Everyday in America we are swarmed with over six hundred advertisements in various forms including television, radio, internet, newspapers, magazines, and billboards. We are affected by the media so often that a lot of the time we don’t even seem to notice when it is happening. As the world we live in plunges deeper into this age of technology, the media keeps up an ever increasing pace. From the time one is born throughout their entire life (approximately eighty years) they will see 17,520,000 advertisements. It is actually quite alarming to see not only how much we, as consumers, are targeted by marketing agencies, but also how much influence the media has on society.
The influence these marketing companies have upon us is tremendous and much of this can be accounted to the different strategies for winning over different age groups. Children are a major target for marketers is because they have money to spend however they want. Children don’t have jobs or bills to pay, just money supplied to them by their parents. It is a logical and frighteningly successful strategy for advertisers, but for the kids being mindlessly manipulated by these companies, it is not nearly as beneficial. Unhealthy images of what is cool are planted into the heads of our nation's youth. McDonald's, for example, has a "cradle to the grave" marketing strategy. Happy meals with toys in them and play areas within many of their locations appeal to children, and as they grow, those children are more likely to keep returning throughout their lifetime. From the time they are born, children are being manipulated by the media.
To be a smart consumer it is important to be aware of the "weasel" words that advertisers use to portray as something it isn’t . Words like “virtually”, “new” and “better” can be misleading. The media uses these tactics because they work, and when more people stop playing into the schemes marketing agencies will have to change their approach. As long as marketers can continue to make money using these manipulative strategies, television and radio stations will continue to be densely overpopulated with advertisements.
Political advertisements are one of my personal least favorites, especially during an election season. In the 2009 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, restrictions on the use of corporate funds in political advertising were struck down. This means that corporations can push millions of dollars into their candidate's campaign. Campaigning politicians use television ads to bash other candidates but as long as the commercial was funded by an “unaffiliated’ organization, the politician can not be held accountable. Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders’ whole platform is based on the idea that buying out politicians goes against the founding concepts of democracy.
The media has almost blacked out Sanders, giving him not even half of the media attention as his opponents. Media outlets do not just report news about the presidential election, they report it in such a way that pushes their opinions on vast numbers of people. Politicians and the media alike use these immoral strategies to manipulate Americans by misleading and lying to them. Consumers who absorb all of these different sorts of social media on a daily basis must train themselves to question all they are told and never assume the media is reporting “truth”.
