Is it evil to help the corporations to manipulate the minds of young people for the sake of profit?
I have mixed feelings on this issue, i wouldn't say that the corporations that manipulate the minds of young people are exactly moral but to call them evil is a bit of a stretch. Corporations that try to sell cool simply use the most direct and effective way in the market, Television and it happens so often and in such volume that we have become wise to the manipulation. I don't consider the corporations evil just immoral so naturally i don't see those who help the corporations as evil. Athletes and musicians who sponsor the company are just trying to become known and heard. In the commercial with Grant Hill he wasn't attempting to brainwash the youth he was just making a commercial for sprite for his own personal attention. As was said in the lecture with matt ever since we were babies we have been trying to get attention and love. It is one of the pitfalls of our physiological chemistry. So is really evil for Grant Hill to want attention, it is one thing to call a corporation evil but it is another thing to accuse others of manipulating the youth when all they are doing is getting attention. I doubt that is what Grant hill had in min when he agreed to do the commercial.
Like the stars, and athletes who sponsor the product or phenomenon another way corporations get to what is cool is from the teens themselves. In the frontline video "merchants of cool" they interview the members of a company called look-look. Look-look is considered a cool hunter they go around and find what is cool now and take pictures of it for the corporations. So whether they realize it or not the teens are helping the corporations manipulate the rest of the youth. So the teens that are hunted by Look-look and given to corporations are in turn manipulating their own kind. Which begs the question how can teens be evil for sub-consciously manipulating themselves? Its immoral for the corporations to exploit the teens but its not evil for being a trend setter.
Whether or not those who help the corporations manipulate the minds of the youth know what they are doing makes a big difference. To me if you know that by staring in a commercial or singing with the company logo over your head you would be essentially controlling what the youth sees and likes then there might be some justification to call you evil, but if you are just utilizing a corporation to make a name for yourself and are unaware of the repercussions of your actions its incorrect accusation to call you evil. Those who help the corporations are they themselves being manipulated by the long arm of companies marketing strategy.
Should advertising to young people be banned? Up to what age? Or all ages?
The banning of advertisements to the youth seem to me a little extreme. To completely ban any an all advertisements is claim that will end up having a profound effect on our lives, and not all in a good way. there is no dening that some adds are blatantly wrong, racy, or manipulative like adds that tell kids to smoke, or subliminal advertisements and they should be put on a shorter leash but not all. And now more than ever advertisements and marketing play a big effect in the global economy.
Subliminal messages are really just plain wrong, they are deceiving and what some consider mind control. they lead you in and before you realize it, it has implanted something in your mind. It implants information below or near the normal threshold. so without realizing it you have been subjected to another add. According to merchants of cool teens process around 3000 adds a day (not all of the 3000 are subliminal.) Yes that's a ton of messages and information and maybe it should cut back a little but who is to say what gets cut what doesn't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXcSWTb9zz8
This youtube video is a Australian news report on the use of subliminal messages during an awards ceremony. According to them it technically is illegal. one quote from the video from a teacher at the university of Sydney states that "Subliminal advertising is banded because it is a form a mind-control: it aims to influence us in ways that we are unaware of, and consequently that we could not choose to resist even if we wanted to." This type of advertising should be banned, marketing the sub-conscious is really just wrong. This I think should be banned to all ages teens, children, and adults.
In conclusion the banning of all advertising to young people is a bit too extreme because in reality adds are what helps to drive competition. If we were to ban all adds it might have a disastrous effect on the sales of companies and in turn hurting our economy. However there must be a limit, adds that affect mental health need to be banned for regard to the health of the population.
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