Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
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Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#2I remember a while back seeing an ad for smart toilets. Somewhat intrigued, I googled for them and found that a good many of them cost several grand.
I remember thinking "who the hell are they advertising to?" No average person is going to spend that money on a smart toilet, and I'm sure even the upper middle class has better purchases to make in that price range.
Also I've noticed everything in commercials is so idyllic. A nice house in a beautiful setting, with a functional family. People just buying each other cars as Christmas gifts. It's kinda distressing to realize that most people, including myself will never have this (in part, because I dont think it exists)
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#3I remember a while back seeing an ad for smart toilets. Somewhat intrigued, I googled for them and found that a good many of them cost several grand. I remember thinking "who the hell are they advertising to?" No average person is going to spend that money on a smart toilet, and I'm sure even the upper middle class has better purchases to make in that price range. Also I've noticed everything in commercials is so idy…
There are people in the middle class that I call "uni-purchasers". They buy one very expensive thing, and that's their "thing" that they spend their limited amounts of money on. They give up on medium-level experiences and draw everything else to a minimum to get the thing they really want.
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#4I remember a while back seeing an ad for smart toilets. Somewhat intrigued, I googled for them and found that a good many of them cost several grand. I remember thinking "who the hell are they advertising to?" No average person is going to spend that money on a smart toilet, and I'm sure even the upper middle class has better purchases to make in that price range. Also I've noticed everything in commercials is so idy…
That stuff exists, it just costs a lot of money. Well, except for a functional family, money can't buy that. Want a house that looks clean and perfectly staged all the time? Hire a full-time cleaner to come every day and sweep, pick up, do the dishes, etc.
The lie in those commercials is that their target audience can never afford something like that. So in a sense, you're right, they're showing "you" what you can never have.
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#5I spent a lot of time in Vermont many years ago. I'd been there a little while, blissfully unaware, before someone told me "yeah, they banned billboards here in the sixties - you didn't notice?" I hadn't consciously noticed, no, but I'd spent my time there until that comment driving around stunned at how beautiful the place was. Now I knew the reason for that (well, partial reason - billboards or not, it's a pretty part of the world, especially in summer and fall).
I've thought a lot about that billboard ban ever since, and I'm convinced it enabled a measure of calm in me.
I'm not sure how much I buy the study talked about in the OP's article - spurious correlation strikes me as a possibility - but the intuition about advertising is spot-on, I think. It'd cool if our societies had more ad-free spaces.
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#6that's how you know that the advertising is working
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#7Isn't that the primary goal of most advertising? To create a dissatisfaction in people in such a way that they're driven to buy your product in an attempt to fill that void?
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#8This reminds me of an anecdote a friend told me: This friend dedicates his time in going to very rural areas/towns here in Mexico to implement government programs.
At some point in the past he got to a town were the cantina had just gotten the only TV in town... apparently people in the town were generally happy, and they had everything they needed... so in their view they were not poor.
But once they started watching TV, they started seeing the Nikes, the fridges, the trips to Europe and all that "stuff" that they couldn't get... and there they started to ask why couldnt they get all that and thus started feeling poor.
Amazing what advertising can do for perceived "needs"
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#9the goal of advertising is to make you want something you don't have. QED
Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction
#10This reminds me of an anecdote a friend told me: This friend dedicates his time in going to very rural areas/towns here in Mexico to implement government programs. At some point in the past he got to a town were the cantina had just gotten the only TV in town... apparently people in the town were generally happy, and they had everything they needed... so in their view they were not poor. But once they started watchin…
Another personal anecdote: once I stopped watching TV I stopped feeling self conscious about driving a 10+ year old car, and no longer yearned to buy a new one.