Playing With Our Minds

Everyone has seen advertisement on TV. We see it, it registers into our brains and then we do or do not do something about it. I, like many people in the world, fall into the group of I want everything I see on TV. I think it is horrible that I let advertisement take the place of what I should really feel. From the apartment I rent to the car I drive, it feels like I am not good enough to please anyone or myself. Due to my strong negative feelings towards advertisement, I believe that no one should have any influence on one’s psyche. Dr. Kanner made very strong arguments in his paper regarding how advertisement plays with people’s emotions and minds; from using GPS system to Google and finding out what people are searching and then putting advertisement to try to sell them things. “Using Built-in links to the global positioning system(GPS), smart-phones such as the iPhone and Blackberry can now track individuals down to the street corner on which they stand” (par. 3). Dr. Kanner also argues that because of the advertisement that people are shown every day, it changes their buying habits because their emotions are distorted.

People are told how they should feel and what to do with those feelings. “ By exposing people to thousands of such exquisitely personalized ads, corporate marketing could surreptitiously mold the most meaningful episodes of our lives” (par. 13). Mr. O’Reilly made his argument through a sales person’s point of view. He believes that we as consumers owe the advertisement companies the time to sit and watch their commercials because that is our unwritten side of the contract or deal. Since we get to watch our favorite shows, and the shows need money to operate, it is our responsibility to the industry as a whole to watch their advertisement and then buy their products. “ That’s the basis of the Great Unwritten Contract. The ads underwrite the programs or content you love, you sit through the ads in return” (par. 15). In a sense, he is telling us that we should conform to what those companies want us to be. I strongly disagree with that absurd argument. I strongly agree with Dr. Kanner’s arguments that advertisements play with our emotions and we tend to be manipulated by them and buy things not because we truly wanted to but because we were made to do it by temptation and unclear minds.

I believe that due to that manipulation, the advertisement agencies are writing the direction our lives are taking. “ By exposing people to thousands of such exquisitely personalized ads, corporate marketing could surreptitiously mold the most meaningful episodes of our lives” (par. 13). On the other hand, I strongly disagree with Mr. O’Reilly’s argument that we must watch all the advertisement because it is our part of the contract. We did not agree to the contract. We were told that this is how it is going to be. No thank you. I rather not be brainwashed into being a better, faster, etc… person. I should be happy with who I am and not want to be what other people think I should be. How can we be ourselves when we are constantly told that we should be another way? We are relentlessly told that what we have is not good enough and we should go out and buy the next best thing that will make us thinner, richer, healthier, etc… We should not give advertisers the opportunity to tell us how to live our lives and what we should buy. We need to take our selves back and make our own decisions on how we should turn out to be.

Works Cited

Kanner, Allen. “The Piracy of Privacy: Why Marketers Must Bare Our Souls.” Models for Writers. 11thed. Ed. Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 587-593. O’Reilly, Terry. “ Marketing Ate Our Culture-But It Doesn’t Have To.” Models for Writers. 11th ed. Ed. Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 594-601.