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Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#101

Post by lotsofpulp »

JohnFen wrote: post #83
lotsofpulp wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Excluding fancy schools (which I believe aren't exactly a good thing), none of those things were inspired by "aspiration" in the sense being used here. They were inspired by genuine need. Is sending out status signals to attract a mate or business partners a genuine need?

That depends on what mean by "status signals". If you mean attending a fancy school or owning trendy stuff, then no. Most people manage to attract mates and get business partners without doing that.

I was trying to point out the nebulousness of the term "genuine need". The fact that fancy schools and trendy stuff exist must be providing some utility. Of course, some more than others.

For example, "fancy" (I assume you are referring to selective schools) provide the utility of providing an easy way to discriminate between those who have the traits to get into those schools vs those who don't. Seeing as how they have vastly higher levels of economic success, I can only conclude it's definitely providing utility that someone wants (or "needs").

Similarly with fancy cars or whatnot, it can serve as a proxy to quickly ascertain someone's socioeconomic status. Obviously, a copy of one's credit report and statement of accounts serves a better purpose, but it's not the recommended method for various reasons.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#102

Post by tartoran »

JohnFen wrote: post #30
jbob2000 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When I started my first business, a mentor gave me advice along these lines: identify the two or three pieces of equipment that are truly key to your business, and go high-end on those. Everything else should be as cheap as possible.

Generally I agree. It is important to know though, that there's a thin line between high end and luxury-brand where you pay a lot of money for the latter.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#103

Post by slumdev »

teekert wrote: post #31
cm2012 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should strive to take away the option of knowledge from the poor, so they can be happy with their place in society.

Maybe we can just create a lower underclass that we make too stupid to care for growth by subjecting them to alcohol during pregnancy and provide them with drugs that will simply allow them to be content by being.

FAS is correlated with low socioeconomic status of the parent(s). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3860552/

Likewise, poor educational outcomes not caused by FAS are also correlated with low socioeconomic status of the parent(s). And we already have the "content by being" drugs -- tobacco, alcohol, and television.

If that doesn't look like a permanent underclass that we're snowing with Soma, I don't know what would.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#105

Post by eloff »

ptah wrote: post #62
eloff wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another example, Apartheid South Africa got TV in 1976, six months later the riots started, coincidence? I think as soon as black people in South Africa could see how black people in America lived, they truly realized how bad they had it. Here it contributed to the undoing of an unjust government, so it's not always a force for evil. I think the most dangerous thing to North Korea is western media. I know the South K…

anti-apartheid struggle started way earlier though. TV may have helped break some of the propaganda of the government

I don't doubt it.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#106

Post by nickelcitymario »

JohnFen wrote: post #77
nickelcitymario wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We could not possible disagree more. I think it is straight-up immoral for anyone to intentionally make another's life worse in order to sell them stuff. I'm not sure we disagree, actually. I think you may be misunderstanding my meaning. When I tell you about a product, a number of things are happening: 1. If I'm successful in getting you to want the product, I've created (or emphasized an existing) dissatisfaction…

> I've given you the knowledge of a solution to your problem. But you've given a "solution" (that involves separating me from my money) to a problem that you created in the first place. I don't see how that's a good thing. > And yet, I'm willing to bet you wouldn't consider those ads to be evil, would you? "Evil" isn't the word I'd use. "Immoral" is. If a charitable organization is using ads that are intentionally tr…

> But you've given a "solution" (that involves separating me from my money) to a problem that you created in the first place.

When did I create a problem? Yes, some advertising invents nonexistent problems and I thought I was clear that this shit is evil. That's a different thing from saying "that headache you have sucks, doesn't it? here's some tylenol"

> No, you wouldn't, because doing so will make people unhappy, not happy.

Way to miss the point, dude.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#107

Post by kerkeslager »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #35
wpietri wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. This is classic POSIWID: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha... People mainly buy things to solve problems, to end negative feelings. So if you want people to buy things, the obvious solution is to create negative feelings that can be ended by spending money on your product. The most obvious example is of course addictive products. Just when we were finally weaning society of nicotin…

Public relations != advertising. Ed Bernays != spokesperson for all PR professionals. There are shady people in every industry.

> Public relations != advertising.

Not a distinction I care to make. The problems with both are fundamentally the same.

> Ed Bernays != spokesperson for all PR professionals.

Okay, but all PR professionals and advertisers are trying to manipulate people. That is literally the job. Everyone else in the industry has the same goals--Bernays may have been willing to do more unscrupulous things to achieve those goals, but the goals are fundamentally unscrupulous.

> There are shady people in every industry.

But some industries, the purpose of the industry itself is shady. Advertising and PR are such industries.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#108

Post by nickelcitymario »

ganzuul wrote: post #38
nickelcitymario wrote: post #28

I'm gonna take the contrarian viewpoint here. Full disclosure: I'm in advertising. The researcher states that increasing "aspiration" (their term) leads to dissatisfaction and more unhappiness. Sure! But aspiration is also why we invented the wheel, harnessed fire, founded fancy schools like Harvard, try to be good parents, etc. I don't disagree that ambition and aspiration can make a person unhappy. But it's also wh…

Name one advertising agency which has honesty as one of its core precepts.

Petryna Advertising, my agency. Thanks for coming out.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#109

Post by nickelcitymario »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #55
nickelcitymario wrote: post #28

I'm gonna take the contrarian viewpoint here. Full disclosure: I'm in advertising. The researcher states that increasing "aspiration" (their term) leads to dissatisfaction and more unhappiness. Sure! But aspiration is also why we invented the wheel, harnessed fire, founded fancy schools like Harvard, try to be good parents, etc. I don't disagree that ambition and aspiration can make a person unhappy. But it's also wh…

A lot of surreal coping and rationalization going on here. Comparing aspiration in "advertising" to inventing the wheel and harnessing fire??? Jesus Christ, man. What bizzaro world do you have to be in this say something like this? Oh, right: the advertising industry.

What bizarro world do you have to live in to think advertising is what's wrong with the world?

Oh right: the tech industry. The one that thinks everything it does is going to change the world for the better.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#110

Post by newnewpdro »

nkrisc wrote: post #4
non-entity wrote: post #2

I 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 ne…

The traditional home with a stay at home housewife readily delivers this result. I was raised in one, growing up all my childhood friends would visit once and never want to return saying things like "your house is like a museum, everything's clean and you're not allowed to touch anything or make any noise." Which didn't bother me one bit, I wanted to play at other homes anyways, they were absolutely correct, it was miserably dull.
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