The Great American Past Time-Channel Surfing

On Sunday night, I decided to surf channels on TV and take notes on the many different advertisements and commercials that I saw.  I was amazed by what I found.  The sheer volume of commercials that viewers are exposed to is incredible, and this became clear to me when I sought out the commercials rather than just waiting for them to pass.  With my new knowledge and insight gained from The Persuaders, I was able to take the commercials at face value rather than remaining in my usual consumer mindset.  As wave upon wave of ads poured over me, I started to write down the slogans or techniques that commercials so often use.  A few different techniques began to emerge as commonplace and I saw many similar patterns for the advertisements.  Commercials will often try to personally try to appeal to their audiences with word or phrases like: “Your choice”, ”How you need it”, “freedom”, “discover for yourself” and many, many others.  This technique of personally appealing to potential consumers is a great method, as people want things that will help them, that are meant for them, rather than the general public.  When you step back, however, it becomes clear that these “personal ads” are just ploys to get people to buy products and are quite impersonal.  The next technique that I saw was the use of superlatives to compare a product to those from different companies.  Words like “better”, “faster”, “(superlative) than the next leading brand” and endless others.  This technique is very interesting to me because it does not necessarily give its viewers an accurate description of the product, but rather compares to another company.  If both companies are selling unadulterated crap,  what difference is there if one is slightly lighter, faster, sleeker etc.  Still another technique is to fool consumers into thinking that there is no risk at all to the consumer to buy the product/s.  This almost always is deceptive and there are often hidden costs or fees for returns or exchanges.   While this is disturbing, it is not that unexpected after viewing The Persuaders.  Companies will appeal to almost whatever they can to sell products and often delve into the nature of the empire to do so.  Empty promises, deceit, and embellishments are all obvious elements of an imperial society rather than one that follows the guidelines of a truly good life in the Kingdom.  I would strongly encourage anyone who reads this post to take a little time out of your day and simply view commercials as you flip through the channels on television.  In the right mindset, you will be amazed by the advertisements that you see.