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?”
Simply put: advertising is designed to get you to buy stuff. It’s ridiculously efficient at it, too. If you’re content with what you have, it stands to reason you don’t need more stuff, i.e. you don’t need advertising, and it has no power over you. It’s artificially making you feel like your well-being, happiness, and survival depend on buying that product, when in fact, it doesn’t.
Have you ever stuffed yourself at a buffet (come on, be honest) and then someone offered you a really nice treat? At first you might say “Sure!” but then you realize there’s no more room! You like the idea of it, but you just don’t need more food.
It’s not uncommon for people to binge eat and then empty their stomachs, so they can continue eating. This is called a “binge and purge cycle” and it’s extremely unhealthy. So why do we, as consumers, do the same thing?
We buy stuff we don’t need. If we run out of money, we try to sell it, get credit cards, or take out loans to be able to continue the cycle. People are force-feeding themselves “stuff” until they have no more room for it. (There’s a reason self-storage units are one of the fastest growing businesses around.)
So how do you stop the cycle? Its a two-part process.
1. Understand how to be content with what you have
If you’re like most people, you get a “rush” from buying some cool new thing. But the truth is, we are in one of the most affluent countries in the world. Even on minimum wage, you can earn a living and live simply. Compared to places where poverty is rampant, we don’t have it that bad. You have to understand our fixation on material possessions is entirely psychological, and it can be broken.
The ancient Stoics were masters at self-determination, i.e. choosing their own actions based on the known outcome. They also understand that what other people thought didn’t (and couldn’t) directly affect your mental process unless you let it. Quite simply, they only cared about things they wanted to care about, and they chose when to care to maximize positive outcomes.
A large part of why we buy things isn’t just the buyer’s rush, it’s the feelings we get when we receive positive response from people around us. When you buy a new truck, and your friends all go “Oooh! Ahhh!” it makes you feel awesome. The problem with that is twofold: 1. They like your truck, not you, and 2. You have to constantly seek out more positive reinforcement, because it’s not long-lasting.
Stoics would tell you that if you put yourself in the right frame of mind, there’s no reason you can’t be happy with what you have. You know the old saying “I was sad that I had no shoes, until I met a man with no feet”? Perspective is the key. There are people in third-world countries that would literally kill to be able to have a fraction of what we have. When you realign your standard of what is “good” and “happy” and stop running on the Hedonic Treadmill, you suddenly realize you probably already have everything you really need to be happy.
2. Reinforce your happiness with things that are self-improving
Once you’ve shaken the need to buy everything being advertised (because it doesn’t really make you happier) you are free to do things that can make you happier. You’ll find that removing advertising from your life leaves a LOT of space for other things. Reading books from the library. Practicing a foreign language for free. Exercising, and cooking healthy meals. Journaling. Visiting with friends face-to-face. Enjoying the great outdoors. These are all things that have been repeatedly proven to increase happiness, and improve who you are as a person.
When your happiness and self-worth are tied up in stuff, you are a slave to advertising. You are constantly driven to consume, in order to satisfy your Hedonistic Adaptation. But when you break away from that, advertising no longer has real meaning for you: you’re not looking to buy something unless you actually need it. (This also has the benefit of making you immediately more wealthy, but that’s just an added bonus!)
When you realize becoming happy starts on the inside, and you begin taking steps in that direction, you’ll find advertising seems pointless and wasteful (and quite hilarious), like someone offering you more dessert when you’re already stuffed to the gills with cake. Contrary to popular belief, Stoics aren’t simply grimly enduring adversity- they are actively choosing when and where to spend their time and energy to maximize happiness, and as a result they’re also choosing not to spend it on things (or feelings) that are counterproductive.
There are plenty of other people writing on this topic, but what it boils down to is this:
It’s cause and effect. If nobody wanted those things, advertising wouldn’t work, period. You have to look past your wants, to why you want it, and decide what’s worth it. Advertisers are just doing what works, they cannot make you buy something you don’t really want.
Advertising can only affect you as much as you let it. As long as you’re wanting what they’re selling, you will fall for it every single time.