Advertising and Tech

One of the benefits of my Tech Diet has been a great reduction in intrusive advertising.  Advertising is everywhere and increasingly it’s being delivered to us through our tech.  And increasingly we’re being watched through our Tech to see what might work in advertising us. And the kicker: We’re often directly paying others to advertise to us.  I’m not talking here about the increase in the cost of goods and services due to advertising. I’m talking about paying for cable TV, internet, and phone services and then having those services leveraged against us to deliver ads and phone calls of someone else’s choosing.  It used to anger me that ads would be sent to me on my fax machine and I have to pay for the paper and ink. That’s a pittance.  How much are you paying for TV, Cellphone and Internet services?  One of the most insulting is paying a high price to go to a movie theater and having to endure 30 to 45 minutes of overly loud, obnoxious advertising before the film starts.  Unlike at home where we can fast-forward or press a mute button we just have to sit there and take it. It really is astounding that we all put up with it. We need to stop paying people to lie to us, and certainly lie to us in these obnoxious ways.

Back in the day, in my youth, when most television was over-the-air, cable TV was offered as means to receive content without commercials. That did not last long as the cycle of expensive content, rising salary demands, and large corporations demanded access to our attention.  We just kind of accepted it. The same happened with the Internet.  The internet has not been tamed with legislative regulation, it’s been conquered by advertising and the constant push to “monetize” everything.  The economics of the internet will ensure the worst of the internet content will always be with us; there are too many people making money from it.  Advertising is massively manipulative, so it should shock no-one that foreign governments use it through social media to influence our choices and perceptions. 

As we have become accustomed to this constant flow of advertising, we have passively accepted it in almost every aspect of our local and national life. Regional stadiums payed for with tax dollars are multimillion-dollar billboards as naming rights are auctioned off to the highest bidder.  This has moved down to the high school level where our local school stadiums, paid for with tax bonds, are named for local auto dealers and the like.  At my local chiropractor, you can’t just wait quietly in the waiting room, you must endure bombardment of an obnoxious infomercial with frankly quite dubious claims.  And the ubiquitous process of marketing has affected our thinking so much we just expect it as normal life.  Now even in churches and non-profits we are subject to marketing strategies, marketing-think, gimmicks and sponsored activities. Few people – other than individuals – give money, no strings attached – they sponsor for the right to have their names and logos plastered on banners and t-shirts.  It’s not a gift if it’s a quid-pro-quo, it’s advertising.

The content of most advertising, particularly television and internet advertising is simply dishonest; and we have all agreed to accept it without challenge. We seem to want to be lied to on a massive scale.  Frankly, there’s too much of it to put up much of an objection.  We are collectively all agreeing to by lied to and manipulated:  a new car will not bring spiritual enlightenment, a new deodorant will not make us more confident, a new financial product will not make us secure, health insurance companies do not really care about us, a new app will not make us more savvy than our peers, an on-line college education will not transform our lives (hard work does that), a luxury cruise is not the solution to our over-busy lives and on and on.  I would love, truly love honest advertising.  Someone to say:  “we have this product and we like it, and it’s not for everyone, and frankly it’s too expensive for most of you – it will cost you years in interest payments and so is a not a great deal.  But if you think you want it here’s where you can reach us.” Ignore the CGI images and looks of deep satisfaction on the beautiful actors’ faces.  Or how about this one: “This soft-drink is not really very good for you.  Still it tastes good and looks good. It’s mostly sugar and water and so it’s over-priced because we must advertise you to create a demand for it and we want to make a lot of money on it.  It will probably make you fat, and it may make your diabetes worse, and it’s full of non-nutrient chemicals.  But hey, if you’re interested, you can buy it at the local market, or pay $3.00 a cup for it at your favorite restaurant. Even better pay $6.00 at the stadium or movie theater for it.”  Just ignore the cute animated animals drinking the product.  How about this political ad, “Candidate Jones, doesn’t really stand for anything other than wanting to be put back in office, where he makes a lot of money and wields a lot of power.  He’s really in the back pocket of several large international corporations and one or two foreign governments.  He’s not actually sincere, other than sincerely wanting power. But his smile and his haircut are nice, so if you’re willing, cast your vote for him.”  Ignore the fear-manipulation, the handshakes with local union workers, and the flag waving in the background.

So, the Tech diet reduced a lot of this, and in some ways made me more aware of it just out in the community.  Less advertising means less noise, clearer thinking, and a whole lot less of being manipulated.  It greatly reduced FOMO – the fear of missing out.  They’ll keep doing this stuff to us as long as it works and perhaps the simplest solution is to just turn it off.