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> It goes beyond filling a need or desire and exists purely as evidence of the power of advertising to convince us to buy almost anything. No, it exists as evi

by curun1r 10y ago

> It goes beyond filling a need or desire and exists purely as evidence of the power of advertising to convince us to buy almost anything. No, it exists as evidence of trying to be happy by craving material possessions. We believe that they'll make us happy, but all they really provide is temporary relief from our cravings and then more misery once the craving reasserts itself. It's a cycle that never leads to actual happiness. Advertising does create demand, but it plays upon people's existing dissatisfaction with their lives. It only works because so many people are so unhappy. If more people were better connected with other people and able to live in the moment, advertising would be less effective.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
> Advertising does create demand, but it plays upon people's existing dissatisfaction with their lives. It only works because so many people are so unhappy. It's not just that. It amplifies peoples' dissatisfaction. Brings it to focus, in order to convince them that the advertised product will help. It keeps telling people that they will be happier if they buy, and then it tells them what to buy. > If more people were better connected with other people and able to live in the moment, advertising would be less effective. Yeah, if more people would be able to resist the impact of huge armies of highly trained, highly paid professionals, with access to state-of-the-art research in psychology, sociology and economics, who also can leverage resources of huge multinational corporations... Yeah, if each of one individually could only resist that, we'd all be fine.
golemotron 10y ago
> No, it exists as evidence of trying to be happy by craving material possessions. We believe that they'll make us happy, but all they really provide is temporary relief from our cravings and then more misery once the craving reasserts itself. It's a cycle that never leads to actual happiness. It's more than that. It's an evolved behavior for status signaling. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4B2TC0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4B2TC0

by curun1r 10y ago

TeMPOraL 10y ago

> Advertising does create demand, but it plays upon people's existing dissatisfaction with their lives. It only works because so many people are so unhappy. It's not just that. It amplifies peoples' dissatisfaction. Brings it to focus, in order to convince them that the advertised product will help. It keeps telling people that they will be happier if they buy, and then it tells them what to buy. > If more people were better connected with other people and able to live in the moment, advertising would be less effective. Yeah, if more people would be able to resist the impact of huge armies of highly trained, highly paid professionals, with access to state-of-the-art research in psychology, sociology and economics, who also can leverage resources of huge multinational corporations... Yeah, if each of one individually could only resist that, we'd all be fine.

golemotron 10y ago

> No, it exists as evidence of trying to be happy by craving material possessions. We believe that they'll make us happy, but all they really provide is temporary relief from our cravings and then more misery once the craving reasserts itself. It's a cycle that never leads to actual happiness. It's more than that. It's an evolved behavior for status signaling. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4B2TC0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4B2TC0