How does marketing make us stupid? Psychologist Tim Kasser, in The High Price of Materialism, finds that when we clamor for more stuff and more things in our lives, our lives are not better: “The more materialistic desires are at the center of our lives, the more our quality of life is diminished.”
Of course this is bollocks – a “qualitative” assessment based on what sociologists believe are our “real” desires is probably a bunch of scientific hocus pocus. Americans’ love affair with capitalism pits our noblest desires to be happy and do good against our basest desires to be at what we perceive to be the top of the economic food chain. Put another way: Mark Twain said he was against millionaires, but “it would be dangerous to offer me the position.”
Of course this is bollocks – a “qualitative” assessment based on what sociologists believe are our “real” desires is probably a bunch of scientific hocus pocus. Americans’ love affair with capitalism pits our noblest desires to be happy and do good against our basest desires to be at what we perceive to be the top of the economic food chain. Put another way: Mark Twain said he was against millionaires, but “it would be dangerous to offer me the position.”
This is my favorite beer. I really love the Bud Light logo, too. Bright colors, the word 'genuine.' Effective marketing.
This is where marketing comes in – appealing to our basest emotions, making us stupid, stripping us of logic and reason is what marketers strive for. Is it really our brains telling us that we need a Shamwow, or is it the attraction of having a beautiful car and the feelings of satisfaction, enjoyment, and superiority that go with it? Is it our brains telling us we like Bud Light, or are the buxom Bud Light lasses really what we’re thirsting for?
Excellent 5-minute video on the subject based on Kasser's book, below.
Excellent 5-minute video on the subject based on Kasser's book, below.
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