The Advertising Blitz and the Brainwashing of the Consumer

Advertising, in its common sense, is a method, style, or effort to attract an audience in line with the seller's predetermined goals. Advertising has had a major impact on the general developments of today's world, in all human activities, whether scientific, mental, cultural, educational, psychological, social, economic, political, personal, or familial. In marketing, this important concept means conveying a message about a product or a service through various media to persuade potential audiences to buy it. Today, advertising convinces the audience and creates a need in them in such a way that it seems they have an urgent need for that device or commodity. Many times you have made a purchase that you never even used once. Sellers, by grasping various marketing tools and tricks, try to sell their goods. By inducing and creating false needs and relying on repetition, suggestion, and presenting templates for an ideal life, they try to achieve their goal. But truly, what is the moral ruling regarding exaggerated or sometimes false advertising?

Today, advertising in its general sense has taken root in the fabric of individuals' lives, to the extent that contemporary humans, from the moment of waking until sleep, are exposed to constant mental inductions and are surrounded by all kinds of positive and negative, true or false advertising. The concept of advertising is strangely intertwined with marketing. In fact, it is considered a part of the marketing process for a product or service. Undoubtedly, every task has a goal, and goals are also hidden in advertising. Among the goals of advertising, one can point to making customers aware of new products or services, creating a clear and powerful image of the business, and persuading customers to make an immediate purchase decision. Although advertising is a subset of marketing, with a slight difference, it must be said that advertising focuses more on the customer's psyche to prefer a specific brand, while marketing encompasses the entire process, including advertising, sales, and distribution.

The Advertising Blitz and Stimulating the Audience

In many cases, we witness a kind of deception of the public mind. In the modern world, the individual is influenced by television and journalistic advertising and is subjected to an advertising blitz without being given the opportunity to choose. Stimulating colors and rapid, deceptive images, relying on the individual's needs, compel them to buy. Modern humans, in many cases, have unknowingly deprived themselves of the right to choose. Large companies induce in them that you are the decision-maker, but in reality, after the advertising blitz, you have decided for the benefit of the said company to buy their manufactured goods. The individual unknowingly chooses under the influence of advertising and is satisfied with their choice. But after a not-so-long time, they become dissatisfied with their purchase. This dissatisfaction is the advertising blitz of competing companies selling the product or the inductions created in the individual to make them doubt. With this method, the individual is always in doubt and dissatisfied with their purchase and makes every effort to provide themselves with the possibility of a new purchase with more income or to upgrade the product they are using.

This all-out assault that targets the individual's mind, without them knowing, turns them into an obedient employee. They strive in line with the selling company's intentions to generate more profit for that company. That is, sellers see every individual on the street as equivalent to 1 dollar.

Brainwashing Techniques and Specific Ways to Counter Them

You might think you are never subjected to brainwashing. But you should know that every day, willingly or unwillingly, you are influenced by actions that are not morally commendable and are considered a form of brainwashing. Perhaps if you know the ways in which humans are targeted for brainwashing, you can counter them. In the following, we will introduce and examine these methods..

Mind control, also referred to as brainwashing, coercive persuasion, exploitation of minds, thought control, or altering the way one thinks, is a process in which an individual or group purposefully induces an audience to accept their ideas. Brainwashing often entails specific material or spiritual harms for the hapless target.

Essentially, we can consider brainwashing a form of extreme mental manipulation. Interestingly, most of us imagine this phenomenon applies only in cases of religious and ethnic matters, whereas we can find clear signs of it in our daily lives as well. We hope that after reading this article, you will be able to discern brainwashing techniques on a large scale in everyday affairs such as commercial media advertising, news network programming, heated political debates, and other such matters.

Offering multiple choices that all lead to a single final outcome. In this state, you imagine your choices are vast, but you are unaware that a different stew has been cooked up for you, and ultimately the result of these choices leads to one thing.

An identical idea or phrase is repeated so much that it gradually settles in the audience's mind and becomes ingrained.

Techniques of intelligence reduction and information bombardment are carried out in such a way that they diminish the audience's memory capacity and instill in them a false euphoria of knowing.

Emotional manipulation in the audience's mind to heighten individual feelings and diminish the application of common sense. Among the most important signs of this state are the emergence of feelings of fear, anger, and anxiety.

As you read this list, some practical examples probably come to mind. For instance, advertisers have a great fondness for offering choices that ultimately lead to their desired products. Furthermore, emotional manipulations are also more common in certain impassioned speeches, commercial and cinematic films, or other such media.

You can find these techniques everywhere. The main goal of these methods is not to turn you into horrifying creatures like bloodthirsty zombies! But they will certainly have significant effects on your way of thinking, decision-making, and choices. Fortunately, if you are a mentally active individual, you can survive these attacks by employing simple exercises.

Depriving someone of choice without their knowledge, and even instilling the notion that "you made the best choice," encourages them toward making a purchase.

Another matter that must be addressed is creating a sense of satisfaction, or depriving the consumer of it.

After a while, the manufacturing company experiences a drop in sales due to market habituation, and this drop in sales reduces profits for the manufacturer's shareholders. To solve this problem, the manufacturing company produces a new product or an upgraded version of the previous one. Sometimes, the apparent upgrade of the previous product deceives the consumer. These changes must lead to more sales. Now, how can the consumer be compelled to buy? The former employee must now reach into their pocket to make you wealthier than before.

Through interconnected and high-density advertising, a sense of dissatisfaction with the previous product is instilled in the individual. The consumer, who until yesterday was happy and delighted to own such a product, after a while feels backward compared to fashion, technology, and society. Sometimes they feel this social void must be compensated for somehow. Buying a more up-to-date product and displaying it brings them a renewed sense of peace and satisfaction. During this process, the manufacturing company profits in two ways: 1- Selling the new product and generating greater profits again. 2- Free advertising by the consumer within society.

Considering the conditions mentioned, developing advertising immunity and growing decision-making power are among the primary needs of contemporary human society. Advertising immunity is a specific characteristic that society acts in complete contradiction to. Now, how can one achieve this individual immunity?

How to Avoid Falling into the Trap of Brainwashing Techniques

One of the most important methods of countering brainwashing techniques is to avoid contaminated environments. For example, you can refuse to watch advertisements by changing the television channel. Of course, one can never be absolutely certain of being safe from such situations, but when confronted, it is better to adopt an appropriate, moderate, and balanced approach, and naturally, to the extent of your effort, you will be able to escape brainwashing. To gain a balanced perspective in such forced encounters, you can arm yourself with the weapon of knowledge. Thus, it is better to intelligently identify the manipulated messages you receive.

Perceive opposing messages and try to extract concepts from them without bias or prejudice.

Compare the injected information with your own safe and trusted information sources and assess the induced feeling.

It does not matter to what degree or extent we have been subjected to brainwashing; whether little or much, it makes no difference. The less information and insight we have, the more we are influenced by what is induced and we may lose our way. So it is better to abandon isolation and arm ourselves with reliable sources of information, so that we do not take everything that comes as truth, and by using our inquiring mind, we can distinguish the right path from the wrong.

The Advertising Blitz and the Brainwashing of the Consumer

Author: Amir Soltanzadeh

Source: Public Opinion and Its Measurement Criteria ̨ Dr. Seyed Mohammad Dadgaran ̨ Morvarid Publications ̨ 1382 [2003].