Are we in the Matrix?

[Ideal08]

After flipping through a 1968 Life Magazine, I started pondering some stuff.

Ok, there was an ad in there for Nutrament. Let me tell yall about Nutrament. Nutrament is a powdered drink, kinda like SlimFast. The difference? Nutrament helps you GAIN weight: you drink it in ADDITION to your meals, instead of in place of them. It adds 375 calories to your daily intake. Now, chew on that for a moment. Now, 34 years later, try and find an ad for helping you GAIN weight (besides boby builder mags).

Then, all of the alcohol ads pretty much are telling you to drink up. There was even a recipe in there for a Thanksgiving Rum Punch (knowing the last thing you need at a family gathering is Rum).

How different were things 34 years ago, really? So, people weren't as health conscious, but were people thinner? So much thinner that they had to advertise weight gain products? Or were we, and are we, being pimped by the media?

Why does this make me think of The Matrix? Because we may as well be batteries, as far as capitalistic for-profit companies are concerned. They can pretty much PROGRAM into us what we need and what we don't. And we buy into it, every time. I wonder what they will be advertising in another 34 years? Will we be advocating weight loss or gain? To drink or not to drink? To smoke or not to smoke? The bigger question is, will they ever market to us what we REALLY need, or only what they want us to buy?

What do yall think?

[DeTeRm1NaT1on]

As more and more products come out, its the medias (really the marketing and advertising companies) job to sell the products whatever way they can. Many people (myself included) do pay attention to the media and allow them to control what we as the consumers think. It is sad in a way but it allows jobs for people like myself who want to get into marketing. For example, when it was discovered that tap water wasn't as good as people thought, all of these ads for water filters came out and people still buy them. As television and newspaper ads started to show people who were slimmer and had more toned bodies, all of these gym, diet pills, and drink ads started to come out. Maybe it wouldn't make much of a difference if we had batteries in our backs like the energizer bunny, but hopefully we can all snap out of it. (Just my opinion)

[tickledpink]

Originally posted by Ideal08
The bigger question is, will they ever market to us what we REALLY need, or only what they want us to buy?

What do yall think?

I think we do allow ourselves to fall prey to the media hype. Even with the loose weight, hard body trend that going on now, the media tends to hype up different techniques - from Slim Fast to fat burners, to the new pills that somehow separates the fat from your food and helps you pass it though you body. I'm sure more than 1 person, especially after seeing Janet's concert, have wondered about lipo or the gastro bypass (?) procedure. I like to call it the "flavor of the week" mentality.

[straightBOS]

Originally posted by Ideal08
Because we may as well be batteries, as far as capitalistic for-profit companies are concerned.

Capitalism is us. This economy thrives on selling whatever, whenever, however. That's what makes us sooooooo grrrreat.

I have stopped being surprised because what people are willing to do to make a buck is truly beyond belief.

Also, good marketing actually comes not from what we think we NEED, but what we can be led to believe we need. And the kicker is, we must feel GRATIFIED by our purchase. It causes us to continue buying more and more products without seriously questioning what we really got and we definitely don't change our buying habits.

Remember, who would have thought you could actually SELL water.