I don't watch much TV in Japan and didn't really watch all that much in the US before moving. But I admit that I was looking forward to being able to enjoy a few of the shows that entertain me (aka the Simpsons) as well as surfing the Discovery and History Channels. I watched a bit here and there, but I was blown away at the commercial industry.

Advertising in its current incarnation is the bane of humanity, in my opinion. There isn't anything inherently evil about promoting a product or idea or competing for a particular market share. Both of these aspects of advertising contribute to better products and empower consumers to exercise the power of their dollar. But advertising in the U.S. at least (and probably in many other places as well) goes beyond product promotion. Modern advertising works in ways to make you want goods that you didn't know existed, desire goods that you didn't want, buy goods you don't need. Pure psychological manipulation contributing to rampant consumerism. It's wasteful, it's hypocritical, and it's unhealthy.

A good example of this (and the incident that sparked this oh-so-inspiring article): Brand name drug advertisements. One of the first things I saw on TV was a slick commercial for a new drug that not only presented itself as the cure for a disease, but actually fabricated the disease right in front of you. A beautiful nature scene provided the backdrop for a soothing paternal announcer who asked a few questions about your state of health (Do you get hungry during the day? Do you find yourself using the bathroom outside of the house? Do you get tired at night?) that while not as obvious as my examples are nevertheless entirely useless and inappropriate for identifying a malady in need of chemical remediation. We are then informed that if we answered yes to any of these questions, we may be suffering from a "New Disease You Haven't Heard of but Sounds Like Something You Might Have [and might need to get new and expensive drugs for!]." All you have to do is ask your doctor about this wonder drug that can solve your problems.

The trick here is that many people in this day and age are unsatisfied with their lives in one way or another. Marketing magic waves its sleight-of-hand and describes an illness that is non-descript enough to cover just about all of us in one way or another. Advertisers in this case slip into our wallets by tapping into our tendency to accept a medical cause for our problems. The drugs they market are actually mind-numbing anti-depressants with minimal side-effects (who needs a sex drive when you aren't depressed anyway!). The real kicker though, is that the doctors that prescribe this medicine are as often as not shareholders in the companies that produce them. For every pill you buy, they get a return on their investment. Can you spell c-o-n-f-l-i-c-t o-f i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t????

(Don't you think it is odd that America hates certain self-medicated recreational drugs, but loves, desires, endorses, supports, subsidizes, yearns, seeks, believes in, has a fucking bill of rights for, prescription drugs? If you feel a little down about life, you can get a prescription for a designer anti-depressant, but if you decide to relax by smoking a particular plant instead, you get jail time. This is all the more surprising in light of a recent survey indicates that death due to prescription medication mishaps may be one of the top five killers of Americans. Funky, huh?)

None of this is new to any of you I'm sure, but I can't help but think that some of you have become so accustomed to it all that you fail to realize how incredibly insidious it has become.
Advertising has become astronomically competitive at the same time as the industry has gained intricate knowledge of human culture and psychology. Advertisers are no longer content to promote their products and inform consumers but aim instead to create "Brand consumers," people who identify personally with a particular product and thus consistently (and loyally) buy it ALL the time.

Many of the evils laid at the doorstep of capitalism are products not so much of the capitalistic economic system per se but are more accurately outgrowths of advertising run amok. Admittedly this is likely an inevitable outcome of competitive capitalism, as the pressures involved in profit enhancement are vented via psychological manipulation of the populace. But it is reaching incredibly far into our lives, beyond the waste and illegitimacy of branded consumables and has begun affect us on deeper levels.

Laid over in L.A. on my way to Idaho, I found a USA Today newspaper abandoned in the terminal. The cover article of the business section was all about companies' efforts to attract and retain kids on their websites. Not only was I shocked to discover the blatant efforts at psychological manipulation, but I was stunned that they were at ease enough with it to detail this to a major national newspaper. The article describes their efforts to turn kids into brand consumers at the earliest possible moment.

As if this type of literal cognitive-branding wasn't bad enough, the article discussed the methods that they use to entice and retain kids' eyeballs. One thing that really disturbed me was the choice to reduce text and make more graphically oriented pages. I understand that kids can't read so well when they are 3,4,5 years old (the target age of these advertisers), but considering the time that kids spend gaming, watching TV and using the internet, it is scary that they can function in life without reading. This is a perfect example of how the monetary bottom line sells out kids to economics of modern life.

I am perhaps guiltier than most for spouting off endlessly about the problems of the world while contributing very little to the solutions. But this one is easy, folks. I beg, plead, urge, advise, cajole, ask, beseech, command, dictate, and otherwise impress upon you to think long and hard at the type of advertising you are exposed to. Think about what product is being endorsed and what techniques (celebrity heads, hardbodies, Image with a capital I, etc.) Have you ever paid attention to the sex in advertising? The blatant use of sex to sell is well known and documented (remember the Swedish Bikini Team?), but if you watch, you'll find it much more subtly in many, many places where you won't notice unless you are looking.

My wife didn't believe me at first when I told her about the irrelevant use of sex to attract your attention and tug at your pursestrings. I then pointed out to her all the times that sex was needlessly used in a product promotion. I haven't run the statistics, but at least 2/3 of advertisements use sex or other tools that are unaffiliated with the products or services sold to garner your attention and your loyalty. Among the rest, a large portion are image sales pitches (many of which have sexual undertones).

For example, many sporting clothes companies sell an image of "coolness" which sports (ha!) an underlying association with health, beauty, and ultimately attractiveness regarding the opposite sex. I need to rein myself in here to avoid going off on a tangent completely, but let me leave you with something else to chew on. Everyone knows and agrees that modern (American and Japanese at least) society is incredibly preoccupied with particular conceptions of what is beautiful and attractive. We all know that this is primarily driven by the media images we are immersed in. But did you ever stop to realize that it was mostly fabricated to create consumables? Diet plans, health club memberships, sportswear: all driven by manufactured propaganda who's sole purpose is to transfer the monetary fruits of our labor to a company's bank account.

As I said before, this is not really new or revolutionary at all. If you already think about this stuff, I would apologize but I figure you deserve if it you've read this far. If you are interested in reading up more on this topic, I highly recommend Doug Rushkoff's book "Coercion." The author spent a couple years hanging out with the advertisers of the world and then wrote a book all about the techniques and methods they use to influence your buying behaviors. You will be shocked and learn quite a bit, I guarantee. I hear that Noam Chomsky's "Manufactured Consent" is also very good, but I haven't read it yet. The Primer on Revolution also lays out a plan for combating the powers that seek to think for you.

Think about what you buy and why you buy it. Resist the urge to play the consumerism game. I am not a saint in any respect here as well, but every attempt to influence you via advertising that is resisted is a step in the right direction. Pay attention to the pervasiveness and subtleties of advertising. Watch for the tricks they pull to garner your attention and get you to associate positive but irrelevant images with their product. Take control of your purchasing decisions. Fight the power!!