The PBS documentary The Persuaders criticized advertisers for deceptive and destructive practices. For example, one of its experts argued "once a culture becomes entirely advertising-friendly, it ceases to be a culture at all."
Well, I find consumerism and commercials as obnoxious as the next person -- probably more; I don't watch TV -- but this expert's quote seems more catchy than helpful. I suppose once a culture becomes entirely friendly to anything, it loses some culture since dissenting voices disappear. But that's obvious enough; so, what the expert really seems to be saying is something like: "The more friendly to advertising a culture becomes, the less of a culture it is."
That doesn't seem true to me. Isn't advertising just part of particular cultures? I hate to assume I know what the expert "really" means, but taking the entire documentary as context, it seems what the guy really wanted to get across was that advertising, at least enough of it, is bad.
I think advertising's "bad," too. I wish advertisers would spend more time articulating why their particular product is better than others instead of trying to make the consumer feel a spiritual bond with their product. I wish advertising wasn't everywhere (the documentary mentioned ads placed inside golf holes) so I could look at more interesting things and not feel bombarded by other people's messages. But I don't think -- as the documentary seemed to want me to -- that advertising sinks hooks into my subconscious that it uses to pull me to inevitably do certain things. I'm sure advertising influences me to some degree, and I definitely think the emphasis on consumption in the United States takes our attention away from more important things, but why place all the blame on the advertisers? They wouldn't have the means to advertise if it weren't for the people buying their products.
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I am not a big TV watcher myself, if I did watch TV, I would have to buy the Tivo option for fear of drowning in the sea of commercials.I do watch stations like CNN, Fox, and local, and Saturday evening a story surfaced that was so unbelievable, my eyes were glued.
I believe it was CNN that reported that the coffee shop on every corner was slowly spiraling downward, losing profits, depleting in the stock market. A company that was undefeatable in my eyes, Starbucks.
This empire has grown out of control over the past several years, it is completely unstoppable. As this fresh new idea surfaced all over the world, people embraced it. There was a point at which you were unique if you drank Starbucks, now you are unique if you don’t.
As stated in the posting: “I suppose once a culture becomes entirely friendly to anything, it loses some culture since dissenting voices disappear,” and this statement seems to have proven true in the media, to one of the largest most successful companies in the history of the US.
Customers argued that they walk through the store parade down an aisle of cd’s, coffee cups, mugs, muffins, fruit, sandwiches, candies and chocolates and then finally get to what they are really in search of, their coffee.
Starbucks seemed to have gone down a path that is not new and different, but commercial. And never in my 22 years did I think Starbucks would be downsizing, even dominated by the “mom and pop” coffee shop across the street.
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