What's Wrong With...Advertising
"Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life.,"C. Lasch (1978) "The Culture of Narcissism: American life in an age of diminishing expectations."

A Brief History of Persuasion
The industrial revolution brought with it many new inventions, from the steam engine to the assembly line, resulting in the production of more and more material goods for the mass market. Manufacturers were soon competing for a share of the consumer market. The family was now seen as a centre of consumption, not production. This was the birth of the great sales and marketing revolution. Consumers needed to be persuaded to keep on consuming.

Psychologists have studied persuasion since Aristotle. One of the few proven effects of advertising is known as "brand salience" -exposure to a brand makes us familiar with it which, unless we think about it, tends to make us prefer that brand (see Obermiller, 1985).

In defence of Advertising
The advertising industry claims (without any hard evidence, Holton, Advertising Age, April 1980) that advertising stimulates commerce. It is the captains of industry that pay for, and apparently benefit from advertising although the true winners are the ad agencies.

Today's cognitive psychologists favour a simple "levels of processing" model of persuasion. Peripheral processing is when you make snap decisions - using rules of thumb. We tend to favour this method of interpreting a message - it's fast and easy. This is the way advertisers want us to think - we can be more easily persuaded to buy something if we don't think about it much. Central processing is when we think about it longer - we evaluate a mesage by comparing it to counter-arguments, and prior information.

The primary aim of most advertising is to encourage us to think peripherally, not centrally. Supermarket lighting and music are geared to numbing our brains. Catchy slogans and easy-to-read images patronise us into making snap decisions, impulse purchases and generallly over-consuming.

How to Resist Advertising :

• The more one thinks about a message, engaging in central processing instead of peripheral processing, the more resistant to persuasion one becomes.
• Discover the truth behind the product or service. What does it include? For example Nutrasweet (made by Monsanto and also called Aspartame) is used as an artificial sweetener and has been linked to cancer.
• Warn others about it, using leaflets and posters. Subvertise!

Useful Contacts:

ADBUSTERS:
The Media Foundation, 1243 West 7th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6H 1B7, Canada Tel: (604) 736 9401. http://www.adbusters.org. A very smooth satirical anti-ad mag.
ENOUGH!
: One World Centre, 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS. Fab anti-consumerist newsletter/action group.

ETHICAL CONSUMER: ECRA, Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, M15 5RF.
  "Once we begin using material products to define ourselves, we are doomed to be on an endless treadmill of dissatisfaction."
E. Fromm (1979) "To Have or to Be" "I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half." - John Wanamaker, founder of a sucessful chain of department stores.

Advertising :
Promotes the growth of unethical corporations. Encourages materialism and over consumption. Encourages soundbite interactions and policies Promotes prejudicial and dated stereotypes . Patronises everyone involved

Greed is Good
In the 1930s Alfred Sloane introduced an annual model change to his prosperous company, General Motors. The intention was to coax consumers into buying a new car even when they owned a serviceable older one. This technique, termed "sloanism" or planned obsolescence, has been used by manufacturers (not just in the car industry) ever since.

"The U.S. Government spends more than $400million per year to employ more than 8000 workers to create propaganda favourable to the United States. The result: 90 films per year, twelve magazines in 22 languages, and 800 hours of Voice of America programming in 37 languages with an estimated audience of 75 million listeners - all describing the virtues of the American way."
Pratkanis and Aronson (1992) "Age of Propaganda, the everyday use and abuse of persuasion."

From [Corporate Watch]