Ideas
of grandeur, glamour, and luxury are sold to consumers daily in the form of advertising
most level-headed people would disregard immediately as unbelievable. However, even practical people are sucked in
to the world of advertising. Popular
culture directly ties into advertising, and how advertisements persuade even the
most realistic individual.
Popular
culture standardizes how beauty is perceived, defines success, glorifies gender
roles, and even manipulates a person’s judgment of others. As human beings, each person needs acceptance
and to feel loved by others in order to maintain prime emotional health. In a culture where ads constantly advertise
their conception of the ideal person, they not only sell products, but
acceptance. Commercials that advertise
to young women, for instance, often show made-up, mostly white, skinny, smiling
females surrounded by friends. Not only
do ads like these sell beauty, but by targeting personal insecurities, these
ads sell ideas of acceptance and happiness as well as what happiness and
acceptance requires. Advertisements and popular culture intertwine and
manipulate the minds of millions with concrete ideas of gender specific
qualifications that supposedly lead to happy fulfilled lives.
Michael Learmonth explains
in his article, “Tracking Makes Life Easier for Consumers”, the effects of
internet tracking, or web monitoring as a means to identify individual tastes
and advertise accordingly. Internet
tracking supplies advertisers limitless access to each person’s likes and dislikes
with total disregard to privacy. With this
new marketing technique, not only do advertisers have the means to target common
insecurities created by American pop culture, but now advertising companies can
target an individual’s specific insecurities.
This breach of privacy supplies advertisers with information to target
each American citizen who uses a computer.
Internet tracking allows the advertising of items similar to purchases
made by a consumer online; therefore, people attracted to these ads also absorb
the ideas that come with it.
This never-ending circle of
pop culture, advertising, and consumers seems to constantly change American
lifestyle yet actually changes nothing at all.
These prejudice ideas are pushed upon children and adults everyday, and
have become seemingly acceptable in society.
Popular culture creates prejudiced ideas of perfection harmful to the
emotional health of many people; however, it also sells ideas of
acceptance. Society would change
drastically if these advertisements sold the acceptance in a form other than skinny,
white, made-up people, and give children idols to which they can relate, not
just conform.
The way that you connected each of your main ideas to popular culture and its affect was really interesting to read. I did not realize how advertisements using a ideal woman or man would be a negative tactic. After reading your post, however, it struck me as odd how I did not notice it before. Advetising companies do want their audience to feel insecure by using idolized women, creating self-esteme issues. Using that piece from Learmonth really helped tie your post together, tracking is ways can make life easier for consumers, but you did a great job at countering it with the privacy issue involved.
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