagnant incomes, $4-500 a month in interest payments." Borrowing to buy a car that is heavily marketed and makes you ashamed to drive your older car that works fine?  Priceless."

In July I asked here, Should We Ban Manipulative Marketing?

Here is one more reason I think we should step in and regulate marketing and advertising.  Advertising is the science of getting our attention.  The most effective advertising gets us to stop what we are doing and pay attention to the ad.

But have you considered the extent to which such advertising is a distraction from our lives?  We have public nuisance laws that prevent people from disturbing the peace.  So what about advertising?  At what point does advertising rise to the level of attention-grabbing distraction that we have a right to take control and prohibit?  Good advertising gets our attention - and our attention is OURs.

I think we have the right to think about the things we want to think about.  A concurrent right then would be the right not to have our attention distracted -- not to have things shoved in our face.  

So suppose that we require companies to get our permission to expose their advertising to us?  Suppose we charged a fee for the right to promote products and services to us?

How much junk do YOU believe you need?  

None?  That's priceless.  Literally.

The Medium is the Message

by: Betsy L. Angert

Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 23:01

copyright © 2010 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

It happened once, twice; I trust the third time could not charm me more.  I have witnessed the power of a gesture, one made without words.  I have seen the light that glows when people connect in quiet ways.  Now experienced on more than one occasion, I have come to appreciate the peaceful power of consistent communication.  I had not fully acknowledged what could be accomplished until I arrived on the scene, alone.  Then I saw it.  I felt it.  I could hardly believe that a single steadfast individual, could convey a message without words, and still receive such a resounding response.  Yet, while there, it occurred.  I was struck by what had not been apparent for near a decade. The stance of a quiet soul, stated calmly, clearly, and with care, can move more persons than I ever imagined.  

Should We Ban Manipulative Marketing?

by: DaveJ

Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 14:15

Should we be thinking about the negative societal effects of marketing? Should we ban marketing that is based on manipulating people by harming their self-esteem or encouraging them to do unhealthy things?  Should we ban advertising that utilizes techniques that effect how our brains work?  Should we demand that ads stop distracting us from our thoughts?  I have been wondering about this.

Marketers today are learning how to reach down into the wiring of the brain itself, to manipulate us at a level that we do not consciously perceive and cannot control.  Science has come a long way in recent decades.  There is a new kind of marketing called neuromarketing that actually uses brain scans to measure how our brains react to certain stimuli.  We are in danger of marketers using the information gained from these new techniques to come up with ways to sell us things and make us do things and we may in many cases be literally unable to resist.

It is not unprecedented to think about restricting marketing, even in the "free market" United States.  We have confronted the problem of people being harmed by marketing in the past, with tobacco advertising and false claims of medical benefits.  It used to be against regulations to make false claims in TV ads.  But by and large companies have free range to manipulate people as they see fit.