Political Ads Make You Stupid
“This advertisement may influence you in ways of which you are not consciously aware. Buying consumer goods is unlikely to improve your wellbeing, and borrowing to buy consumer goods may be unwise; debt can enslave.”
uk canada goose For this buy buy buy holiday season, those words are a spritz of pepper spray. uk canada goose
buy canada goose jacket Imagine, then, that advertisers were required to admit that the underlying premise of consumerism Buy this, and you’ll be happy, beautiful, desirable and immortal! is a con. Imagine that they were also compelled https://www.canada-goosejacketsale.net to meta confess that the craft they ply is actually black magic: Beware! This ad will end run your reason and hijack your judgment. buy canada goose jacket
It’s not as farfetched as it seems. After all, tobacco companies have to put this will kill you warnings on cigarette packs. Drug ads are obliged to tell you that their wonder pills may cause hallucinations, impotence, falling asleep during eating, nightmares, compulsive gambling and thoughts of suicide. The sheer length of time it takes to list side effects often longer than the pitches themselves is a tacit acknowledgement that something about these ads is nuts. Why shouldn’t all ads be ordered to give up the game?
By the time of the 2012 elections, some $3 billion of campaign commercials will have run on TV. It’d be a new day for democracy if political ads canada goose outlet were required to include a disclaimer: “The scary music, canada goose outlet trillium parka black PhotoShopped pictures and misleading sound bites in this ad are tricks intended to manipulate you in ways of which you are not consciously aware. Voting for this candidate is unlikely to improve how awful things are; hope can heartbreak.”
Maybe on some other planet that will happen, but not this one. In the absence of consumer warnings on political ads, we have five things to pin our hopes on.
Education: Critical thinking and media literacy understanding the history and methods of propaganda are part of buy canada goose uk the school curriculum. An educated citizen can’t be fooled by meretricious bull.
canada goose store Freedom of the press: The fourth estate is part of our system of checks and balances. Fact checks, ad watches, financial disclosure sites, “keeping them honest” segments: the sunlight of journalism acts a disinfectant. Everyone with a laptop can now be a publisher and broadcaster. You don’t need a paycheck from a news organization to investigate claims and report abuses. canada goose store
canada goose So how’s all that working out? canada goose
cheap Canada Goose I’m not betting on media literacy canada goose outlet online reviews to protect voters from disinformation. Only one in four Americans believes scientists agree on global warming, and 7 in 10 say scientists have falsified climate change research data. Despite what they hear in school, 4 in 10 Americans canada goose jacket uk believe God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago. Apparently a mind is a terrible thing to use. cheap Canada Goose
Speech may be free, but ads aren’t. The marketplace of ideas, like the rest of the economy, is run by the 1 percent. The laws regulating campaign contributions the canada goose outlet store quebec few that haven’t yet been struck down by the Roberts Court are a snap to circumvent, and the Federal Election Commission is a joke.
canada goose uk black friday It’s easy to conceal the sources of funding for ads. Candidates can hide behind “issue” ads and billionaire backed “independent” groups, whose messages they don’t have to say they approved. In the wake of the Citizens United decision, corporations can spend whatever they want on ads and don’t have to disclose they’re behind them. canada goose uk black friday
As for the fourth estate, the right has so intimidated the press with charges of media bias that mainstream journalism bends itself into euphemistic pretzels instead of calling a lie a lie. When Rick Perry and Mitt Romney each ran ads that brazenly falsified President Obama’s words, many prestige outlets failed to label them as liars; instead of holding them accountable, the media instead reported canada goose uk site how nimble those campaigns were at evading accountability.
canada goose factory sale It’s true that the Internet has democratized the watchdog role; the crowd online is buzzing about the accuracy of political ads and the sources of their funding. But the disposition of people to segregate into like minded polarized tribes to speak and listen only to themselves makes it easy to inhabit an information bubble where everything reinforces what they already believe. canada goose factory sale
Canada Goose Jackets The origin of the Occupy movement is a Vancouver based anti consumerism magazine called Adbusters, which since 1989 has been culture jamming Madison Avenue with satirical tools like “subvertisements” and billboard modifications. When Occupy began, and I learned that an Adbusters email was behind the rally to hold Wall Street accountable, my reaction was exactly wrong. Bless canada goose outlet houston their hearts, I thought it’s a quixotic protest that will no more change the political climate than Adbusters’ “Media Carta” will halt the pollution of our airwaves. Canada Goose Jackets
canada goose coats on sale Based on what’s happened so far, I’m glad to say that I blew it. Within a few weeks the issues of inequality and injustice vaulted into public discourse. I hope I’m just as wrong about the hopelessness of Adbusters’ consciousness raising about advertising to reach critical mass. Political ads may not get Surgeon canada goose shop uk General style warnings. But maybe a public that can so suddenly see itself as the 99 percent can also flush some of the three billion dollars worth of political ads coming canada goose parka uk at them into the sewer canada goose coats on sale.
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