A little while ago somebody posted quite a severe criticism of advertising in general on the "Fashion" thread.  I think the impression was that advertising causes youngsters to spend money amongst other things on all sorts of unnecessary fashions in clothes, hair styles and colours, piercings, and other extravaganzas.

I intended to reply to that post but other things took precedence. I have looked for that post 3 times but cannot now find it.  Either I keep missing it, or maybe it has been deleted !

Since I was young, so many things have changed - and keep on changing even more rapidly now.  I don't remember much in the way of advertising in England all those years ago.  Of course there were no computers or even TV sets and even radio was in its infancy and without commercial broadcasts.  Postage and printing was relatively expensive.  The only thing I vaguely remember is some large billboards in or approaching the big cities. 

Nowadays I believe advertising is an enormous giant 'industry' involving billions of dollars world wide. 

I personally greatly dislike advertising.  AFAIK, I am not affected by it in any way either for good or for bad - it is simply a total waste of time, money, natural resources, efforts, etc. etc. 

The myriad of computer advertisements leave me absolutely cold.  They are simply an annoyance but they can easily be deleted, erased, or avoided and waste little time or money. 

As far as our cable TV is concerned we have an external hard disc enables us to record everything and play it back at any time convenient to us rather than at the convenience of the channel companies.  As a result we  very fast forward  skip over **ALL** commercials and advertisements.  Similarly with any commercial radio broadcasts.

The thing that **REALLY** bugs me is the fact that our physical post box is full every day with tons of junk mail which goes direct into our trash can without even looking at it.  A lot of it is printed in very expensive colours on all sorts of extremely sophisticated types of paper &/or plastics.

IMHO this is a horrendous waste of money, work, and particularly resources.  I don't know how many other people do exactly what I do but although I am not really an active environmentalist or "Green" (despite my name), , it pains me to think of the trees cut down in order to furnish this sheer shocking waste  which is despoiling our only planet (as yet !) earth !!! 

a simple 'no advertising' label on the letter box does the trick at my place.

Also no innocent trees are harmed due to excess paper production.

The excess trees used by the paper industry wouldn't have existed if less paper would've been produced

Unfortunately, without the revenue raised from selling advertising space, there would be no free-to-air television stations making all those delightful TV shows made using money from the sale of advertising time.

And all the print media would likewise be non-existent without advertising revenue.  What is fascinating is to see how the industry has evolved from merely announcing the existence of a product to using psychology to influence not just buying behaviour but society's values.   

And hasn't society changed its attitudes?

The Soda Pop Board of America.... haha!

 Back in my younger days I used to actually be the person who stuffed peoples mailboxes full of advertisement. Ah, the life of a paperboy.

Anyway, advertisement is a bit of a necessary evil in today's society. A lot of things that we take for granted are at least partially funded by advertisement. Here in Stockholm, there is a lot of advertisement in our subways and on our busses, but that also helps keep ticket prices down a little bit, and I would much rather have the current level of advertisement than higher prices.

Also, advertisement can be useful from time to time. Book sales, new exhibitions in a museums and so on, I would never find out about those if it were not for them advertising in the local newspaper, or in the subway. Most of it I just block out though, there is so much advertisement everywhere that my mind just sorts out the vast majority of it automatically. 

All my life and to the best of my conscious ability I have avoided ANYTHING to do with advertising - I have got by pretty well nevertheless !

I do not think that advertising has influenced what toothpaste I use, what foods to eat, what air conditioner or car to buy, what airline to travel on, what locations to holiday in, etc., etc.

You may say that I have been influenced subliminally - I can't tell.  AFAIK, I make my own personal evaluations , decide and then go ahead - I really don't think that I've made any MAJOR errors in choice without the jingles, * phrases; and exaggerations (and sometimes downright lies) of advertisers !

My apologies to anybody who is involved in any way in that line of business - and that includes the oldest of my 11 grandchildren (now 35, married and expecting her first child in 2 months time) who has a 2nd degree in 'Business' and is a marketing executive here for a very large international company !

**EDITED((

My wife Sylvia corrected about a dozen & a half typos (due to my failing sight) 

I  DONM'T  SUPPOSE  THERE  IS  A  SPELL-CHECKER  CONTAINED  IN  THESE  FORUMS ??

I'm always surprised at the poor quality of so many television commercials and say thank heaven for the mute button.  You'd think that with all the money the advertisers are spending to promote their products that they'd try harder to get their messages across in unique and clever ways.  A few get it right, such as Geico and the old Bud Light commercials, but you think there would be more.

Ah Lady Kestel, you pick a few good commercials. Hate the stuff myself, but those were good. However, I have no car so no insurance, and I will not drink Bud. Easy.

Ads try to sell you things you *don't* need. Things you actually need? - there are are no ads for...

Originally Posted By Len Green (27 APR 2012 4:38pm)

All my life and to the best of my conscious ability I have avoided ANYTHING to do with advertising - I have got by pretty well nevertheless !

Not really true.  You have been forced to see advertising on TV and listen to it on the radio and it has been in every newspaper you've ever opened and in every public place you have visited.  So your brain has absorbed some information.  I'll bet if you were asked, you'd be able to name several brands of products you've never used - simply because of the power of advertising.

I do not think that advertising has influenced what toothpaste I use, what foods to eat, what air conditioner or car to buy, what airline to travel on, what locations to holiday in, etc., etc.

I assume your wife has done all your shopping and therefore she will have made the decisions about toothpaste, toilet paper etc.  I'm fairly certain she will have absorbed advertising messages containing information that she will have used to make her purchasing decisions but perhaps as this has been her domain you don't see it as having had any affect upon you.   Yet in that you are wrong. 

Just out of interest, how many computer games have you bought because you learnt about them by reading adverts for them?

. 

Unless you read every trade journal and attend every trade show for virtually every industry on earth, you never see a huge amount of the marketing, advertising, public relations and sales promotion activity that goes on all the time. 

You also don't see all the product testing, consumer focus groups and other forms of market research that advertisers engage in. 

What most average people see is the end product of a long, complex process that results in branding programs and myriad commercial ads through a wide range of media channels. 

Like it or not, advertising has been an essential part of industry, commerce and many other profitable, job/investment/tax-revenue creating ventures for a very long time. 

Even legitimate, charitiable, non-profit organizations rely heavily on advertising to increase awareness of causes, raise funds, recruit volunteers, inform recipients of benefits and educate the public about important matters. 

As for the quality and originality of all that global, multi-tiered advertising activity, well... that is another matter entirely. Most is admittedly hackneyed or tasteless or both.  But even boring, poorly executed copycat ads work as long as the right message reaches the right audience. 

Regarding deceptive advertising practices, we all need to be vigilent in the fight to stop it. We also need to apply common sense and be cautious - especially with today's 24/7 media streams and rapid rise of clever spam / ID-theft cons. 

Here in the USA, we finally have some effective laws against intrusive, abusive telemarketers and debt collectors. But there are still dozens of other annoying, potentially dangerous schemes in play.  So you can never let your guard down. 

Cheers, Terry 

Originally Posted By Caroline (28 APR 2012 1:42am)

Originally Posted By Len Green (27 APR 2012 4:38pm)

All my life and to the best of my conscious ability I have avoided ANYTHING to do with advertising - I have got by pretty well nevertheless !

 

Not really true.  You have been forced to see advertising on TV and listen to it on the radio and it has been in every newspaper you've ever opened and in every public place you have visited.  So your brain has absorbed some information.  I'll bet if you were asked, you'd be able to name several brands of products you've never used - simply because of the power of advertising.

 

I do not think that advertising has influenced what toothpaste I use, what foods to eat, what air conditioner or car to buy, what airline to travel on, what locations to holiday in, etc., etc.

 

I assume your wife has done all your shopping and therefore she will have made the decisions about toothpaste, toilet paper etc.  I'm fairly certain she will have absorbed advertising messages containing information that she will have used to make her purchasing decisions but perhaps as this has been her domain you don't see it as having had any affect upon you.   Yet in that you are wrong. 

 

Just out of interest, how many computer games have you bought because you learnt about them by reading adverts for them?

 

Virtually every single thing and detail you have written about me here is incorrect & wrong - AS  ALWAYS: And not simply wrong & incorrect but the EXACT OPPOSITE OF THE TRUTH !   

Where on earth do you glean your facts and weave your fallacious theories - to say nothing about passing judgement on other people ?
    :*(   

***Caroline***

--QUOTE--

"I'll bet if you were askesked ----------- etc., etc."

I'll take you up on that bet . How much ?  Say a thousand dollars - either USA or Aussie whichever you prefer plus of course expenses for a COMPLETELY neutral unbiased adjudicator !    

Lunchtyime here and I;m starving !

So EXACT chapter ^ verse on you totally incorrect statements) after lunch !

Cherio - hava e good day !

-----

Originally Posted By Caroline (28 APR 2012 1:42am)

Originally Posted By Len Green (27 APR 2012 4:38pm)

All my life and to the best of my conscious ability I have avoided ANYTHING to do with advertising - I have got by pretty well nevertheless !

 

Not really true.  You have been forced to see advertising on TV and listen to it on the radio and it has been in every newspaper you've ever opened and in every public place you have visited.  So your brain has absorbed some information.  I'll bet if you were asked, you'd be able to name several brands of products you've never used - simply because of the power of advertising.

 

I do not think that advertising has influenced what toothpaste I use, what foods to eat, what air conditioner or car to buy, what airline to travel on, what locations to holiday in, etc., etc.

 

I assume your wife has done all your shopping and therefore she will have made the decisions about toothpaste, toilet paper etc.  I'm fairly certain she will have absorbed advertising messages containing information that she will have used to make her purchasing decisions but perhaps as this has been her domain you don't see it as having had any affect upon you.   Yet in that you are wrong. 

 

Just out of interest, how many computer games have you bought because you learnt about them by reading adverts for them?

 

***TV***
******    I never have (and hopefully never will) either seen or listened to advertisements (commercials) on TV
For some reasons (there hangs a tale - but not now) TV stated VERY late here - only in 1966 and in black & white only. For years there was only one non-commercial channel with no advertisements. Only after several years did commercial TV start up.
******    I do not mute the advertisements - I simply fast forward (x 10) whenever they start and hey presto - after just a few seconds on with the program.
******  ***Caroline***  "I assume -----" SHOPPING ---
That is a totally false assumption (and VERY far from the first time !!) :-
******    Sylvia and I have always shopped together - and we dislike shopping intensely and only do it for essentials. No USA "Shop till you drop" for us !
MOst of the food I eat, I choose myself. Neither of us has EVER bought a 'brand-name; article of clothing.
Since her father was a master tailor, she makes a lot of her clothes AND MINE, herself (She is also gifted as an artist and specialises in the not so common "Fabric-Art").
******    ***COmPUTER GAMES)***
I have NEVER - but **Never* ever looked at, let alone read, the adverts for computer games.
I base my purchases EXCLUSIVELY on as many reviews as I can plus comments from players on SEVERAL Quest/Adventure webzines and word of mouth from friends I trust !Never commercials !
******    Similarly for newspaper advertisements.
******    Over the past 3 or 4 years there has been a considerable growth in phone commercials.  If they are recorded I simply put the receiver down immediately.
If it is a human being talking I simply don't wait for the punch line but say "No thank you " and hang up.
------- If I've overlooked any other of your incorrect false claims - I'll add later.

Originally Posted By Terry Penrod (28 APR 2012 2:33am)

. 

 

Unless you read every trade journal and attend every trade show for virtually every industry on earth, you never see a huge amount of the marketing, advertising, public relations and sales promotion activity that goes on all the time. 

 

You also don't see all the product testing, consumer focus groups and other forms of market research that advertisers engage in. 

 

What most average people see is the end product of a long, complex process that results in branding programs and myriad commercial ads through a wide range of media channels. 

 

Like it or not, advertising has been an essential part of industry, commerce and many other profitable, job/investment/tax-revenue creating ventures for a very long time. 

 

Even legitimate, charitiable, non-profit organizations rely heavily on advertising to increase awareness of causes, raise funds, recruit volunteers, inform recipients of benefits and educate the public about important matters. 

 

As for the quality and originality of all that global, multi-tiered advertising activity, well... that is another matter entirely. Most is admittedly hackneyed or tasteless or both.  But even boring, poorly executed copycat ads work as long as the right message reaches the right audience. 

 

Regarding deceptive advertising practices, we all need to be vigilent in the fight to stop it. We also need to apply common sense and be cautious - especially with today's 24/7 media streams and rapid rise of clever spam / ID-theft cons. 

 

Here in the USA, we finally have some effective laws against intrusive, abusive telemarketers and debt collectors. But there are still dozens of other annoying, potentially dangerous schemes in play.  So you can never let your guard down. 

 

Cheers, Terry 

The subject of this thread was "Are adverts good or bad" and not my personal dislike of them - and your post is to the point  i.e. You contend that they are beneficial to society'

I am VERY far from a business person & have no grounding in economics so I can't argue.

It certainly would seem to be weird to say the least if the billions poured into that 'industry' were not of great benefit .

As I have outlined in my previous posts - I personally dislike them and avoid them as much as I possibly can.  Maybe it's the era I (and Sylvia) was born into and the place - I believe that the enormous growth of advertising took place mainly in USA ?!?

As mentioned, we vboth dislike shopping and hate "bargains".

We are neither spartans or paupers and have made a very great numbner of purchases large & small over several decades.

I suppose we must have made  mistakes and almost certainly did not always get the **VERY** best valuefor our money.

But I repeat - we haven't done badly and I don't recall any vital errors.

At any rate,I'm **enormously** thankful for our manifold blessings in life !!   

Reading about advertisements is almost worse than actually seeing them.

Thankfully, I've managed to avoid the constant onslaught of many advertisements by not watching broadcast television and getting a neat (but pricey) little 10.1" Sony Portable Blu-ray player. It has a couple of HDMI outs, WI-FI, three standard USB ports, 7.1 optical audio outs, two mini-USB ports and two stereo mini-phone jacks for earpods.

The BD picture being that small is so beautiful for a private movie viewing (like when I lay down on my side for my Old Man Nap. I prop that thing right in my face so it really is quite, uh, over-used word here - immersive).

Or I can hook it up to friend's mega HD monitors. They are amazed at the sound quality (7.1) and screen resolution (1080p).

So, I usually rent Blu-ray discs or even purchase a few. I dig foreign language films and avoid purchasing dubbed versions - preferring reading the sous-titres. Sometimes I even mute the sound and just read the screenplay.

You see, being a musician brings along the curse of actually hearing the music... and focusing / obsessing on it to analyze orchestrations, rhythms, thematic material, harmonies... all that stuff which - for me - pulls me out of the movie-going experience.

I get so easily distracted by music and lose friends that way: "Earth to Mark. Earth to Mark."

But back to the Subject: I can pretty much tolerate any sort of advertising anywhere I go - airports, subways, city streets, billboards on the Interstate Highways, blimps, etc., but I get really offended when I'm stuck in traffic behind a fire-belching City Bus that features a giant anus (tastefully done, of course) which insists one should buy a certain brand of hemorrhoidal cream for optimum results.

A close second is the brash attorneys (mind, I have great respect for honest, hard-working-for-justice attorneys and I know several) who plaster their Adobe-Shopped likeness on the rear of the same City Buses which asks the questions: "Mangled?" "Tore Up?" "Been Done Wrong?" "Yer Neck Hurt?".

Have you noticed the plethora of medicine ads? There are so many I feel ill just reading the side-effects and trying to pronounce the names:

"Efferpfiefferzocoroxertine pumice tincture" What the hell is that? Gosh, I didn't know I needed that.

Yet I still appreciate advertising that informs me what a product is, what it does, and the level of difficulty for the assembly of that object.

I'm not a good candidate for general-use consumer products. I tend to buy basic cleaning materials (ammonia, bleach, bar soap, toothpaste, floss, booze) and the rest of my meager disposable income is saved up to purchase more keyboard gear. Or truck transmission replacements or lime for the outhouse. Or money to animal shelters and down-and-out folks.

Still - after all is said and done - advertisements can be fun to look at.

Originally Posted By Len Green (28 APR 2012 6:55am)

Originally Posted By Terry Penrod (28 APR 2012 2:33am)

. 

 

Unless you read every trade journal and attend every trade show for virtually every industry on earth, you never see a huge amount of the marketing, advertising, public relations and sales promotion activity that goes on all the time. 

 

You also don't see all the product testing, consumer focus groups and other forms of market research that advertisers engage in. 

 

What most average people see is the end product of a long, complex process that results in branding programs and myriad commercial ads through a wide range of media channels. 

 

Like it or not, advertising has been an essential part of industry, commerce and many other profitable, job/investment/tax-revenue creating ventures for a very long time. 

 

Even legitimate, charitiable, non-profit organizations rely heavily on advertising to increase awareness of causes, raise funds, recruit volunteers, inform recipients of benefits and educate the public about important matters. 

 

As for the quality and originality of all that global, multi-tiered advertising activity, well... that is another matter entirely. Most is admittedly hackneyed or tasteless or both.  But even boring, poorly executed copycat ads work as long as the right message reaches the right audience. 

 

Regarding deceptive advertising practices, we all need to be vigilent in the fight to stop it. We also need to apply common sense and be cautious - especially with today's 24/7 media streams and rapid rise of clever spam / ID-theft cons. 

 

Here in the USA, we finally have some effective laws against intrusive, abusive telemarketers and debt collectors. But there are still dozens of other annoying, potentially dangerous schemes in play.  So you can never let your guard down. 

 

Cheers, Terry 

The subject of this thread was "Are adverts good or bad" and not my personal dislike of them - and your post is to the point  i.e. You contend that they are beneficial to society'

 

I am VERY far from a business person & have no grounding in economics so I can't argue.

 

It certainly would seem to be weird to say the least if the billions poured into that 'industry' were not of great benefit .

 

As I have outlined in my previous posts - I personally dislike them and avoid them as much as I possibly can.  Maybe it's the era I (and Sylvia) was born into and the place - I believe that the enormous growth of advertising took place mainly in USA ?!?

 

As mentioned, we vboth dislike shopping and hate "bargains".

We are neither spartans or paupers and have made a very great numbner of purchases large & small over several decades.

I suppose we must have made  mistakes and almost certainly did not always get the **VERY** best valuefor our money.

But I repeat - we haven't done badly and I don't recall any vital errors.

 

At any rate,I'm **enormously** thankful for our manifold blessings in life !!   

  

   

   

 

Just for the record Len, I think advertising "can" be beneficial to society when done without deception for legitimate products, services, causes, etc. 

It can be and often is also a terribly abused means of communication / persuassion that has earned the industry a bad reputation.

There are just too many dishonest, desperate, greedy people with immediate access to cheap media and the web these days to weed out all the con artists. Plus the cut-throat economy has spawned vicious competition among even the most honest advertisers and media outlets. So everything is getting over-hyped in a 24/7 multimedia din of ads, sales promos, PR campaigns, etc.

Breaking through that clutter has always been a challenge and now, it is nearly impossible without doing something outrageous. 

If you can avoid the majority of that claptrap, good for you. 

Cheers, Terry 

Len said:

I have NEVER - but **Never* ever looked at, let alone read, the adverts for computer games.
I base my purchases EXCLUSIVELY on as many reviews as I can plus comments from players on SEVERAL Quest/Adventure webzines and word of mouth from friends I trust !Never commercials !

But Len, this website is packed with adverts for games.  Most of them don't need to be read - they just announce the existence of a game.   It's impossible to read any thread on this forum without seeing them.  Maybe now that your eyesight is failing you don't notice them but to say that you never see them isn't quite true.  Advertising is everywhere and the shops and markets are filled with advertising.   Even a chalkboard, announcing today's specials left on the pavement outside a cafe is advertising.    

Originally Posted By Caroline (28 APR 2012 1:42am)

Originally Posted By Len Green (27 APR 2012 4:38pm)

All my life and to the best of my conscious ability I have avoided ANYTHING to do with advertising - I have got by pretty well nevertheless !

 

Not really true.  You have been forced to see advertising on TV and listen to it on the radio and it has been in every newspaper you've ever opened and in every public place you have visited.  So your brain has absorbed some information.  I'll bet if you were asked, you'd be able to name several brands of products you've never used - simply because of the power of advertising.

 

I do not think that advertising has influenced what toothpaste I use, what foods to eat, what air conditioner or car to buy, what airline to travel on, what locations to holiday in, etc., etc.

 

I assume your wife has done all your shopping and therefore she will have made the decisions about toothpaste, toilet paper etc.  I'm fairly certain she will have absorbed advertising messages containing information that she will have used to make her purchasing decisions but perhaps as this has been her domain you don't see it as having had any affect upon you.   Yet in that you are wrong. 

 

Just out of interest, how many computer games have you bought because you learnt about them by reading adverts for them?

 

Imn your welter of false statements about me, I forgot to rebut another couple.

PUBLIC  PLACE  NOTIFICATIONS

I have lived in Israel for 63 tears.  There are NO billboards, Neon-type advertisments , public notices etc.

(So that I won't be accused of "Gross oversimplification" 0r exaggeration - There might be an odd one or two throughout the whole country but I don't know every single location.

I don't know whether there are laws or by-laws or municipal bans againt such advertizing - but IMHO it's a darned good thing - not to deface a beautiful historic country with ugly commercials !

I only listen to the NEVER broadcasts on the radio.  This is a turbulent nation and you never know

 from one minute to the next what important incident ishas justy taken place'

THE NEWS BROADCASTS HAVE ***NO*** advertisments !

As I mentioned originally - ***ALL** juank mail goes IMMEDIATELY into a trash can without so much as a glance ----- and all junk email i, IMMEDIATELY deleted !

Originally Posted By Caroline (28 APR 2012 9:03am)

Len said:

I have NEVER - but **Never* ever looked at, let alone read, the adverts for computer games.
I base my purchases EXCLUSIVELY on as many reviews as I can plus comments from players on SEVERAL Quest/Adventure webzines and word of mouth from friends I trust !Never commercials !

 

But Len, this website is packed with adverts for games.  Most of them don't need to be read - they just announce the existence of a game.   It's impossible to read any thread on this forum without seeing them.  Maybe now that your eyesight is failing you don't notice them but to say that you never see them isn't quite true.  Advertising is everywhere and the shops and markets are filled with advertising.   Even a chalkboard, announcing today's specials left on the pavement outside a cafe is advertising.    

It is about time - NO: It is AGES AFTER time - that you stopped telling me without the slightest clue and completely fallaciously how *I* behave - particularly in the antagonistic & derogatory fashion you adopt.

. 

It sounds like Israel is essentially a haven from advertising, Len.

However, in modern America and many other capitalist nations around the world today, it is quite literally impossible to avoid the crush of advertising.

Even small rural communities are bombarded through TV, radio, junk mail, flyers, posters, print ads, billboards, signage, packaging, point-of-purchase materials, bumper stickers, labels / logos / branding, product placement, web-based delivery, telemarketing and now, cellphone screens. 

We are a very, very commercialized society and the most densely populated areas are targeted by every legitimate and illegitimate huckster around. 

In addition to traditional consumer ads of every kind, virtually everywhere - there is a constant flow of new-age marketing and public relations campaigns that now go far beyond mere press releases with countless e-mail blasts, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube videos, search engine optimization, and other devices designed specifically to soft-sell products and services, sway public opinion, announce special events, raise funds, get votes, etc., etc., etc.

All the above is being employed simultaneously by every type of commercial, non-profit, public service and political venture imaginable... plus the millions of individual self-promoters vying for attention. 

Add to that the tremendous amount of non-public promotion through trade advertising, trade shows, business-to-business ads, etc. and average people in many countries these days can not escape the myriad messages continually being thrown at them from every direction.

Cheers, Terry 

To conclude this not very pleasant personal controversy with Caroline - I  HOPE !

As Terry said and Caroline also -:-

In this dauy & age, for better or for worse, I am willing to believe that it IS impossible to COMPLETELY escape every single aspect of advertising.

All I can say is that I do everything I possibly can to avoid it . I try to make my mind up as far as humanly possible to live without being brainwashed by ads, commerciasls and the like.

I said very early on that some things may have infiltrated somkehow into my subconscious &/or subliminarily I haver been influenced in some way by something.

Once again, I reiterate, I do everything possible to avoid being influenced just as I try not to be influenced by propoganda.

More than that I cannot do !!

Originally Posted By Terry Penrod (28 APR 2012 3:20pm)

. 

 

It sounds like Israel is essentially a haven from advertising, Len.

 

However, in modern America and many other capitalist nations around the world today, it is quite literally impossible to avoid the crush of advertising.

 

Even small rural communities are bombarded through TV, radio, junk mail, flyers, posters, print ads, billboards, signage, packaging, point-of-purchase materials, bumper stickers, labels / logos / branding, product placement, web-based delivery, telemarketing and now, cellphone screens. 

 

We are a very, very commercialized society and the most densely populated areas are targeted by every legitimate and illegitimate huckster around. 

 

In addition to traditional consumer ads of every kind, virtually everywhere - there is a constant flow of new-age marketing and public relations campaigns that now go far beyond mere press releases with countless e-mail blasts, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube videos, search engine optimization, and other devices designed specifically to soft-sell products and services, sway public opinion, announce special events, raise funds, get votes, etc., etc., etc.

 

All the above is being employed simultaneously by every type of commercial, non-profit, public service and political venture imaginable... plus the millions of individual self-promoters vying for attention. 

 

Add to that the tremendous amount of non-public promotion through trade advertising, trade shows, business-to-business ads, etc. and average people in many countries these days can not escape the myriad messages continually being thrown at them from every direction.

 

Cheers, Terry 

Not the first time !!

Terry must have posted this just whilst I was writing my last post.  His post was not there when I started writing and I only saw it listed when I finished posting.

I  HAVE  **NOT**  YET  READ  HIS  POST - but will do soIMMEDIATELY  after I've posted this.

Hopefully, I'll have nothing further to add !

I read your post of course, Terry.

EXCELLENTLY written and described - as always !

One small disagreemnt only however --- " It sounds like Israel is essentially a haven from advertising, Len."

No - there is very little difference from America. The only things I can think of are the absence of billboards & neon-lights, and that might be an attempt to keep car drivers' eyes on the roads without additional distractions

N.B.

On the whole the driving is terrible here and the death & mutilation on the roads here per capita is horrible.

Modern Israel was founded 64 years ago.   It started out as a socialist state - or maybe more exactly a social-democratic country.  It was enormously influenced by the many trade-unions and the kibbutzim (I know a *LOT* about the kibbutzim and they have greatly influenced my and Sylvia's weltanshauung even to this day when they are disintegrating !).

As the years and decades have rolled by,  Israel has copied the USA more & more and has become more and more a capitalist country - I think albeit with  greater undertones of social-liberalism   And so as part of that phenomenon,  consumerism, commercialism, and inevitably Advertising jhas grown to proportions similar to the USA.

Don't take me (and oprobably many others simkilarly inclined) as typical examples or the majority !

In one respect, Israel outdoes America by several degrees - Israelis are obsessed with politics - from the government downwards to the 'man in the street;.

. 

In that case Len, I suppose it's simply a difference in lifestyle, preferences for certain types of media and other personal choices you have made to avoid advertising as much as possible. 

For the vast majority of us in the high-tech developed world these days, we are connected to numerous forms of media during most of our waking hours and advertsising does exert a big influence over most of our buying, voting, dining, entertainment, fashion and other decisions.

As stated above, the trick is to apply common sense, be cautious and make educated decisions - while trying to filter-out the constant stream of cons, lies, delusions and frivolous junk. 

While tiresome, that does get easier with age / experience / wisdom. However, the practical alternatives to being so completely connected seem to be dwindling all the time. 

Most of us have no real choice but to use the web, cellphones, mass media, etc. in our jobs, edcuational pursuits and every other aspect of our daily lives. Going totally off-grid is becoming impossible for anyone who lives in modern society or just wants to stay connected to those who do. 

Fact is, street vendors, shop owners and hucksters of all kinds have engaged in various forms of advertsisng since civilization developed into organized communities with commerce, elections, etc.

The difference now is that we have so damned many consumers and so many competing "sellers" with endless channels of high-speed communication and ever-shorter attention spans to go with ever-shorter cycles of product / service development. 

If you don't like the fashions, food, music, movies or social trends available today, just wait a few months and a whole new batch of choices will arise... along with a new set of hot-button issues / causes / concerns. 

In a word, we have become fickled (and impatient, disloyal and lazy), and THAT plays right into the hands of unscrupulous sellers.  

Cheers, Terry 

***Terry***

Extremely interesting, informative and instructive.

I suppose I personally have been influenced mainly by two factors :-

(1) I was born into a VERY different era (January 1925).

Advertising & commercials were not very influential then in Britain and of course there were absolutely hardly any 'outlets' in those far off days - as you outlined, compared to the almost infinite technical commercials that exist today (and apparently tomorrow)

Even in America advertising nearly 90 years ago was relatively in its infancy.

(2)  Myself and wife were greatly influenced by the philosophies of the kibbutz movement in Israel (where we lived for a while in our adolescence).

You may know that they started up almost exactly 100 years ago.  They were pioneer settlements absorbing immigrants from very many countries rather similar to the rugged early days of America.- although they were fanatically egalitarian, not communist but EXTREMELY communalist]'

You may also know that over the past century they have lost &/or abandoned most of their extreme idealistic ways of life (including cocking a snook at all forms of commercialism & advertising).Over the past very few years about half of the kibbutzim have become 'privatized' since they cannot survive economically in today's Israeli economy !

I guess that within a few years only they will disappear completely turning into small villages with certain cooperative facilities.

lanned obsolescence

;=

I am always amazed at the number of coincidences in life. 

The following is I suppose somewhat of a hijacking. 

I mentioned this morning some words about the kibbutz movement in Israel.  There are (or were) three or four streams of kibbutzim.  We belonged to the most liberal and I suppose easy going. 

The most extreme was called "Hashomer Hatzair" (the Young Guard) who were extreme marxist in ideology.  When we were young they even banned the playing of cards- not even Bridge!

This morning Sylvia read to me an article from our local newspaper (I can no longer read newspapers myself). 

In it it describes a kibbutz called "Dan" belonging to that movement in Upper Galilee which has become almost completely privatized - you might say capitalist.

Over the past 15 years they have raised sturgeon in fish ponds with water from the extremely pure springs of the upper Jordan river.

According to the article the caviar that they export mainly to USA is the second best in the world - the best is apparently from Iran in the Caspian Sea which is forbidden to export since the breed is in great danger of extrinction.

HOW  TIMES  HAVE  CHANGED - EVEN HERE !

Many of the most exclusive (and expensive) restaurants in New York apparently sell the caviar for  more than US$400 per 50 gms (i.e. about 2 ounces only).

Some people are apparently extraordinarily wealthy !!!