It's Affluenza season
Here we are in November and that means the worst part of the flu
season is upon us. I'm not referring to INfluenza; it's AFFLUENZA that
reaches its peak between now and Christmas with the concomitant increase
in unwanted advertising messages.
According to PBS, affluenza is a noun meaning: 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream.
Affluenza is a disease. It is carried by advertisers and marketers who invade your consciousness, often against your will, with a constant barrage of self-serving messages that often demean and debase the very values we, out of the other sides of our mouths, lament losing. Carefully researched psychological manipulation in the images and messages act mostly to reinforce commercialism and support new cases of affluenza among the young.
We are "told" by the advertising messages that we need more, we need
better, we need different, but mainly, we NEED. We MUST consume.
The techniques used by advertisers are blatantly subversive, often
using sex and guilt - two great movers of humanity - to sell us one product
over another when in truth the only difference may be simply cosmetic.
Students of advertising basically learn to manipulate consumer opinion
and behavior so that the dollars will follow. Truth often takes a back
seat.
We are pounded daily, hourly, incessantly, by advertising messages, some of which you can see by shifting your eyes a bit to the left and then way over there to the right on these pages. Corporate predators literally force their messages upon us from all media, from the mail, from billboards, from e-mail spam, on the telephone, even from clothes, and on every other little piece of potential mindspace they can purchase.
I don't know about you, but my mailbox brims every day with catalog after catalog from places that never benefit from my purchases. Still the catalogs keep coming. Come-ons from mortgage loan companies are camouflaged to look like notices from the government to trick you into opening the envelope. Just last night our dinner was interrupted by yet another phone call from yet another dreaded phone company telemarketing firm.
All the mindless consumerism foisted upon us smacks of the worst of propaganda, even brainwashing. Constant repetition by happy, confident people who seem authoritative is a classic propaganda technique. But the country is addicted to the economic growth that comes with people buying more than they need, sometimes even more than they truly want, so it is deemed acceptable.
How bad an addiction is it? Total advertising expenditures in the U.S. in 1998 will approach $200 billion. Billion. Locally, about $120 million is spent on advertising with the Times-Union alone. Television gets another $100 million and radio about half that, according to Mike Liff, president and general manager at WJWM-17. Add in the miscellaneous media, and we are talking $300 million spent locally in pushing us to buy, buy, buy.
Then there's all the people who work for ad agencies or for media outlets or for other companies that create advertising messages. Their salaries add enormously to the economic impact locally. The First Coast economy would suffer mightily without advertising.
I can't shake the feeling that we are all hopelessly addicted to advertising now. The U.S. economy is dependent on it, and just like the drunk at the party who thinks more and more margaritas are the answer to keeping the party going strong, we now need more and more advertising to push more and more purchasing to keep the economy rolling along. When will it end? How can it continue to be sustained?
Advertising, marketing and public relations professionals feed this addiction and can end up being the pushers in this scenario, largely without thinking about it. I don't mean to be overly harsh toward the people who have been responsible for many of my paychecks - and heck, some of my best friends are flacks - but I do wonder how many in those fields have really thought deeply about the work they do.
For instance, can someone who creates messages to increase tobacco or alcohol consumption, especially among the young, then turn around and lecture someone else about the harm of smoking or drinking?
Can someone who creates a come-on ad for a used car while knowing that the high interest rate hidden in the small print is borderline theft turn around and serve on the church council?
Not all advertising is bad. It functions well and plays an important role in society when it is available and informative. It oversteps its welcome when it becomes intrusive and constant and inescapable.