During the school year, I never watch commercials. Netflix is all I had in my college dorm. However, I am traveling visiting family this summer. My grandparents have cable, and they love watching television. Through the first fifteen minutes of sitting down with them, I realized it had been a while since I had seen commercials. The time apart was eye-opening to how twisted commercials truly can be.
Commercials make me feel like I need to buy something I don't really want. I am watching Family Feud with my Nana. Of course, since it is on regular cable we get commercials every ten minutes of the show. One particular commercial came on and I am ready to go out and buy their product. Surprisingly enough it is a Gain laundry detergent commercial. Yes, laundry detergent. I did not really want or need laundry detergent, but the commercial was so enticing it made me feel like I would experience running through fields of wildflowers if I bought the product.
People don't remember what you say they remember how you make them feel. Watching television is a sensory explosion. We feel things based off of the colors and vivid imagery our eyes capture. Commercials don't just tell you about the product, list the ingredients or the success rate. They make you feel something. It's insane and deceiving. What a lot of people don't know about marketing and advertising companies is that they spend millions of dollars on neuromarketing research. This research allows them to know insight of consumer behavior and exactly what things will trigger our brains into wanting to buy something. Companies have already conducted focus groups, EEGs (or electroencephalographs), and fMRI scans way before a commercial hits the big screen. They are designed to whisper to your brain, "Hey! Buy This!".
I am all for capitalism. It is what our country is founded upon. It allows us the freedom to start from nothing and make our way to the top. It is what allows entrepreneurs to thrive. Yet, the downside is that companies are more often concerned with making money than they are about being honest about their product. Americans have bought into the lies that we need more. We are consuming based off of emotion and the clever craft of neuromarketing. It is important to be aware of all the deception that is taking place just so you don't find yourself with a closet full of gain laundry detergent you do not need.
