Posted by
King David Caul on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 9:29:11 PM
At this point in our modern life, billions upon billions of dollars are spent year after year, decade after a decade; in pursuit of the most effective advertising. A half-century of television advertising has pursued intensely sophisticated art and science for the purpose of overtly and subliminally influencing the decision-making ability of each and everyone of us.
I wonder if it is safe to say that more analysis, research, and experimentation has gone into advertising for television and its effectiveness, than has been spent on any meaningful medical concern?
This same profound realm of super-clever sophistication targets one audience perhaps more than any other; CHILDREN. Does the impressionable and gentle mind of a child have even a glimmer of hope against an enormous industry that has been working its butt off for decades to overwhelm that same mind? And so the modern children has their master; from the moment they begin to watch television, the definition is being put forth as to where they shall receive their ultimate guidance. It shall come from advertising.
I got a little shook up one night as this arena of thought and its ramifications sank in.
Earlier in the day, I was around some young male nephews. I'd recently noticed an older TV show (mostly out of circulation) had shown up on a cable channel. It was not getting any advertising, it had been simply slipped in to the weekly programming. So I inquired if the kids had ever seen the show, and then suggested they might give it a chance -- that frequently it's a very good show and the sort of show they undoubtedly would like.
Not a word was uttered in response to me. I received blank vacant stares. If there was any communication behind the silence, it was surely that I was considered nuts; perhaps "nuts" for even speaking on things about which I know nothing.
That night, I was thinking it was a shame for their sake. Its a good show! Then I began to find it annoying; these same kids will invest completely (with the very fiber of their being) in some of the worst television crap, and without the smallest of protest. They don't have issues with enjoying television; so what was the difference that made my suggestion so entirely and almost necessarily dismissible. Do they just think I'm a humongous moron? That's likely. But I'm talking about television; they're fairly fond of television. I mean, it's not as if they're selective with regard to what they watch!!
No, I found myself determining there was something else to the phenomenon I experienced. I think I understand it now. Let me label this phenomenon, "VALIDATION BY COMMERCIAL".
You see, I can have opinions -- I can open my mouth and make noises -- but it isn't valid. I can mention a television show, but if the child has not seen even a single AD for it, then my opinion has zero credibility. It is just noise. The adult who isn't speaking within the vocabulary of the marketing campaigns currently cycling over and over during primetime -- is a moron. He doesn't understand.
Truly, there are a lot of words thrown around every single day; the child in his own stage of sophistication, most have a system of filtering the many words, separating the valid from the invalid. The invalid words are instantly classified as noise, and are not processed as words; but dismissed as wavelength-murmurings from adult morons. The key breaking point for this distinction between valid and invalid, seems to be the existence of a loud commercial concerning the topic. If there's not even ONE commercial screaming about the excellence and huge popularity of some issue or concern, then it isn't an issue or concern, it never was; It can't possibly be. And the slicker, louder, and more ubiquitous the advertising campaign; the more legitimate the topic (in this case, the more watchable the television show).
Nothing can simply be accepted by the struggling mind of a child without "validation by commercial". I could argue that crushing puppies is a laugh riot and fun to watch, and if there is a marketing campaign hyping it with every trick they can think of, the children won't even let me finish my sentence. "Yeah, yeah, I've seen that show." (Children find it boring to be "illuminated" as to programs they knew about way before you even showed up).
It really isn't the children's fault; they don't have a chance in this aggressive and highly financed worldwide collective campaign of advertising.
Perhaps there should be a catalog of DVDs for sale, that have hours and hours of nothing but commercials; but for concepts that are noble and intelligent. This might be the only way to successfully validate such ideas in the minds of our modern children.