Brought to You Buy

I had to tear myself away from the Home Shopping Network to begin this blog, it's Health and Fitness hour, and I am once again convinced that if I plunk down a measly $119 (free shipping and handling for the next 30 minutes!) that I will soon be slim, and sexy and possibly even younger! (It's amazing! it's a breakthrough! It will CHANGE MY LIFE!!!) Ah...the amazing power of advertising! Come latest fitness gadget, and join the others, sitting in their very own room, awaiting use while I peruse the infomercials for more (more...MORE!)
A TV ad featuring smiling bears selling the softest toilet tissue. Dogs drinking beer to make their masters the life of the party., and scantily clad women who have me convinced that if I purchase this scent, I too will become irresistible and alluring to all I encounter (Signs of Life 1-2)!
None of these seem to make any logical sense, yet appeal to us subconciously in a way meant to play upon our deepest dears, our base emotions, and our most private yearnings. How is it these marketing geniuses can take these seemingly incongruous items and convince us that by purchasing them we will become better, sexier, happier...yet with no obviuos link at all?
I highly doubt that Viagra will not only improve my golf game, but ensure my ownership of an amazing pleasure yacht skippered by a much younger beauty. Or that Cover Girl will truly turn me into someone who is "easy, breezy, beautiful" (Cover Girl campaign)... yet we buy, and we buy a lot. We're bombarded with images that remind us that for us ordinary Joes to be worth something, we must strive to become part of the elitist crowd, through consumerism of course! Our children are convinced that in order for them to be worth something, they need to drink Coke (says the gyrating, barely dressed young beauty), listen to Tech 9 (says the very COOL gangsta' dude), and trade in those passe DC shores for some brand new Osirises so that you can become the next winner on America's Best Dance Crew.
Advertising tricks are constantly changing to keep up with society's ideals. While in the 1920's we all wanted to step up the 'class ladder' (179) , and so advertisers aimed to target that inferiority complex by convincing buyers that they too could be just like the 'Joneses' if they would only buy "X" brand of coffee, or "Y" brand of vacuum cleaner. WOW! Who knew it was that simple! Where do I sign?
By the 1950's the nuclear family was an ideal, and all you had to do was eat your cornflakes and BINGO! "Dad, mom and the two kids all live happily together in the suburbs. Dad goes out to work and mom stays home to look after the children" .... ahhh bliss (weburbanist.com). Pass the box please?
Now we trot ahead a few decades to the opulence of the 80's. Reganomics reigned, and oil was king. Everyone wants everything, and wants it now! Women were portrayed as powerful, and more advertising was aimed towards them as they now worked away form home and spent more money than men did on household items. The dishwasher with the delay cycle, the crock-pot, the 'sexy' family car, all marketed to appeal to women who had more money than time. Forget the cuddly teddy bears; show us the real BIG cars (so all my hair can fit inside).
Now we move forward again, and we've changed. Oh how we've changed! Constantly inundating us with graphic images, violence and crass humor, these ads have become almost shocking in their attempt to get the job done. The next generation of young men seem to enjoy visual depictions of young women in powerless or humiliating situations, hare-brained and asking to be abused (174). Should this really be an image that sells men's body spray? It does. Not only to the 20 somethings, but to the 10 year olds seeking to emulate their older role models.
It hasn't improved much for the women either. One would think that advertisments aimed at us to accept ourselves as naturally beautiful, would be less about, uh... beauty. These ads feature many different cultures of women selling cosmetics (why, if we're already beautiful?), or soap, or perfume. But I've yet to see a hunchbacked, one-eyed toothless woman touted as a 'natural beauty' in an ad for anything. And still physical beauty is overshadowed by any type of mental prowess. Do you see any female nuclear physicists or State Senators in Revlon commercials? Unfortunately, "intelligence, if it is acknowledged at all, is secondary, with beauty being primary" (175).
So please keep your eyes and minds open. Think, ask, analyze...go deeper. Don't just buy into the mindless babble and clutter pulsating from your computer and television. What is the seller trying to get from you (besides you cold hard cash and feelings of inadequacy)? And please, don't get sucked into the vortex of 'gotta have it' so deeply that you must buy a larger house to simply have room for all of those fitness gadgets!