The Century of the Self

[simpleisbest]

I watched this life changing documentary last week titled “The Century of the Self.” Not sure if anyone here has seen it. It’s opened my eyes to the fact that all of modern day consumerism and desire based consumption was engineered on purpose by business owners working in tandem with psycho-analysts in 1900s. They knew how to tap into our primal desires for sex, status, power, etc. to get us to buy buy buy… and then buy some more, and they acted on this knowledge to create emotional advertisement. Back in the day companies would sell us to us based on the benefits of their products, using logic. Now, they prey upon our fears and desires, often times subliminally. It leads us to buy not from a place of calm and calculated rationality, but from impulsiveness and irrationality. It makes us over spend, lust after things things we don’t need, and harms the environment from all of the extra waste that is generated.


Looking around at the advertising and consumeristic beliefs corporations are trying to sell us on on a regular basis, I can tell this form of advertising isn’t going away any time soon. If anything, the corporations look like they’re doubling down with each passing year as they perfect their cold science of motivating us to act in line with their business interests to make their wallets bigger...


“TV advertising revenue was forecast to grow from 73 billionU.S. dollars in 2016 to around 75 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 and 82billion in 2020”


“Digitaladvertising spending is forecast to increase from nearly 60 billionU.S. dollars in 2015 to around 83 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.”


Source:https://www.statista.com/topics/979/advertising-in-the-us/


If anyone is interested in the documentary here it is (you won’t bedisappointed):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04

[ApatheticNoMore]

If it was based on psychoanalysis it was based on a bunch of flawed discredited theories*. Of course psychology is a little more advanced now, even if it too faces a reproducibility problem in many areas, it seems.

* well that's mostly where psychoanalysis stands in terms of social science, however as perspective of human nature it isn't without some insight, just it's not science.

[catherine]

...engineered on purpose by business owners working in tandem with psycho-analysts in 1900s. They knew how to tap into our primal desires for sex, status, power, etc. to get us to buy buy buy… and then buy some more, and they acted on this knowledge to create emotional advertisement. Back in the day companies would sell us to us based on the benefits of their products, using logic. Now, they prey upon our fears and desires, often times subliminally. It leads us to buy not from a place of calm and calculated rationality, but from impulsiveness and irrationality. It makes us over spend, lust after things things we don’t need, and harms the environment from all of the extra waste that is generated.


Looking around at the advertising and consumeristic beliefs corporations are trying to sell us on on a regular basis, I can tell this form of advertising isn’t going away any time soon. If anything, the corporations look like they’re doubling down with each passing year as they perfect their cold science of motivating us to act in line with their business interests to make their wallets bigger...



Hey, you don't have to tell me that. This is what I do every day (marketing). It's absolutely true that people are engineered and motivated through psychological techniques to buy.

I'd like to see that documentary. Thanks for the link.

[razz]

I believe it is neuroscientists who are used to discover the ways that best stimulate the desires. TV bypasses all those self-protective barriers.

[catherine]

I believe it is neuroscientists who are used to discover the ways that best stimulate the desires.

Sometimes it's just a PR guy + a psychoanalyst. One of my favorite examples of marketing and manipulation: The Torches of Freedom: Edward Bernays--one of the first PR guys.

http://www.oxfordpresents.com/ms/kelleher/edward-bernayss-torches-of-freedom/

[Williamsmith]

The most effective marketing being done today uses a proven formula for success. It is the culture of fear. Mass consumption of threatening news stories, political fearmongering, and workplace harassment are just a few examples I can cite. I used it to my great benefit in law enforcement to elicit confessions and to encourage one person to sell out another person. In their quest to preserve, “self” over the community.....people will become manipulated into accepting some of the most abhorrent actions. When I detect any level of “fear” being sold.....I throw the bull crap flag and disregard the source. That’s how I know I don’t need more things, because if I truly need it...I don’t have to be scared into it.

[LDAHL]

It’s hardly a revelation that people are always trying to persuade each other. It has always been a feature of commerce, politics, religion, romance, art and literature. It doesn’t follow from that that we are all putty in the hands of master manipulators.

“Life is pain, highness. Anybody who says different is selling something”.

[Williamsmith]

It’s hardly a revelation that people are always trying to persuade each other. It has always been a feature of commerce, politics, religion, romance, art and literature. It doesn’t follow from that that we are all putty in the hands of master manipulators.

“Life is pain, highness. Anybody who says different is selling something”.

While I sympathize with the capitalists nod to the application of free will as a barrier to exploitation ..... today’s populace is awash in technology making the delivery of persuasive manipulation akin to being locked in a room where KC and the Sunshine Band is the only music you can hear. You’ll do anything to get out.

[LDAHL]

While I sympathize with the capitalists nod to the application of free will as a barrier to exploitation ..... today’s populace is awash in technology making the delivery of persuasive manipulation akin to being locked in a room where KC and the Sunshine Band is the only music you can hear. You’ll do anything to get out.

So you change the channel or log off. It’s not that hard. If we were slaves to media, we wouldn’t have the current president.

[Williamsmith]

So you change the channel or log off. It’s not that hard. If we were slaves to media, we wouldn’t have the current president.

On the contrary, I would argue that since “we” are slaves to media......we continue to have this President. The media is the Three Ring Circus that transports “us”, for the moment out of our current existence and into an entertainment frenzy. How else could you explain “The Bachelor...or Bachelorette “. There are libraries full of books no one will read because their brains have been conditioned to an attention span of a few seconds ....just long enough to deliver the “message” which will result in a purchase.

[LDAHL]

On the contrary, I would argue that since “we” are slaves to media......we continue to have this President. The media is the Three Ring Circus that transports “us”, for the moment out of our current existence and into an entertainment frenzy. How else could you explain “The Bachelor...or Bachelorette “. There are libraries full of books no one will read because their brains have been conditioned to an attention span of a few seconds ....just long enough to deliver the “message” which will result in a purchase.

Once again, nothing new. There was never a time when high culture was ascendant over low. Shakespeare never had the draw of rat-baiting. There was never a point where the masses tossed aside Faulkner for shiney new electric media. They were never that interested in Faulkner in the first place.

People want stuff and status. Media may have some role in choosing what specific stuff to buy or status to pursue, but the desire was always there. The chattering classes are the tail that thinks it wags the dog.

[Williamsmith]

“The chattering classes are the tail that thinks it wags the dog.”

Ah, true but today’s chattering classes are armed with AR15s with which to get the attention of the dog....if only to enjoy a brief moment of bliss. While nothing is , once again, new....it does seem to be distilled a little stronger day by day.

[catherine]

People want stuff and status. Media may have some role in choosing what specific stuff to buy or status to pursue, but the desire was always there. The chattering classes are the tail that thinks it wags the dog.

a) Agreed, the desire is always there, and that's why marketing people have jobs.
b) The tail that wags the dog is the sophisticated machine that drives us to wanting Joanna Gaines' shiplap vs sticking with your cheap brown paneling, or a cerulean sweater vs a teal (ref. The Devil Wears Prada) or a Titliest golf ball vs the ones you find and pick up in the rough. Haven't you ever noticed how the collective consciousness moves in a certain direction? We ALL have to have a jacuzzi or we ALL want to have granite countertops or we ALL something else.
c) Back in Faulkner's day, and even earlier, back when printing presses were churning out one-pagers to disseminate around the town, there wasn't national TV networks, or social media. There certainly were trends back then, of course, whether it was a type of buggy or bustle, but it wasn't a high speed orchestrated turnover of things to buy and sell. As I've said, I'm part of that orchestrated turnover at work even in the pharmaceutical industry, and you'll never convince me that the billions of dollars that Pharma spends to talk people into thinking they have diseases is all just so much medical waste.

[LDAHL]

“The chattering classes are the tail that thinks it wags the dog.”

Ah, true but today’s chattering classes are armed with AR15s with which to get the attention of the dog....if only to enjoy a brief moment of bliss. While nothing is , once again, new....it does seem to be distilled a little stronger day by day.

When I look down and realize I just purchased a pumpkin spice latte, I will buy your argument against free will. Not until then.

[ToomuchStuff]

Another one that was on PBS some time ago, can be found on Youtube, you might find of interest, The Human Face of Big Data.

[catherine]

Another one that was on PBS some time ago, can be found on Youtube, you might find of interest, The Human Face of Big Data.

Thank you. I'll check it out.

LDAHL, free will is real, but there is a continuum in that area. Some people are highly suggestible and others are not. Some are self-reliant pioneers and others follow the crowd. Just because you don't buy your coffee at Starbucks doesn't mean that a) A disproportionate number of people do, when so many other alternatives exist or b) you don't have SOME evidence of falling prey to the marketing wolves. Maybe not coffee, but probably something else. A shirt perhaps? A razor?

[LDAHL]

Thank you. I'll check it out.

LDAHL, free will is real, but there is a continuum in that area. Some people are highly suggestible and others are not. Some are self-reliant pioneers and others follow the crowd. Just because you don't buy your coffee at Starbucks doesn't mean that a) A disproportionate number of people do, when so many other alternatives exist or b) you don't have SOME evidence of falling prey to the marketing wolves. Maybe not coffee, but probably something else. A shirt perhaps? A razor?

How would you propose protecting us from the wolves? I would certainly agree some of us are dumber than others, but am suspicious of any authority that would keep us "safe".

[catherine]

How would you propose protecting us from the wolves? I would certainly agree some of us are dumber than others, but am suspicious of any authority that would keep us "safe".

I'm in favor of media literacy education. I don't know how, but like you, I don't expect the government or any other authority to control what people can buy, unless the marketing wolves are putting the general welfare at risk (i.e. Phillip Morris). I think awareness is key. So that's why it's important to know that we are most certainly under the influence of our all-consuming culture, and the thousands of people who earn their living swaying us, in one way or another.

[ApatheticNoMore]

media education sounds good but not sure of the details, we're all under sway of a consumer culture, I don't know, I don't own a t.v. and can't believe anyone hasn't heard of ad-blocking software. Though a ban on advertising would make perfect sense to me. Still it's not all media driven, maybe some people just like things now and then. Its' not even necessarily the most toxic aspect of the culture, really not at all in the scheme of things IMO, there are way more toxic aspects to the culture that that! Though there is the environmental impact.

[Williamsmith]

How would you propose protecting us from the wolves? I would certainly agree some of us are dumber than others, but am suspicious of any authority that would keep us "safe".

Like in most things a reasonable amount of government involvement is the key. We need some government. The kind of government that makes airbags mandatory in vehicles as well as seatbelts seems reasonable to me. The kind of government that removes cigarette advertising from television seems reasonable to me. So, to take an example that is most annoying to me lately is the constant barrage of pharmaceuticals ads that have joyous people bouncing around a stage set acting as if a pill has made their diabetes something to envy. It’s not simply a buffet fro choose from, it is the waiter holding open my mouth and jamming it down my throat even if I’m not hungry. A certain amount of suspicion is healthy but not when it allows predatory activity in the name of fair game and free will.

[spatula]

In other countries advertising is a lot more strictly regulated. Only in the U.S. do companies have free reign to advertise to children and such.

I'm not sure what to do about the problem because the people in charge of solving it, the politicians, are often paid hefty sums by the advertising companies themselves.

[catherine]

So, to take an example that is most annoying to me lately is the constant barrage of pharmaceuticals ads that have joyous people bouncing around a stage set acting as if a pill has made their diabetes something to envy.

I've worked on the research for tons of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads. But the Pharma marketers are typically very risk-averse from an ad concept POV because DTC was only allowed around the turn of the last century, so they are nowhere near as sophisticated as the marketers of some other industries. That's why you get so many boring scenes of arthritic grandmas throwing balls to grandkids or golden retrievers on the beach. You will probably never see a great Pharma ad at the Super Bowl. But they still work.