Ad and the Ego Analysis

The Ad and the Ego

This next blog entry goes out to my ADPR 5140 class. We were assigned to watch and write a critical analysis of Parallax Pictures’ The Ad and the Ego, an academic documentary that radically criticizes the advertising industry and its hazardous effects on today’s society. Although I don't agree with the extent of the attack this film places on our future profession, I support it’s warning on the subliminal impact that advertising has on our world.

This semester I have been interning with Jeff Snowden, a strategic marketer from Athens, where I have been conducting research on the relationship between Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and marketing communications. In our research we have started to deconstruct each level of the hierarchy and analyze how those elements induce the unconscious thoughts and actions that direct human motivation. Whether it is the sense of security or the need for acceptance, we have the biological tendencies to make certain decisions to acquire what we need to achieve self-actualization.

When people are introduced to something that can interfere with that goal, anxiety kicks in and we look for a solution. We become desperate and turn to anything to fulfill that need and give us comfort. Since we are an image-based society we are easily acceptable to the visual stimuli around us, like the warmth of the color red or an advertisement featuring a happy couple. From the day we were born we have learned to associate these images and colors with emotions and ideas. For example, think of an ad of a smiling young couple driving a BMW by the beach side. Feelings correlated with those images are induced in the viewer and we subconsciously associate that particular product with those happy feelings. We begin to believe that we can achieve this happiness if we use the product.

It is true that the images portrayed in advertising are helping mold society’s ideals and lifestyle. But to what extent? What I don't support...