The Money Vaccine

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A bunch of folks are pointing out Dove’s new onslaught campaign, which goes part of the way towards helping women deal with self esteem issues, but it could be a much broader scope than that. Want to inoculate yourself, your friends, and especially your children against not only the beauty industry, but everyone and everything else?

Teach yourself and others how to follow the money. When you see a commercial or advertisement, discuss with your kids what the commercial is for, what they want to you to buy, and what tactics they will use to try to make you buy it.

“Honey, this is a commercial for mascara. The manufacturer is going to suggest that if you don’t use their product, you will not be pretty, which of course, is not true. They’ll be using several ways to attack you – and it is an attack on you, just as real as someone punching you – including peer pressure and the granfalloon attacks.”

Maybe it’s cultural in America, but we LOVE to know how the magic trick works, even if it spoils our enjoyment of the trick. There’s no better way to inoculate yourself, friends, and loved ones than to pull the curtain back from advertisers and marketers and show them the catalog of tricks. There’s no better way to defeat a salesperson than to list off the tricks as they use them, and if you don’t particularly like the salesperson, yes, you can list them out loud.

“Yes, fine, Ben Franklin close, time limited offer, exclusivity close. Dude, have you read anything besides Tom Hopkins and Zig Ziglar?”

YOU have power over your mind. Share that power with others, and take it away from advertisers.


Comments

13 responses to “The Money Vaccine”

  1. We took some time out from studying American history my junior year of high school to study a little social psychology.

    One thing we learned was the tactics advertisers use. Two I remember are repetition (e.g. those annoying Head On ads) and fear of missing out on something (“Hurry in! Sale ends Monday!”). I think the chapter on advertising really helped make us all more discerning consumers.

  2. We took some time out from studying American history my junior year of high school to study a little social psychology.

    One thing we learned was the tactics advertisers use. Two I remember are repetition (e.g. those annoying Head On ads) and fear of missing out on something (“Hurry in! Sale ends Monday!”). I think the chapter on advertising really helped make us all more discerning consumers.

  3. very insightful, chris

    it goes beyond advertising, of course – our culture is one big matrix of unreality

    thank heavens for personal media

  4. very insightful, chris

    it goes beyond advertising, of course – our culture is one big matrix of unreality

    thank heavens for personal media

  5. Chris, there are some interesting articles and activities on the Dove site. The focus is more on women’s portrait in the media that what you are talking about which is a broader understand of the media/marketing bag-of-tricks, but there is some interesting bits there that have relevance to what you are talking about:

    http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef07/t5.aspx?id=7375

    Cheers,
    – J.

  6. Chris, there are some interesting articles and activities on the Dove site. The focus is more on women’s portrait in the media that what you are talking about which is a broader understand of the media/marketing bag-of-tricks, but there is some interesting bits there that have relevance to what you are talking about:

    http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef07/t5.aspx?id=7375

    Cheers,
    – J.

  7. One of the best classes I took in hs was called Language of the Media. We learned all about how advertisers make you want the stuff you want, and it’s made me a much smarter consumer. It was considered a ‘fluff’ course by my guidance counselor, but it should be a requirement im today’s ad flooded world.

  8. One of the best classes I took in hs was called Language of the Media. We learned all about how advertisers make you want the stuff you want, and it’s made me a much smarter consumer. It was considered a ‘fluff’ course by my guidance counselor, but it should be a requirement im today’s ad flooded world.

  9. nice! i remember talking about this with you and the gf re: NLP. does this mean i should be reading Zig Ziglar?

  10. nice! i remember talking about this with you and the gf re: NLP. does this mean i should be reading Zig Ziglar?

  11. I’ve noticed recently that I’m looking more and more at media and noticing when I’m being marketed to.

    Also, let’s not fool ourselves here. This happens in new/social media, too.

    Red pill

  12. I’ve noticed recently that I’m looking more and more at media and noticing when I’m being marketed to.

    Also, let’s not fool ourselves here. This happens in new/social media, too.

    Red pill

  13. […] daughter not just about beauty and self-esteem, but more fundamentally about human communication. Christopher S. Penn wrote about the monetary motivation behind “Onslaught” and other mar…, but that’s just part of the picture. EVERYONE who ever communicates ANYTHING to you has a […]

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