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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

#51

Post by rapnie »

jbob2000 wrote: post #3
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…

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.

Smart toilet not the best example, but I can get tremendous joy from buying something high quality and knowing that this thing could last my entire lifetime.

Buying that product once forever removes my need to crave for an upgrade (unless it breaks, of course).

My 98yr grandma inspired this behavior. She bought her kitchen utensils as a young mother, and used them forever. Her wooden cutting board is now so worn, that its thinned and almost breaks in half. Yet not a hair on her head would want to replace it until that happens.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#52

Post by hogFeast »

This doesn't feel like a very scientific approach. Looking at national satisfaction and then national advertising spend...seems like there would be huge scope for bias regardless of how many controls you put in. In particular, something like individual wellbeing is just that...individual. Really very tricky (and as always you see the researcher give out ludicrously unjustified advice to individuals...if you go to a psychologist and tell them you are unhappy, they don't ask how many adverts you saw recently).

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#53

Post by s5fs »

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…

Human aspiration is built-in, we don't need help via advertising to desire more from life. Everyone seems to have adopted fire and the wheel without a marketing campaign, after all.

Advertising may not be inherently bad, but given the scope and scale of modern advertising, one has to admit that we've gone too far. Google tells me we see about 5,000 ads per day, do you consider this a good or a bad thing? As a representative of your industry I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#55

Post by Dirlewanger »

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.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#56

Post by eloff »

zbyte64 wrote: post #45
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…

They probably got more of their aspirations from sitcoms featuring black families and less from advertisements.

Yes, I suspect so, I was speaking about TV in general, not advertisements, which could be confusing given the posted article.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#57

Post by vanderZwan »

banads wrote: post #7

Isn'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?

Honestly, I think the researchers are being much too diplomatic when marketing people have been quite open about how, for example, they manage to sell more toys by teaching children to nag their parents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMDPql6rweo

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#58

Post by kittiepryde »

apatters wrote: post #29
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.

We should strive to lie less to the poor about what they need to possess.

Like access to health care?

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#60

Post by greeneggs »

cm2012 wrote: post #20
xtracto wrote: post #8

This 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…

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

Yes, inequality only makes people unhappy if it is visible. Ergo, instead of asking developers to incorporate affordable housing, we should be encouraging more gated compounds.

I could put a /s here, but it could well be literally true.

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