“That feeling of freedom, open highways of possibilities, has kind of been lost to materialism and marketing.” – Sheryl Crow
Since becoming minimalist, I watch far less television. I have learned that television rarely brings any significant value into my life. Worse than that, it often distracts me the very things that do. But, I am not entirely opposed to using television as a means for entertainment/relaxation on a limited scale.
And, just to be fair, I do appreciate entertainment as much as the next guy and often find enjoyment in sporting events and clever advertisements. But as somebody who has developed great frustration over the consumer-driven culture that we live in, I observe marketing with a skeptical eye. I often seek to determine the underlying promise of any advertisement and uncover what else, other than the product itself, marketers are trying to sell me.
Far too often, I discover their underlying message promotes foolish misconceptions about life. We would be wise to recognize and intentionally reject each of them. Consider just a few misconceptions on display in our most popular television advertisements.
7 Life Misconceptions Portrayed in Popular Television Advertisements
1. Happiness is for sale.
Marketers often seek to convince us their products will increase our happiness. From soda and alcohol to fashion and automobiles, happiness is offered to us in our very next purchase. I was surprised at the level of boldness some products used in promoting this misconception. Coca-Cola (“Open happiness”) and Volkswagen (“Get in. Get happy.”) stand out significantly. The truth of life is that happiness cannot be purchased no matter how hard we search for it in material possessions. And advertisers do a great disservice to their audience by promising it in temporal packages.
2. Self-confidence can be quickly found in the right purchase.
Every person desires to be comfortable in their skin and self-confident in their abilities. We have an ingrained desire to accomplish, succeed, and make something of our lives. But many of us are held back by a lack of self-confidence. Thus, we desire any quick advantage to find it. This again is a common theme among marketers and many will offer it to us in exchange for our dollars. Both Audi and Speed Stick (among others) employ it. But putting your confidence in an automobile or stick of deodorant is not the same as finding it in yourself. Instead, focus on your strengths, celebrate your uniqueness, and learn from past failures rather than dwelling on them if you want to learn how to be more confident.
3. Youth culture represents the pinnacle of life’s seasons.
Advertisers idolize youth culture and our society rewards them for it. For example, watch this Taco Bell commercial. Apparently, the “youth” season of life is to be among the most praised, promoted, and desired. And while I often look back on my college years with fond memories, I have come to the conclusion there are far greater things to accomplish in life than rejecting authority and staying up late. I have learned the value of family, service, contribution, mentoring, and improving the lives of those in community around me. Maturity and wisdom have taken root. And the only reason I’d want to relive my youth is to do it all differently.
4. Sex is the ultimate goal.
Sex is best enjoyed and brings the greatest fulfillment in a committed relationship. For marketers to esteem it in any other light is painful for me to watch—especially with two young children in my home. My hope is that both of them—and society—will grow to appreciate all the beauty and value and perspective that women bring into our world. Marketers that seek to sell their products using women as objects of sex to be conquered are degrading to both males and females. I am not expecting the trend to end anytime soon, but Axe Body Spray, Fiat, and GoDaddy stand out as some of the worst offenders.
5. To watch television is to experience life.
Network television advertisements often use this misconception when promoting their television shows (to be fair, movie studios do the same). In their marketing, to watch their show is to experience life at its fullest. They appear to offer the very best thing you can possibly choose to do with your next 30/60 minutes. Coupled with the subtle lie that everyone else is watching (#1 Show / #1 Network / #1 Movie), this becomes a motivating sell. We begin to believe that if everyone else is spending their evening watching… I must really be missing out. But you are not missing out. Life is not meant to be observed. Life is meant to be lived.
6. Adventure/Respect is discovered in the right automobile.
The automobile industry doesn’t sell just cars anymore, it sells respect, confidence (see above), and adventure. After all, with most cars nowadays driving well past 100,000+ miles, marketers must sell us something different than a simple mode of transportation. Some will seek to convince us their vehicle is good for the environment… some will promise us respect and envy… others will promise us adventure. But they are all wrong. A certain model/style of vehicle will not bring the promised results. It will get you from Point A to Point B. And there are far greater places to earn respect and find adventure than a car dealership.
7. A website will solve your life problems.
Cars.com promises to make buying a car simple and easy. GoDaddy.co promises wealth and luxury. They are both over exaggerating. Websites offer information and inspiration, but they do not solve your problems. They will not accomplish the truly important things in life for you. Hard work, dedication, discipline, and focus result in the type of life change many of us desire. Too often, websites and the over-delivery of information only cause us to postpone the hard work necessary to secure lasting change in our lives. Don’t look for a website to solve your problems. Look for them to provide inspiration. But then, put the computer away, and get to work doing something about it.
Image: AP/PepsiCo
Tony @ YouOnlyDoThisOnce says
Totally hear you on this post, and thanks for it. Watching all the commercials made me sad; through my adult eyes I can put it all in perspective and shrug it off. But for much of the country and, yes, my kids…they continue o be affected and shaped by this stuff. There are some very intelligent people behind the scenes of these commercials who know human behavior very well…we must fight the good fight. Great post!
Joy @ Joyfully Green says
Great post, Joshua. I agree with all of it–I dread watching the Super Bowl ads and am amazed that so many people will tune in just for the ads alone. I will sheepishly admit that I spent most of my 20’s writing commercials as a copywriter at a major NY ad agency, but I’m glad that I finally came to my senses and quit trying to sell meaningless products. It feels good to have moved on, and feels even better to be writing about making positive, meaningful changes in how to spend time and money, and yes–espousing minimalism and non-commercialism.
Brenda Allingham says
Great article Josh! We don’t watch TV because it seems there is so very little of value there and I get tired of constantly having to deprogram myself……I have to do that enough without the influence of “the box.”
The only change I would make is instead of: “Sex is best enjoyed and brings the greatest fulfillment in a committed relationship”…..Sex is best enjoyed and brings the greatest fulfillment, the way God intended it to be, in a committed marriage relationship between a husband and wife. Yup, I would be that bold.
Sheila says
I agree! We need to be bold. Thanks Brenda.
Louise Farnham says
I hope that noone in the committed marriage wants to follow Jesus (Luke14:26).
If I may be so bold – keep your religion to yourself.
Janet says
There’s no reason to attack someone for something that you haven’t studied enough to understand. That passage merely means that followers of Jesus have to be able to reject everything that prohibits their ability to follow His teachings.
joshua becker says
Thanks for the comments everybody. But the rest of your conversation should probably take place elsewhere. This is a post about Super Bowl advertisements.
Inkdig says
I don’t know if this was so much in evidence in the Super Bowl ads, but I’ve been noticing more and more companies pushing the “Activism Through Consumerism” tactic in their advertising.
The basic gist is that to own or use a company’s product is to be part of a political movement. It’s a more sophisticated version of the old “Cool People Use This” angle. If you use these products, you will not only be *like* the people you admire: you will effectively be making a political statement, taking a stand against injustice, earning membership in The Struggle. With so many genuine protests in the news lately, a lot of companies apparently saw an opportunity to capitalize on the image of grassroots activism — young people taking a stand for a common goal. Of course, the inherent lie is that people can make a difference by buying something, and that taking a stand is as simple as charging your credit card; in reality, nothing will change unless people get off the couch and get involved.
I (thankfully) can’t remember the products involved, but keep an eye out, and you’ll spot them everywhere.
Annie says
I’ve noticed that as well. The most obvious are all of the companies who “pinkify” their products and push them as a way to donate to breast cancer research during October. As a relative of someone who died from breast cancer, the way these companies try to increase sales by pinkifying their products really bugs me. People are better off donating directly, and it’s wise to check out the charity on such sites as Charity Navigator first so you know how much of your donation will go towards the administration running the charity.
mr. bean says
what about companies that sell products that are supposedly better for the environment, like reusable cups, but are still encased in excessive packaging to full up the landfills. Or they try to convince you to replace a perfectly good product with one that is made in a way that is better for the environment in some way and just throw the old one on the garbage.
Annie says
My mom used to watch TV with us and often commented on commercials and the programs too. She taught us to watch with a critical eye and to choose carefully what we spent our time watching. I watch very little TV nowadays because most of it is garbage that sends the wrong message about how people should treat one another, (don’t even get me started on the networks aimed at women such as Oxygen, ARGH!!!), and most commercials are just as ridiculous.
My husband and I have become so frustrated with most programming that we have begun the process of getting rid of our cable service and will have only the free basic network channels, which is fine for our needs. We mainly watch the news and occasionally things on PBS. We resent paying for “junk” channels we never watch. Instead we will be able to pick and choose from Netflix disc and on-demand service, and I’ll finally get to read all of the books I’ve been meaning to get to.
Sheila says
Good post. I agree. The Go Daddy commercials are always obscene. I was watching the Taco Bell commercial (the old people “partying”) with my 16 year-old son and we both commented about how dumb it was. So it’s fun to go to nightclubs, drink, and get tattoos? That’s not what life is all about, and I’m glad the values taught in our church teach us otherwise.
Banjo Steve says
Wow! I just read the “Anonymous” comment above mine. To me, hypocrisy is writing such a judgmental comment without owning up to who you are. Another sad thing to witness. Be well.
Banjo Steve says
Like you, I had some quite negative reactions to many of the commercials, though several were just fine. However, the unrealistic view of the world that some ads propagandize so well, I feel, is one of the big reasons that our culture/country, as wealthy as it is, is full of so many unhappy people who feel they don’t have “enough” or feel left out of all those good things that “should” be available to them. What a shame.
anonymous says
The fact that you even watched the Super Bowl in the first place has me suspect. That game epitomizes all that is materialistic in the complete universe. It is a glorification of the obscene and the absurd.
And you even sponsored parties as part of the idolization of your insanity!
I think YOU are #1 in life’s misconceptions portrayed. Hypocrite indeed.
Jen says
You’re at the wrong blog. becomingextremist.com is that way –>
everlearning says
I have been thinking about this comment since it was posted on 2/4. I have no intention of bashing Joshua, and while I think this post was simply mean and nasty, somewhere in there I found a tiny particle of truth. I hope to be more gentle in expressing my feelings on this. I, too was surprised when I saw this post from Joshua about the Super Bowl and the ads. Somehow in my mind’s eye of Joshua’s life, I imagined that he would have no part of the whole Super Bowl thing. That’s my problem, not his. One of the things that I have appreciated so much about Joshua’s Becoming Minimalist site is that he never tells us HOW to minimize or WHAT to minimize or that we have to be just like him; he simply encourages us to think, to be open to new ideas and change, and to minimize in our own way. And he never condemns those who don’t live like he does.
I am a female in my early 50s and have been involved in sports in some way all my life. I played sports competitively through college, have remained active in sports since then and lead a very active life. My husband of 30 years was also an athlete through college and still remains very active and loves sports. Our four children have all been involved in sports (some more than others). That being said, “sports”, as I recall from my youth, is a very different animal than it is today. I love the competition. I love what the best of playing a sport and being on a team can do for an individual. But increasingly, I find myself in a love/hate relationship with sports. It seems it’s taken on a life of its own, and spectators are partly to blame. Its become so much about money and power. And while I cringe at quoting “anonymous”, to me (and others) sports at all levels seems to have an element that “epitomizes all that is materialistic” and “is a glorification of the obscene and the absurd”. (Wow, that was tough!) I want to watch a good football game/basketball game/golf tournament/tennis match, etc. But I also know what’s driving these things to their current level. Money, power, greed, selfishness, and yes, materialism. We buy bigger and bigger and more expensive TVs so we can get the “be there” effect while watching. We spend huge amounts of money to attend these events. (And we are just coming out of the Great Recession??? The money spent for these things is something I cannot even comprehend.) We put up with commercials that are mostly trash. We pay money for more TV channels so that we can watch more sports. Most arenas and stadiums are named after a company/advertiser, and you can hardly watch a game on TV or at the actual event without being bombarded with advertisements all over the arena or stadium – on the scorers table, on the scoreboard, on the seats, printed on the fields or the courts. Sex is prevalent from the cheerleaders’ outfits and movements (are they really still cheerleaders these days?), the dancers, the halftime shows, the commercials. On and on it goes, worse and worse every year, and we still watch, we still participate, we still pay for it, we still give money to our favorite teams, we still pay for all the sports paraphernalia, we still put up with it. Most of us gasp when we hear what it costs to air a commercial during the Super Bowl. But still, we put up with it.
My husband and I have always discussed commercials with our kids (often even turning off the TV during the discussion, despite the “Aww, come on!” remarks). But it has been the only way we could justify watching it, and we have had some really great discussions with our kids. They have also learned a lot about advertising and toxic messages. But is that enough? I don’t know. I also know I don’t have the answers to all this. But my husband and I have seriously discussed finding a cable company that can give us fewer channels (even though we have the smallest package possible through our current supplier). For decades our TV has not been turned on during the week (M-Th), we’ve discussed getting rid of the TV (but we enjoy borrowing a movie from the library for an occasional family movie night), we’re watching less and less sports and we haven’t watched any sitcoms, dramas, or news shows in many years. But none of this makes us heroes. I struggle for answers. I struggle with sports. I struggle with advertising. I struggle with mass media in general. But the struggle – asking the tough questions – helps me learn and grow and hopefully change for the better. For me, that’s what this site is all about. Thank you, Joshua!
everlearning says
Sorry to add on to that very long post …. but, lest we forget, we also put up with the ever-increasing scandals in sports (think Penn State, Ohio State, concussion in football…..)!
John Krygiel says
Great points Joshua. Marketers would have society believe that happiness can be bought in increments and to have you just need to buy ONE more thing. Until that one more thing breaks/goes out of style. The wool has been pulled over everyone’s eyes for too long! Good post to bring these thoughts some light.