thoughts on capitalism (ongoing)

[novapsyche]

Capitalism was theorized and implemented before the advent of modern advertising. Advertising, which dawned around 1910 (at least in the US), demonstrated (as was proven years later) that ads circumvent higher cognitive functions--that is, brands are interpreted by the brain at a nonrational level. Thus, capitalism unthreads itself, because it is founded upon the assumption that consumers are rational actors.

Advertising, in my view, removes agency: it replaces all options with what appears to be all options. It presents a small, visible market as the market that is available to the consumer. The latter is actually full of vendors that do not have access to advertising as well as those who do. Those who have access to advertising--those who already have the capital to create ads that reach the wide consuming public--alter reality by substituting a market that is artificial, a market that exists only in the reach of popular media.

Comments

[dr-pipe.livejournal.com]

Everyone I usuall agree with really seems to hate advertising. I just can't get myself worked up about it. Perhaps I have too much faith in my decision making process, but basically, if a commercial succeeds in convincing me that I want something, then I feel that I really want it. Maybe without the commercial I wouldn't have wanted it, but now I do. They earned my business, if they successfully convinced me. Considering that about 99% of commercials do not make me want whatever it is they're selling, I feel pretty confident that I'm not being brainwashed or anything.

I do suppose that the real problem, if there is one, lies with averages and net effects across millions of people. If everyone has a different level of susceptability, then I guess maybe some people are high enough on that scale that a commercial's influence could be considered, not coercive, but perhaps influential to an undesirable degree. This is especially relevant with children who don't have their rational facilities trained yet.