A talk on advertising.

I was reading an article in my textbook - "A talk on advertising" . The author highly critisices advertising and calls advertisers cheaters who make money by cheating other people. I felt this is kinda true. I am not saying all advertisers cheaters though. There are many ads which misled people. Some ads depict the entire world to be full of problems and buying their product is the only way to be happy. Some use psycological intimidation. In some bad things happen to those who are not using the product. I think advertising has gone too far and needs reforms.

There is a typo in your footer -> Einstien ==> Einstein (or maybe Einstien said the same :wink:

Ghandi said: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”

Don't get me started. Like those annoying funeral expenses insurance ads, praying on the idea that a funeral has to cost $1000s, heck you can be cremated for little more than lunch money.


Rob

On the other hand I love the creativity of some commercials like this one - Commercial Centraal Beheer, Skieen - YouTube -

He he, yes TV ads are some of the funniest vision around.


Rob

I love funny ads too. I always watch them on the internet. XD

You might want to read this chomsky.info : The Noam Chomsky Website. The real challenge is to detect all the creepy and indirect versions of advertising that are served as "news" or "facts" or sometimes even as laws.

Sounds like the writer of that book has a particular political axe to grind. Advertising is just an attempt to create a desire in a potential customer.

We ALL do it. (or have done it) Think about DATING! We clean ourselves up and try to fit some image we think will attract those of the opposite sex. We behave in certain ways, we dress in a certain way, we speak in a certain way.

Some advertising makes use of the potential customers ignorance. The sad thing is, that for many of thoise customers the same approach works over and over and over. You would think that people would learn from past results, but in many cases they seem to be too stupid to learn. So it would appear that they make a choice to remain ignorant and easily swindled. So it would appear that the advertiser that uses that approach is only doing what those individuals want him to do. If people weren't choosing to make use of the Payday Loans swindles (and some of them do it again and again) then the payday loan folks would go out of business. As is they prosper because of the number of people that choose to stay stupid.

How many poor people buy their lottery tickets every week? Where is most of the advertising for lottery tickets? After a while it gets to where you don't feel sorry for the suckers anymore...

After a while it gets to where you don't feel sorry for the suckers anymore...

Some advertising will make you fall together with the suckers even if you know better. Example: the US advertises their TSA security and a lot of people still seem to think that it makes flying safer. Unfortunately the security theater is not only a waste of US tax dollars but also of my time. However if I have to fly and there are still not enough people who get it I have to bear this every time you enter or leave the US. For me it is the number 1 reason to avoid US airports whenever I can. But in the end I would appreciate it a lot if the majority would get the points of leading security experts e.g. Congressional Testimony on the TSA - Schneier on Security.

Maybe OT, maybe not, I posted a link to a Turnigy 9X radio in response to a thread elsewhere on the forum, I haven't used the radio myself and suggested that others should do their own research. Anyway, since that day almost every site I visit on the web is plaguing me with links to this damn radio.

I haven't used it, I didn't make a flat out recommendation, some people actually responded and said they had quality problems with the radio, but now there it is every day on every site I visit.

Duane.

Graynomad:
Don't get me started. Like those annoying funeral expenses insurance ads, praying on the idea that a funeral has to cost $1000s, heck you can be cremated for little more than lunch money.

The funeral business is a serious racket; until I had to have my mother buried (fortunately for me, it was all pre-paid years ago), I never realized the possibilities and "products" available for burial (and cremation).

For instance, you can still get a pine-wood casket - as well as a cardboard one! Of course, they don't call them caskets; I forget the term, but it had more than three syllables and sounded hokey. I couldn't believe the prices of the urns for cremains (what they call your "ashes" - which are not really ash-like, from what I understand, and I also tend to wonder if your relatives get all of them - and whether others are "mixed in"); some of them were as much as a casket! Then there was the jewelry and sculptures, etc.

Major racket, at a time when many people can't say "no" - though a good funeral home/mortuary/mortician/etc won't pressure you into anything; but they lay it out pretty slick-like, certainly.

Probably the cheapest way to go (?) would be to become a body donor for science. I'm already an organ donor; I'm still thinking about becoming a body donor or something like that (contemplated donating to BodyWorlds, after seeing the exhibit here in Phoenix).

DuaneB:
Maybe OT, maybe not, I posted a link to a Turnigy 9X radio in response to a thread elsewhere on the forum, I haven't used the radio myself and suggested that others should do their own research. Anyway, since that day almost every site I visit on the web is plaguing me with links to this damn radio.

I haven't used it, I didn't make a flat out recommendation, some people actually responded and said they had quality problems with the radio, but now there it is every day on every site I visit.

Duane.

Yeah - that's happening to me currently; I'm getting ads for that and other R/C stuff after doing a bunch of googling and hitting up the HobbyKing site, when I was looking for a 4-channel receiver for a 4-channel Airtronics FM transmitter I found at goodwill (ended up getting a receiver and crystal to match the transmitter's crystal off ebay; it's not legal in the US to change transmitter xtal's).

Hi,
I think it was visiting HobbyKing that did it for me also, they must be paying google a lot, the ad is everywhere I go.

Duane B

I couldn't believe the prices of the urns for cremains...some of them were as much as a casket!

My Dad's "cremains" were put in a plastic box and express posted to where I was. There was no separate cost for the box but the whole procedure cost $1600, not exactly lunch money but not a fortune either.

at a time when many people can't say "no"

I can, naturally I was upset but that didn't intrude into my thought process enough to allow me to be ripped off. And woe betide anyone that tries to lay a guilt trip on me because I didn't get the gold handles.

become a body donor for science.

My Dad tried that, but there were several technicalities that thwarted him, including that you had to live within 50k of the hospital or something like that, and he was away from home at the time.

The bottom line is that if you really don't care about such things the authorities will have to do something with you and you don't have to spend a cent, for myself I can handle that but I wanted my Dad's ashes (let's be charitable and assume that's what I got) to spread on our land.

Yeah I know, I'm a sentimental fool.

it's not legal in the US to change transmitter xtal's).

Isn't that how you avoid conflict at an RC meeting? At least in the days before digital transmitters.


Rob