The average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertising messages each day, with people who spend a lot of time online or live in major cities being exposed to even more. Heck, you are being exposed to advertising just by reading this blog!
It’s one thing to see an advertisement and be able to click on it or choose to ignore it. But advertisements become much harder to ignore when they contain sound, as they do in radio and television.
Have you ever been watching a television program and all of a sudden the volume seems to increase exponentially despite the fact that you did not touch the remote? Well, that’s a trick that advertisers are using to hook your attention. They are also injecting fear and emotional speech to hook you even deeper. Even if you think you are not paying attention to the commercials, the advertising messages are taking up space in your subconscious as they play in the background.
The effect of receiving these audible messages is that you begin to want things. You may want the products being advertised or you may want the lifestyle suggested by the commercials. Furthermore, you may even feel inadequate because you do not have the product or lifestyle being advertised. It’s important to remember that these advertising messages are designed to get you to spend money and they do a great job at this. If they didn’t, advertisers would not continue to run such costly commercials.
Not every woman receives a brand new Mercedes with a bow on it for Christmas. In fact, outside of a few very unique enclaves on the coasts, very few people receive such extravagant gifts. Similarly, most men cannot afford the “three month salary” engagement ring, a guideline conveniently invented by the DeBeers diamond cartel. These are “norms” created by advertisers to guilt consumers into buying expensive goods.
Advertising serves a purpose and that purpose is to get consumers to spend money and buy products. Pressing “mute” during commercials can significantly reduce the number of advertising messages that reach your brain, causing you to spend less money.
