The Culture of Advertising (Sofiah Sexton)
The purpose of advertising is to persuade one to purchase the advertised product, right? What tools of persuasion are used to prompt the desired behavior? Most of what I have seen in the nearly seven decades I’ve been exposed to commercials involves manipulation of individuals by appealing to the passions and desires–mainly fear, lust, envy, and the desire to feel desirable or superior. The random target strike is based on statistical measure of past “success,” based on the rise of sales of the product, and sometimes on the results of surveys. I have seen many changes in the content of commercial in my years of experience.
The above advertisement was cute and probably appealed to parents, grandparents, and people who fondly remembered childhood pleasures. The jingle was catchy and made the name of the product memorable.
As our fashions, styles, and worldviews change; the commercials’ content change to meet the appeal to current viewers and subscribers. I imagine the only people who would be reached by this commercial in today’s society would be those who are old enough to remember the clip and are pleased to indulge in a moment of nostalgia.
Today’s commercials are probably designed to appeal to target audiences based on surveys, questionnaires, sales statistics following the showing of previously published/aired advertisements. The appeal appears to reach audiences in baser ways than in the past, some rather realistic looking, others maybe outrageously impossible, depending on the target audience.
Another aspect of this phenomenon is the source of the expression. I would imagine that most commercial ads arise strictly from the heart and mind—designed to persuade consumers to purchase the product which is being advertised. Culture arising from the soul, which would encourage individuals to worship God, might not be conducive to utilization of material forces. Or would it? Advertising which touches the soul might encourage wiser decisions and higher living standards in the commercial world. So, who would produce such culture in advertising? And would it be effective?
The ads of modern times seem even further removed from humanity than previous commercials. The first ads I remember seeing in my seventy-six years were for cigarettes, soaps, appliances, cars, and alcoholic drinks. Cigarettes are no longer advertised since a connection to lung cancer was discovered and lawsuits and laws prohibiting such ads were enacted. Some of the ciggie ads featured macho men on horses, wearing cowboy hats, boots, and even chaps; or sophisticated seductresses wearing slinky black dresses—clearly appealing to fantasies of desirable self-images. Alcoholic drinks are still advertised, but the lone drinker of hard liquor, standing beside the fireplace, wearing a smoking jacket, has been replaced by social gatherings such as tailgate parties sharing a keg or cans of beer in stuffed coolers with grilled burgers and hot dogs and much laughter and loud repartee. Soaps used to feature smiling housewives in house dresses hanging brightly laundered clothing on the clothesline with pride. Now, hand soaps might encourage men to be healthy for themselves and sexy smelling for their significant others. To my mind, the commercials of today express power, one-up-man-ship, competition, sexual “liberty,” and other such “realities” of the modern world.
How do you think advertising reflects our culture has changed? Would you like to share your observations? Does advertising need to stick to heart and mind and nafsu engagement for effective purchasing persuasion?
(See Sofiah Sexton’s culture map.)
I’d love to see utilization of advertising which touches the soul and ‘might encourage wiser decisions and higher living’ myself…
Not the nafsu propoganda and materialistic, subliminal ‘evil’…
As a still struggling Elder musician, I am interested in the topic of “soulful marketing” to complement, in my case, what I hope is “soulful music”, or music that touches the soul of the listener, and, hopefully, produces some income. Bapak was pretty clear about the value and impact of true, or inner culture. My struggle is with getting it out there. It is possible and not too difficult to reach people via Youtube-it will be easier when the virus ends and people can attend live concerts, theatre, etc. I would appreciate any support with soulful marketing if someone is interested. lucashille234@gmail.com
Since i was a teenager or younger, i’ve trained myself to ignore adverts – in fact seeing a advert for anything will immediately give it a ‘demerit’ when i look for a product that performs its function 🙂 —- cannot stand TV for its advert interruption (have not subscribed to cable or commercial TV in probably 20 years as kids no longer needed) — all adverts are from the heart & mind & aimed at the hearts & minds of others—it’s all nafsu (passions) —- ‘spiritual’ or ‘soul’ adverts are impossible–an oxymoron—A brother once boasted to IBU that he was maybe bringing people to worship God by playing the Pied Piper in a coffee commercial 🙂 She laughed & said, “You are bringing people to worship coffee.” 🙂 —- i can count on one hand the number of TV commercials i’ve seen that are not dumb, inane, pandering, or a waste of time —– LSMFT still strikes a pleasant note however as it sponsored the great Jack Benny show….& of all the straight ciggies Luckies was the best 🙂
The Pied Piper anecdote made me laugh. Thank you for sharing that one! And Jack Benny was the best. Did you ever hear the radio piece he did with Jascha Heifetz? Absolutely hilarious. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZ4KhYr-Hw&t=2s
wonderful & thoughtful article thank Sofiah.. the culture map is hanging on my wall. who would have thought we could map our own culture? fabulous. As a participant in making a few commercials it’s usually more fun that watching them.
Thank you, Sofiah! A very interesting and touching post, and that kid who sang the song for Oscar Mayer was something else! Brought back memories in a good way.
Hi Sofiah! My take on this is fairly negative I fear. “Ads [at least as commonly understood] that touch the jiwa” sounds like an oxymoron to me. I enjoyed TV ads as a kid; it’s amazing how many jingles my memory retains. But I don’t recall ever being strongly moved to buy a product because I saw an ad for it; moved to try it maybe, but not STRONGLY moved. Or is this wishful recall? I’m pretty sure that by my teens I’d begun to indoctrinate myself against ads. My first wife and I definitely indoctrinated our kids against them. And my skepticism has now turned to disgust in most cases. I enjoy some ads for their humor, their beauty, even their music (though I wish Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” were protected by copyright). And I even value some of the products so advertised, and even a few companies, but not because of their ads. I recall reading in 1969 (already in Subud) one of Bennett’s books, probably “Concerning Subud,” in which he said, roughly, “Advertising is today’s black magic.” This has stuck with me. And you may not know that one of the creators of modern advertising was Freud’s nephew-in-law, Edward Bernays, who came to U.S. in the 1920s with a lot of Freudian “mod cons” about triggering people’s unconscious responses. There are books about this (I really should read Vance Packard’s oldie, “The Hidden Persuaders”). All this being said, I think advertising could be a good thing if 1) it were limited to providing accurate info about the uses and availability of products and services, and 2) most people who sell, or produce for sale, were not motivated by greed, so that few products and services that harm people (e.g. alcohol, tobacco, sex, oversugared anything) would be on offer. I think that condition (1) may’ve been largely met, at least at the corporate level, before Bernays; think of the old Sears (RIP) catalogs, which sold among other things cheap and excellent prefab houses. And, leaving aside traveling purveyors of snake oil etc., who’ve probably always existed, it may even be true that before the industrial revolution, people who sold products and services–e.g. members of medieval guilds–were mainly honest, hard working, even competent, and did not imagine, as such do today, that their enterprises must grow or die. Perhaps in those times such folks “advertised” only their names and the products or services they offered. Or maybe I’m imagining a past that never was. But plainly today, the corporations–the majority of them–somehow enshrine and live by fantasies of infinite growth and infinite wealth, and in striving for the impossible destroy the planet. I fear the only cures involve outer destruction and suffering, and inner reform through God’s grace. But, we in Subud have a chance to live in a better way. Well, I made my response an essay. Sorry if it’s a bummer. –Theo Richard
Hi again Sofiah– I should’ve added that in my long comment my intent was not to shoot you down. You may be on to something–especially if you had in mind how to “advertise” Subud, i.e. inform people that we’re here without proselytizing. I do have an open mind on this and most topics, and await further developments. Thanks. –Theo