Thursday, December 18, 2014

Advertisement Robs Us

"The individual, it is said, should be free to pursue his own interests as long as he keeps the peace and does not interfere with the rights of others. He should be free to make as much money as he can and to spend it as he sees fit. There is a need for men who are industrious, resourceful, thrifty, and self-reliant, and who have initiative and a spirit of adventure." -Harold H. Titus / Marilyn S. Smith

The goal of an advertisement is to plant a seed in the mind of consumers to buy a product. We don't buy a product as much as we buy the advertisement itself. The best product in the world, that's advertised poorly, won't sell as good (initially) as the worse product in the world with the best advertisement.
After a product as been release, word to mouth usually takes over and bring the advertisement hype to the level of the product.

Advertisement sells but it also creates an artificial need in the consumer's mind effectively removing some of his freedom to choose. They appeal to our emotional being. Sure, we might think that we're in control; that we decide what we want but if we look around our home, we'll likely find items that we did not intend to buy but that are there none the less due to an advertisement that appealed to our emotional side.

Orrin Woodward created a rule in an attempt to remove emotional purchases. The rule is if the item is more than 100$, he waits a day to see how he feels about it the next morning. Often, if we take a day to think about it, we realize that we don't really need the item. Maybe we should all apply this rule?

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