How Advertising Makes The World Go Round

Summary

Advertising manipulates human desires to fuel consumerism by creating a sense of lack and offering products as solutions to personal insecurities.

Abstract

The article "How Advertising Makes The World Go Round" delves into the psychological mechanisms of advertising, emphasizing that it operates by instilling and exploiting desires. It posits that the most potent word in the English language is "Desire," as it is the driving force behind consumer behavior in a mass-consumer society. Advertising is depicted as a tool that convinces individuals they are missing something intrinsic, which can be rectified by purchasing the advertised product or service. This is exemplified by gendered marketing strategies, such as suggesting that drinking Bully Beer is essential for true masculinity or that wearing Chanel perfume is a prerequisite for feminine beauty. The article argues that such advertising preys on individuals' insecurities about their self-perception, offering a false promise of fulfillment through consumption. Ultimately, the act of purchasing these products is presented as a means to affirm one's identity, albeit at the cost of personal finances and through the perpetuation of a consumerist economy.

Opinions

Advertising is seen as a manipulative force that creates a sense of absence in individuals to sell products.
The article suggests that advertising exploits basic human insecurities, particularly around gender and self-identity.
It is implied that the desire to fulfill these artificially created insecurities is the engine of the consumer economy.
The author criticizes the advertising industry for perpetuating a cycle of inadequacy and consumption, which benefits the economy at the expense of individual self-esteem.
There is a subtle acknowledgment that consumer spending, driven by advertising, contributes to employment and economic stability, which some may view as a necessary trade-off.

It’s all about desire

Photograph by kind courtesy of Pixabay

They say that the three most powerful words in the English language are “free,” “ sex ” and “ money.” But in fact, I would contend that the most powerful word is “ Desire. “For it is a desire that drives the mass-consumer society in which we all live. And the means of creating that desire is advertising.

Advertising effectively steals you from yourself and at the same time offers to sell you back to yourself for the price of the product or service being purveyed. In doing this, a desire to be what you already are has been found to be absent. So it has to be created, albeit on a false premise. For example, let us have a look at two products, one for men the other for women

Real Men Drink Bully Beer

In other words, if you do not drink Bully Beer you are not a real man. But if you start to drink Bully Beer then you become a real man. There are plenty of men with a fragile enough ego or some basic insecurity to buy a Bully Beer.

Only the most Beautiful Women wear Chanel perfume.

Again, if you don’t wear this perfume then you are not a beautiful woman. But for the price of a small, overpriced bottle of this exotic fragrance you can become a beautiful woman.

Some men feel the need for an ego massage in the form of an alcoholic drink. Some women feel the need for the same thing for the price of a small bottle of scent.

In both of these cases, the advertiser is tuning into men who are insecure about their masculinity and women who feel likewise about their femininity.

What these advertisers have done is to take away your perception of yourself and created a desire on your part to be what you were, to begin with. You have been judged and found wanting and here we have the antidote to the inadequacy in you that we have created.

Now for a relatively small price, you can be what you always wanted to be. Buying the product gives you affirmation that you are now what you were all along, except now you are a little poorer for it.

However, you can take comfort in the knowledge that you have made a contribution to the maintenance of full employment in laboratories, in factories and in shops.

What’s more, you have contributed to the taxes and social security of the country’s economy, and some may see that as a small price to pay to keep the whole machine of mass consumerism running smoothly and their egos intact.