The “Evils” Of Advertising

If you’ve followed my blog or known me for any length of time, you probably know that I’m not a huge fan of advertising in general. And sadly, in our day and age, there is more advertising than we can reasonably cope with on a daily basis. But is advertising itself evil?

Advertising, in all its forms, is a tool… it’s not a person with evil motives. You can’t punch advertising in the face (as much as I wish I could!) In the end, it’s a product of the companies that spend money on it. And companies, as much as I despise their operating methods, aren’t people either (in spite of the government’s attempts to make them so). And neither is the government, for that matter.

For all intents and purposes, non-people entities usually have a singular focus: survival. Much like a panther that kills a Bald Eagle for food, they don’t necessarily care what rules they break to keep money coming in. Companies and governments are creatures that are sustained by money, and if the money dries up, they die.

If you were in a place where you had to break the law or do something unethical to survive, I have no doubts you’d do it. The instinct for survival is very deeply rooted in life itself, and the mechanism has been carried over into companies, lock stock and barrel. They will do whatever they think they can get away with to survive, because money is the lifeblood of the modern world.

The question we should be asking ourselves is “what can we do to put ourselves in a place where advertising works for us instead of against us?” Continue reading “The “Evils” Of Advertising”