On Recognizing How Advertising Works on Me

After years of thinking myself relatively immune to superficial and gimmicky things like advertising, I've come to realize, much to my chagrin, that I am not as immune to it as I thought. However, I think that this acknowledgment is a step in the right direction. In recognizing how advertising works on me, I can hopefully take its influence into account, and hopefully this will enable me to make better purchasing decisions in the future.

How Advertising Works . . .

I'm Not As Immune to Advertising As I Thought I Was!

I used to pride myself on seeing through the marketing ploys and advertising gimmicks of the corporate conmen. For example, back when I used to smoke, I would buy whatever brand of cigarettes were on sale. At the bar where I was working at the time, marketing agents from the various tobacco companies would frequently visit, passing out free samples of new varieties of cigarettes or adding you to their mailing lists in exchange for a promise to send you a free carton. I would take their cigarettes, but never convert to their brand.

I thought I was incredibly independent-minded, since I could smoke any brand of cigarettes I chose, without succumbing to the cartoonish charms of Joe Camel or the cowboy image of the Marlboro Man. In reality, though, the tobacco companies had already hooked me years before: my decision to try cigarettes in the first place was influenced by decades of relentless marketing and clever advertising. Part of the temptation was that smoking seemed so debonair and exciting, but that element had been added by the corporate conmen; there was very little sophistication or excitement inherent in the product itself.

The eye-opener for me came when I was on vacation at the beach a few years ago. My wife was about to go to the store for coffee, milk, cereal, and sandwich-making ingredients. She asked me if I wanted anything. To put myself in the mood of relaxation and enjoyment, I specifically requested that she get "some really good, dark beer and some really good coffee." Then, thinking about the sandwiches, I added, "And get some really good mustard, something like Grey Poupon."

How Grey Poupon's Advertising Worked on Me

As she left, I wondered, why did I specifically request Grey Poupon like that? I wanted to enjoy higher quality food and drink, since I was on vacation. I do enjoy dark beer and good coffee, but why was I so specific about what kind of mustard went on my sandwiches? Was there really that much difference between the various brands of Dijon mustard?

Then, in a flash, it hit me. I remembered the commercial from the 1980s, which was so widely imitated and lampooned throughout American culture: two British gentlemen are next to each other in their posh Rolls Royces, and one asks the other, "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"

I had requested Grey Poupon mustard for no other reason than the influence of that commercial. At the time of the incident I am describing, it had probably been at least twenty years since I had last seen a Grey Poupon commercial on television, but there it was, all the same, lurking silently in my subconscious, just waiting for the right cue to exert its subtle influence. And I thought to myself, holy shit! This advertising is some powerful stuff!

As a child, I had seen this commercial. As an adult, I really had not been aware that I remembered the commercial, until something brought it to my attention. When I saw the commercial as a kid, I had practically no understanding of human psychology, neuroscience, sales, or marketing, so I was easy prey. I thought the commercial was amusing and a little funny. I remember kids at school imitating the commercial's dialogue. I had never consciously thought, "I want to be like those two pompous and stuffy guys in the commercial, so I'll use Grey Poupon mustard." Yet somehow, I had subconsciously adopted an association between Grey Poupon mustard, on the one hand, and elegance, refinement, style, taste, and luxury, on the other. And that subconscious association was so strong, that it was still influencing my purchasing decisions more than twenty years later.

How to Resist the Subconscious Influence of Advertising?

Of course, if I'm honest with myself, the Grey Poupon example is not an isolated incident. I can sing along with certain advertising jingles from memory. If you were to play only the video of the advertisements that ran during Saturday morning cartoons in the 1980s, I bet I could supply the audio from memory. I remember very little about being a young child, but I remember all those songs from Sesame Street, as well as all those songs from so many mindless commercials. And if I'm still falling for Grey Poupon's silly gimmicks, then how many other products am I buying because of subconscious influences like that?

I've heard some good suggestions for reining in impulse buying, such as giving myself a "cooling-off" period, where I give myself some arbitrary amount of time between making a decision to buy something and actually making the purchase. Another effective tool has been restricting my purchases to cash, instead of using plastic, since my cash on hand is always more limited than what my card might allow me to purchase.

In recognizing how advertising works on me, I see that it is not a fair fight. Collectively, the advertisers have more manpower, more resources, more time, and more money to leverage against me, but now that I'm starting to be honest with myself about my naivety and gullibility, I will hopefully be able to resist them a little better than before.