Money Wars II:
A simple motive, but possibly very hard to implement, would be to try to control the effects of popular culture. The times and the culture dictate to us how we should live. People have a need to conform, and they will try to be like everyone else. The culture tells you how to act, how to think, and what to buy.
A business exists to sell a product. In order to get their product some recognition, they advertise. But how do they advertise? Do they run down how well their product works, tastes, saves time? Do they show you how advantageous it is over others? The answer to both is: sometimes. But those ads don’t work as well as they should because few people actually listen to those infomercials, where you can get anything for $19.95 plus shipping and handling, and the “Quicker Pickeruper” just isn’t really trend setting. Most mainstream commercials prey on the sense of cool, the need for hip, and call on you to conform. They use pop music, movie stars and super models, and idiotic comedy. Getting people to buy things is trying to set a trend, and if Cindy Crawford wears it, then, by God, it must be in. No judgments on the product, just “in-ness.” If the consumer thinks it’s cool, they’ll buy it. It is just generating the image that is “cool”, that’s all there is to marketing. Preying on a need to conform, exploiting your impulses, that’s all advertising is.
Solution:
Um, get rid of it? Ban any advertising that uses plays on your trend necessity. If it is not telling about the help a product can provide or the pluses of a product, then censor it. Don’t let it air; don’t let it be put on a billboard. Sure, all your great commercials during the Super Bowl are nixed, sorry Budweiser. What will they do to fill all that extra space? Gee, I don’t know, how about playing? It won’t happen, ads will never be just informative. No one will watch any of them, kitchen run anyone? Maybe the ads will all be so dull that people will call for their elimination. And maybe, just maybe, they might get rid of almost all of those annoying commercials. Baseball games, all sports events, will be shorter. Sitcoms will be longer; there will be more drama and comedy, great for the viewer. The termination of advertising will eliminate the compulsions to buy unnecessary stuff; thus curbing the possessionist needs of the people.
Sure, pop culture will suffer huge hits from not being able to brainwash people by airing its trends on television. But is this a bad thing? People need to start thinking for themselves anyway, why not eliminate, or at least limit, one of the major individuality stripping forces out there. Trendiness is not truly valued, who cares what brand of clothes you’re wearing, just as long as you’re wearing some that aren’t tattered and holey. Trying to convey that doing things just because everyone else is will help to limit the need for possessions. You won’t need to be like everyone else, so you can think individually and decide if you really need those new Jordans.