Honest Ads?
Nah, of course not. Ads are the most effective weapon used by all big industries to make us want stuff we don't need. Honesty is no consideration in the message advertisements try to communicate, and they never paint a realistic picture but instead an idealized picture of yourself they want you to associate their product with.
source: MeTV
Ads are a bit like God: they're omnipresent, omniscient and all powerful. Ads are literally everywhere in our modern western cultures; the entire "public" domain is plastered with smiling people yelling at you what a fool you are for not having brand X yet. Colorful families enjoying the happiness you fail to achieve in your life because of the absence of brand Y in it. Super-shiny cars from brand Z without which you won't be able to celebrate your independence and freedom by exploring the world (in any terrain) or just the city.
They know your every secret wish, and for the right price they'll grant them to you. They'll even show you stuff to wish for you never thought you needed, no, craved before. They'll make you want stuff to satisfy your hidden desires and make you desire more so you'll want even more stuff. Our societies have become so decadent, our hoarding instinct so supercharged, that we even rent additional storage space to store all the extra stuff we'll never use. Until some garage-sale television show visits us and offers us a nice sum of money, so we can get new and more stuff to store away as soon as our shortened attention-spans decide we don't like the new toys anymore.
They have the power to change who you think you are. They can make you feel sick when you aren't and make you think the food they advertise is healthy when it most certainly is not. Do you know why soap and toothpaste are bubbly? It's because studies show we associate bubbles with hygiene and cleanness; they don't have any other function whatsoever. Do you believe cereals are healthy for your kids? Bad weather makes us want to stay inside instead of going out and socialize like we normally do and that weather influences us that way by making us feel a little more lonely and a little less happy. It's natural and logical to feel sadder in the winter than in the springtime; so why do so many ads for anti-depressants show people looking sadly out of a window at the grey and bad weather outside. It's because that's all of us; they want to sell that medicine to everyone.
In light of all of this I'd like to advertise the honest ads from the Cracked YouTube channel. The entire Cracked's Honest Ads Playlist is brilliant in my opinion, as they always seem to be able to strike at the heart of the lies and deceptions utilized in the product advertisements they choose to highlight. The videos have titles like"If ... Commercials Were Honest", where the product or product type is in the place of the dots. I'll leave some of my favorites here:
If Smart Watch Commercials Were Honest
Why the lottery is known as the "poor man's tax":
If The Lottery Was Honest
Last but not least is this one about credit cards; maybe the most important one they ever made!
Why Credit Cards Are A Scam - Honest Ads
Another great series in the same field of ridiculing and exposing true intents of big companies communication to us, their customers, comes from Gaming Wildlife. Their 100% Honest Series roasts Apple, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Valve, Facebook, Sony, Disney... Here's some of my favorites from them to, starting with Apple:
If Apple Were 100% Honest With Us...
Of course the other giant doesn't fare any better, so here goes Microsoft:
If Microsoft were 100% honest with us...
Disney cannot be excluded here, for obvious reasons (no, I'm NOT a frustrated Star Wars fan... ;-)):
If Disney Were 100% Honest With Us...
I hope you enjoyed today's selection of informative videos. My name is Roger, ehrmm, Winston, and I approve of this message!
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Interesting post @zyx066. Generally agreeing with your position on ads, in our home we solve this problem very simply. For the limited time we watch TV, we mute the commercials. And talk to each other, while we wait for whatever we're watching to come back on ... 😊
Once home from vacation, I'll try to carve out some time to watch some of the links you've shared.
Keep posting! 👍
Didn't realize you were on vacation, @roleerob. I sure hope you and your family are having a great time :-) And I'm honored you even now find the time to grace my blog with a visit! Have a great vacation!
Great post, Roger, ehrmm, Winston :) By the end of the day it works to please someone's imagination and tackle with his or her hidden desires. And also creates tons of working positions on the way. So, It's not the worst type of lie, right?
Thank you, @coinjive, for stopping by and leaving this comment; I appreciate that so much :-)
Well, I don't know what "the worst type of lie" is really. I guess one of the worst type is the lie we almost all believe to be true. We are now living in an economy that's based on some of those lies; the need for everyone to have a job is one of them. We're in a point in history when tons of jobs are about to disappear: all employed in transport better start looking for something else as the self driving trucks and cars are about to take over. My job will be taken over by some type of A.I. And so on. This isn't a bad thing per se, it's only a bad thing if your economic model demands from every individual to have a paying job. Isn't the goal of progression that we have tol spend less time surviving? We clearly don't believe that. Why not, I wonder?
Well, I'd say the worst type of lie is the one that impacts your happiness and mental health directly. Like lying to yourself and being in unbeneficial relations/ marriage or abuse drugs etc. Ads just tend to create and emotion, a desire toward something (maybe not the best things like processed foods in McDonalds but not toward the worst of the worst - like creating intend to kill or something).
When ads just started in a way it destroyed some industries and create some. (Destroying and creating new working positions accordingly)
So yeah, maybe ai will destroy the demand in some people, but create request for people who will make those ai smarter, faster, safer etc.
It's a neverending evolution of society and economy. We gonna be fine!
Resteemed!!!
Great one
Thank you, @akashas, for visiting and for the support; I'm glad you liked the post ;-) Hope to see you back here in the future :-)
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Wow, thanks so much for the support! And thank you @openparadigm, I'm honored by your appreciation for my ramblings ;-)
Your welcome, it was a good article! @openparadigm