Then there are ads and products that exist solely to rip us off. Just like we are buried with spam online, we are inundated with TV, radio and print ads for worthless products and "legal" scams, like postal jobs, hair growth serums and real estate schemes. Though it seems improbable, these scams are successful, preying on the weak-minded, and gullible -- and that is us! Until we see those ads disappear forever, rest assured these vendors are profiting and it's a sad commentary on how little credit for intelligence we are given - and just how responsive to manipulation our society truly is.
Several European countries have banned advertising to children on TV and in various family venues. This has come as a result of expansion of Western junk food franchises and marketing. Before you ask yourself why don't we have such laws here, forget it. Instead of being ashamed the Europeans are enacting laws to protect their kids from our American-style consumption habits, Kraft, Kellogg and General Mills have joined multiple food industry lobbies in creating an alliance that will pro-actively attempt to ward off any such regulation here.
Many don't realize that the U.S. wasn't always like this. From the early adoption of the radio around 1916 till the early 20s, there were no ads on the air because the scientific community was determined to make radio a positive and socially uplifting medium for information and relaxation. When radio began to use advertising to produce revenue, it was suspended during prime evening and "family" times because ads were considered noise pollution, a detriment to mental health, like that annoying "tom-cat on top of the back fence". During the depression, however, radio stations had to give in to the demands of advertisers for their survival, and ads have been part of commercial American radio ever since. Now they are everywhere, from our TV sets to web pages, movie previews, supermarket floors, and whole new waves of highway billboards as localities lease highways to private firms.
We not only need to teach our kids to spot these ploys, we need to seriously discuss whether we want to continue living lives so crowded by abrasive ads, so bent on commercial competition and moneymaking and ultimately whether parents or localities want to take steps to make their kids' lives more serene. My immediate suggestion for parents is to limit TV to 1 hour per day, insist on one day per week without TV at all, get your kids into books, teach them how to look at issues in balance, to deduce motives and never stop asking questions. To quote Oscar Wilde "the truth is rarely pure and never simple."
As for us adults, we need to fight to become aware of who we are doing business with and use our economic clout to reward only those companies who are committed to a sustainable future for our children. Besides the consumer products we buy, moving our investments into socially aware funds can help show the Halliburtons and Monsantos of the world that we are not willing to profit at the cost of our morals.
You may disagree, but I hope for better for my children then for them to be average American consumers.
GW is a proud American from NY State, concerned about media manipulation and overconsumption. He believes in fiscal responsibility, small government and strict ethics. He recently changed careers to become an inner city schoolteacher. A firm proponent of international adoption and curbing overpopulation, he hopes to adopt a third child and enjoys history, "honest" music and art and obscure vinyl records.
If those of us who understand how the people in this country have been hoodwinked, do nothing, it's the same as the saying that evil will prevail if good men do nothing.
My friends tell me not to upset myself about the conditions in our country. But if we're not upset and angry and frustrated, we're not paying attention.
Don't just sit there. DO SOMETHING!! Email, write letters, call everybody you know and inform!!!!! That's the job of the people who have the truth in their pockets.
by
Caronome (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 225 comments)
on Monday, December 10, 2007 at 9:27:51 PM
The media like capitalism need a dose of responsibility
In any reasoning the higher up the assumptive tree that argument starts the greater the margin/opportunity for error it becomes.
You give way too much credit to Bernays the seeds to the disaster is way deeper. Your essay is just like the Sony Corp ‘Inventing the ‘Walkman’. In truth the technologies already existed their ‘genius’ was in combining the technologies and packaging.To give that much credit to Bernays ignores the realities he created nothing at best he refined/taught exploitation of an already gullible/receptive public. HE DID NOT INVENT HUMAN NATURE nor a flawed ‘culture’.
Without a culture that was/is based on a naïve (now wholly discredited philosophy) one is entitled to wonder how successful he would have been. The founding fathers were influenced by Adam Smith’s naïve concept of ‘Capitalism’ in that it would be beneficial to the people. They were products of their time; consequentially the Constitution is imbued with those flaws.
When added to the above human nature with included an institutionalized myopia ‘proud to be an American’ stance which implies a false sense of superiority the indoctrination is an inevitable and the malaise that is the popular America is complete.
Like any country whose constitution is 100+ years old it needs serious revisiting to address today’s realities. In saying this I have no doubt I’ll be branded as anti American which in reality is demonstrably untrue. Rather I am pro-people no matter where they are and all those vein Petty borders and inherent ‘patriotism’ (nationalities) get in the way of truth.I subscribe to Samuel Johnson’s warning when he said “patriotism is the last resort of a scoundrel” . Simply put this means that if something can only be justified by patriotism then it and its proposer are suspects. Consider for a moment if torture is only justified on patriotic ground as was the case by Mr Yew (lawyer) of the White House. One needs to question the efficacy of that determination. The decision was used to justify Cheney’s belief that the President should have unfettered powers (again justified on the grounds of nationalism.)
That views like this can gain and maintain currency despite the checks and balances clearly emphasises that variousl powers and responses need to be defined and codified . These rule changes need to clearly define the responsibilities and culpabilities of the white house, corporations including the Media and its ownership. Just as clearly this demands an updated Constitution before it's too late.
by
Andris (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 531 comments)
on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 4:52:23 PM
3 comments
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