Advertising isn't inherently negative

Advertising is capitalist propaganda meant to shape the way you think. How you think about things, your life, your community, your sense of self, and your worth. It is a form of manipulation meant to squeeze every penny out of you. It is meant to warp your mind into that of a consumer, to convince you that capitalism is the best way of organizing an economy and that if you don't have the shiniest new toy, this is a personal and moral failure.

If you think, "that's nonsense, they are just trying to sell me something," consider this: if before every movie, show, and news broadcast there was an ad saying, "Our government in the best government. Be happy you live here. This is as good as it gets. Do not fret the bad parts of our society, just appreciate that you live in the best country in the world (or else)," would you consider this to be negative?

The central premise of most advertising is the deeply capitalist idea that your identity and worth as a person is primarily determined, not by who you are and what you do, but by what you own and by the commodities you buy. An inherent part of advertisement is a lack of respect for the audience. You and your time are viewed as commodities themselves!

Propaganda in itself is not negative, but it definitely can be. Advertisements are often composed of lying propaganda. They make false claims and normalize lies in our media, they normalize the acceptance of lies by numbing the population to these tactics. They make you look and feel foolish for calling out their lies and this extends throughout society.

Who are you going to believe, the boring science hippies who want you to read their papers or the suave, sexy commercial that promises to make your life better?

All of this ties into our society, culture, and how we behave as a people. If you don't think it extends beyond taking our money from us, then how do you explain all the body dysmorphia that begins at a young age and extends throughout our lives? I'm too fat, too bald, too short, too sweaty, I'm too tan, my vitiligo is unattractive, my hair is too frizzy and too thin, my glasses are unattractive, I need to treat my wrinkles, fix my nose, remove the bags under my eyes, and cover up my unseemly stretch marks. These dysmorphic feelings all stem from you being treated like a commodity. They permeate our society and media.

Advertisements don't just tell you how you should look, they also tell you what you should eat, what medications you should take, what car you should drive, how your home should look, where you should be traveling, what type of work you should be doing, how rich you should be, and more.

The reason Westerners are the most propagandized people in the world is not due to the decaying education systems, the misrepresentation of history, or the lies told by politicians, but because of how ingrained advertisements are within our societies.

But don't take it from me alone, entire books have been written on this subject and it's a problem with roots back to the beginning of the 1900s and the World Wars.