False Needs
It is well known that advertising entices people to buy products they really do not need, with money they haven’t got, and that advertisements produce wants for needs that we do not necessarily have to satisfy. This all began in the 1920s as a method to passify a mass industrial workforce that was no longer able to be controlled through workshop discipline. Advertisers integrated into their appeal to consumers the message that consumption means freedom, and that individuals who are ‘free’ can seek their identity and liberty through the purchase of these commodities. This type of advertising plays onto the psychological approach into human nature; particularly the tendency to social conform.
Many would say that advertising tugs at the strings that we most desire. Packard tells us that “motivational research, replaced the earlier simple psychological sell of market research advertising (appeals to shame, pride, greed, etc.) by appealing directly to the unconscious, irrational impulses in the human psyche.” But because these desires are unconsciously motivated, our response to them takes on a symbolic form in order to disguise them because the conscious opposes them. Similar to when we dream in symbolic form to avoid accepting our unconscious cravings. This is why advertisements seem to be more ineffective than effective. And because there are so many advertisements, they neutralize each other and quickly come to a level where adverts are diffused in the consumer’s consciousness.
But what is at times successful about advertisements is their appeal to needs and wants. They appeal to a range of material needs and social needs for mythology (which was once fulfilled by art and religion). Advertisements also appeal to “the psychological desire for the unified self of the pre-symbolic stage… but in doing this, advertisements create false wants: we want consumer items instead of real emotions, real social relations, and our real selves.” At a social level, symbolic structures have altered and confused our understanding of the real structure of society; advertising disguises the real issues.
It is widely acknowledged that the method used for advertising manipulation is the creation of false needs. According to Irving, “in a mass capitalist culture we have our needs created for us, imposed upon us, and these needs are false, contributing in fact to the individual’s repression.” Thus these false needs are the willingness to comply without hesitation.
But advertisements are not false images, in fact they appropriate anything they feel will have appeal, this includes themes taken from feminism, environmentalism, alternative lifestyles, and social critique. Advertisements deal with images of society, thus they are not false, but genuine images of society and social relations.
~ Leon
Reference:
Irving, H. (1991). Little eleves and mind control: Advertising and its critics. The Australian Journal of Media & Culture, 4(2). Retrieved July 3, 2011, from http://www.aeforum.org/aeforum.nsf/b6f532dc08e2a32e80256c5100355eab/f0c7e8755ae2e695802567d6004fe42a/$FILE/ajmc0052.pdf
