The Media Conditions Us. Always. Completely.
How Is Media Affecting Your Day-to-Day Behaviours And Thoughts?
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Let me ask you. Do you still remember lines from random advertisements that you saw as a child?
For me, I still have countless slogans floating around my head from various British commercials I absorbed while growing up.
Perhaps my British readers might find the following slogans familiar:
We buy any car! Dot.com… We buy any car! Dot.com.. We. Buy. Any. Any. We buy car! Dot.com.. (Webuyanycar.com)
0800 00 1066! (Hastings Direct)
Confused!!….Dot.com!…. (Confused.com 2002 advert)
Ooohhh Yes! (The Churchill Car Insurance Dog)
Now a 31 year old man, I’ll be walking around the house, minding my own business, only to find myself reciting marketing slogans that I absorbed when I was 12 years old. (That’s right. I walk around the house talking to myself. Do you do this?)
After 19 years, these slogans are still floating around my brain somewhere. Which begs the question: what other messages fed to me advertising are still floating around in my brain?
Is this why I still get a strange sense of comfort when I open a box of Rice Krispies? Is this the reason why when I eat Pringles I still eat 3 or 4 of them in one go like they did in that advert I watched when I was younger?
And what about the movies I watched as a child? How did the messages and themes in those movies affect the thought patterns I carry now as an adult?
Did Disney movies teach you that you should try to “find your soulmate”? Did the war movies you watched as a child teach you that the US Army is a noble, righteous force for good? Did Hollywood make you believe that bad, immoral people are always eventually punished, and the good, moral people are always rewarded?
Do you still feel like smoking is cool? Do you feel like drinking beer is a manly thing to do? Do you feel like drinking a can of Coca-Cola is a good way to quench your thirst on a hot sunny day? Why do you think these things?
