Daniel Reidy

Media Criticism
Capitalist Media Capitalizing on Consumers

Since the dawn of the media, someone, or a group of people, has been making a buck on

the entertainment of, and the act of informing, the masses. Where people are referred to as ‘fans’

or ‘viewers’, a more accurate term would be ‘consumers’. People have turned into consumers

through capitalist media. We consume what the media produce and distribute, never questioning

the content for the most part. We need to be concerned with who is producing what we

consume, the means in which they distribute their product, and why they are producing it in the

first place. The answer to almost every question having to do with the media and their motives is

one simple word – profit.

According to Advertising and the End of the World, capitalism has never had a problem

with produce or distributing goods. “The problem with capitalism is consumption.” (Jhally,

1998) The solution to this problem is advertising. The goal of the advertising industry is to make

a product desirable. Just last week, I was in a marketing class and we were discussing

classifying products as wants or needs. I ended up being the most vocal in the class because I

was trying to make the point that the whole point of marketing is to make every product a “need

product” by making consumers truly believe they need it.

The best example I can think of for turning a product from a want to a need was

discussed in Advertising and the End of the World. Jhally discusses the “Diamonds are Forever”

campaign as being the one of the first and most memorable advertising campaigns. The slogan

started getting used in the 1940’s. Before the campaign, diamond rings and even wedding bands

in general were sort of uncommon for most couples. It was in the diamond industry’s best

interest to turn diamonds from a want to a need, and they did an outstanding job of that.
 Now relationships are very heavily weighted on how nice the bride’s ring is. Men are

expected to spend thousands of dollars on a ring, because if they do not, then clearly they do not

love the woman enough. Of course, I am being sarcastic but this is how society thinks now.

However, there is some truth to advertising. “The falsity of advertising is in the answers they

provide, not the appeal” (Jhally, 1998). While you can’t deny expensive rings are beautiful, the

beauty of the ring most often does not directly correlate to how happy the couple is in the long

run.

When consumers go from wanting some products to needing every product, this leads to

affluenza. “Affluenza is the unhappy condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting

from the dogged pursuit of more” (Graaf, 1997). People are trying, now more than ever, to meet

non-material needs with material ends. From “retail therapy” where consumers shop when they

are stressed, to always “needing” to have the newest version of everything, consumers do not

realize they will never truly be satisfied. Yet, the way to happiness is not through consumption

and spending, but through truly laughing, loving, and enjoying the simple things life offers.

A second point made by Graaf which resonated was, “Never before, it seems, has so

much meant so little to so many” (Graaf, 1997). At first, it was the almost poetic sound of the

sentence, but then his message began to develop meaning to me. Whether it be a specific

product, a show on television, a movie, a song, a celebrity story, or anything the media produce,

I feel as though most people do not care about much of the content that is put in front of them.

From “Kim and Kanye are pregnant again” to “Las Vegas Shooting” to “Brand New IPhone 8”,

consumers have developed a scrolling mindset. If something does not directly affect them, they

just keep scrolling.

 This scrolling mindset makes it difficult for advertisers to stick out. Chris Brizzard’s

notes on McChesney’s The Problem of the Media explains some of the hurdles. From brand

identity to avoiding controversial topics, advertising has set guidelines for success. The biggest

rule being establishing “something is wrong with the consumer” (Brizzard, 1970). Often, the

problem consumers have is they are not good enough and the product being advertised will fix

them. “Smell bad?” Here’s some perfume! “Can’t find a date?” Try online dating! “Thirsty?”

Enjoy a Coke! “Advertising is reaching new frontiers and fusing into different content forms”

(Brizzard, 1970). This means there is virtually no avoiding ads.

We cannot avoid ads because they have basically become a part of our everyday lives.

“Mass media corporations are everywhere, and we spend considerable time using their products”

(Campbell et al., 2014, p. 165). For a moment, there was a spec of light in the darkness

advertising surrounds us in. This heaven-sent light was the invention of DVR. Consumers could

skip right over commercials on television and go back to being viewers. While this made life a

little more convenient for consumers, it also outraged advertisers. They did not want to continue

paying full price for commercial time slots if most of the audience was just going to fast forward

over it anyways. People were skipping right over new products and this was a problem because

“our economy depends on consumer spending” (Gitlin, 2007). This led advertisers to get

creative with product placement.

By definition, product placement is “a form of advertisement where branded goods and

services are placed in a context devoid of ads” (Product Placement, 2017). When I hear the term

‘product placement’, the image of the American Idol judges sitting at the desk with the huge

Coca Cola glasses pops into my head immediately. Products are placed anywhere and

everywhere they can be. Television shows, billboards, bumper stickers, coffee cups, elementary
schools, and so many more places. The most profitable places for advertisers to taint has seemed

to be in movies.

Politics are another example of a part of life which has been taken over by the media.

“Free debate for all would limit our media institutions’ ability to maximize profits, presenting a

vexing problem that thus far has been resolved in favor of TV stations maintaining their right to

charge for advertising” (Campbell, Jensen, Gomery, Fabos, Frechette, 2014 p. 172). Free debate

on publicly funded channels would be amazing because we would not have bias reporters leaning

towards one candidate. But it is not in the best interest of those who profit off advertising during

national debates to do something to lessen their profits. “The journalism industry needs to

reinvent itself and try new economic avenues that better balance seeking profit and serving

democracy to ensure its future” (Campbell et al., 2014, p. 194).

While entertaining the masses is always on the producer’s mind, Hollywood films have

always had the main objective of making a profit. Ericsson and Soar’s Hollywood Goes

Hypercommercial briefly mentions placement agencies. Placement agencies are the sort of

middle man between advertisers and filmmakers. “They have a hand in scriptwriting” (Ericsson,

2000). Ericsson’s film makes the examples of Ray Bans in Risky Business and Reese’s Pieces in

E.T. as films which drastically boosted a product’s profit margin. The concept makes perfect

sense. The only justification consumers need to buy a product is, “My favorite celebrity uses it

and I want to be like them”.

Ericsson also mentioned two problems product placement brings to filmmaking. The

first being, to some degree, product placement turns movies into very long commercials. Instead

of movies being storyline driven, they could start to be product driven which infringes on the

creativeness of everyone involved with the film. The second problem is unrealistic plugs.
Specifically, the un-naturalness of how people hold things was mentioned. You never see half of

a label in a film, the actor always has the product 100% face forward which is just not natural.

This averts the audiences away from the story and only draws attention to the product.

Furthermore, advertisers realized a long time ago that consumers are insecure people.

Everyone has insecurities and companies try to, once again, convince consumers their product is

the answer to their prayers. The most insecure consumers are the same ones advertisers try to go

after the most – children. According to Marketing to Children, children are responsible for

billions of consumer spending dollars, so “manufacturers and advertisers can’t afford to ignore

children” (Beder). Even a purchase as simple as buying a car cannot be made without the kid’s

consent. Children go from observing their parents shop, to requesting things while they are at

the store, to selecting things for themselves, and then finally make independent purchases.

The whole false sense of independence advertisers make kids feel like they have only

leads to children wanting to grow up faster in my opinion. Through the music they listen to,

children get “overblown perceptions on peers’ sexual behavior” (Epstein, 2014) and feel the need

to play catch up with the rest of the world. As previously stated, children are very insecure and

are just looking for ways to fit in and act more mature than they are, advertisers constantly seize

that opportunity and look at it as a way of building loyal customers. “With the prevalence of the

Internet, parents often seek out the best filters to monitor content and protect their children from

viewing unwanted and inappropriate material” (Whatcott 2011). While parents will always look

to shelter their kids, companies will always try to get sexualized material to as many people as

possible if it is in their best interest, no matter what the consumer’s age is.

Furthermore, advertisers are looking for new ways to really get inside the minds of

consumers to find out what it is they really want and need. From Nielsen Families to MRI’s,
advertisers do as much as they can to link with consumers on a neurological level. They want to

find out consumer “emotions and who they really are” (Lafayette). Through gathering a

database of what kind of material consumers are emotionally responding to, they want to find out

what consumers want before they even want it. “These corporations share the same goal: to

mine your brain so they can blow your mind with products you deeply desire” (Penenberg).

Through technological advances, corporations may even be able to get consumers to

spend far more than they already spend. “With that knowledge, brands can create ads that not

only find people at the right time and right place but in the right emotional state” (Castillo 2016).

This means that not only will advertisers know what people want when they are happy, but also

what consumers will be willing to purchase when they are any negative emotion as well. This

will only enhance the consumer belief that we need material goods to help us manage our

emotions. In Fake Mirrors May Soon Ensnare Shoppers in Webs of Lies, Waldman talks about

mirrors in stores which can alter facial expressions to make people look better or happier in

clothing items than they normally would (Waldman, 2013). While this is not necessarily the

most ethical approach, it is without a doubt a very creative new way to go about sales.

Advertisement has changed a lot about the media; from radio shows to full length

movies. Where people are referred to as ‘fans’ or ‘viewers’, a more accurate term would be

‘consumers’. People have turned into consumers through capitalist media. We consume what

the media produce and distribute, never questioning the content for the most part. The biggest

factor for the corporations behind the content is how much profit is being made.
Works Cited

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Brizzard, Chris. “Notes for McChesney's "The Problem of the Media"...” Chapter 4: The Age of
Hyper-Commercialism, 1 Jan. 1970, problemofmedia.blogspot.com/2007/04/chapter-4-
age-of-hyper-commercialism.html.

Campbell, R., Jensen, J., Gomery, D., Fabos, B., & Frechette, J. D. (2014). Media in Society.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Castillo, Michelle. “How Your Device Lets Brands Tap into Your Emotions.” CNBC, CNBC, 17
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emotions.html.

Epstein, Varda. “The Impact of Song Lyrics on Our Children: What You Need to
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lyrics-on-our-children-what-you-need-to-know/.

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Graaf, J. D. (Director). (1997). Affluenza [Video file]. Bullfrog Films.

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Penenberg, Adam L. “NeuroFocus Uses Neuromarketing To Hack Your Brain.” Fast Company,
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