Lately I've been thinking about the the great power that marketing can have over people. Most people are so affected by the material world that they can be convinced they have the most bizarre requirements and desires.
Cigarettes and alcohol, for example, are products that no-ones body needs, that no-one gets any real benefit from yet many people have these high on their list of requirements.
The marketing of high fat, high sugar snack foods is another interesting observation. Our bodies and minds desire them so much yet our long term health is destroyed by the copious consumption of them.
Meat is a great example. The marketeers have who generations of adults convinced that eating the flesh of other creatures is critical to their health, when the truth is the reverse, it is critical to your health that you stop eating animal flesh.
The modes of nature are so subtle that even though we know we are under the influence it is very difficult to notice when our strings are being pulled.
Many advertisements are actually very subtle and sophisticated attempts to mold our thinking. The marketeers seem to become ever more able to manage our understanding.
It seems to be common knowledge amongst businesses that peoples desires can be temporarily sated, but it will wear off so quickly that we will keep coming back for more in the hope that we will be satisfied.
They also seem to know that if they tell us over and over again at every opportunity that we will be more likely to buy their product.
One of the interesting things occurring lately in the media marketing is the medicalisation of food. Many of the adverts bring to our attention the medical benefits of eating this breakfast cereal, or using that face cream.
This cereal has iron and vitamin C. They forget to mention the piles of sugar and fat in there as well, and the artificial colors and flavors.
As we become purified from the effect of the material world by chanting and remembering Krishna we should be less affected by the hypnosis of advertising. What do you think.
Materialistic Marketing is Temporary
The marketing of the materialists is temporary. The marketing of Krishna, as He is, is permanent. Which effect is more powerful?
Fear Factor
Subliminal attack of intimidation to the point of the one real choice the we have in our freewill- to decide if we are in or out of the game. The seeking of pleasure over pain is the invitation, but the underlying invitation is the proposal for some sort of comfort and stability by belonging to the social strata of users. The fear of not belonging, keeps them coming back.
we have only one real choice of freewill- spirituality or not! All other things and experiences that we have and we live here where we think we have free will is just an illusion of misaligned ego.
On the ladder of desires as a society we are maxing out and are at the point of destruction/renewal or submission to a higher order.
Not all segments of society are on the last rung of the ladder, but are still further back, like in the desire for money and power- this is a very large group, and they feel the push to the threshold, so the first reaction is to cling real tight to what they have and what they know.
This is a time when the the most diabolical schemes of manipulation will take place, wherein the manipulators have learned to get right to the root source that propels people to decide- Fear, the fear of not belonging. To someone on the fence with their one real choice, fear keeps them in the game!
Harbol
Negative Conditioning...
Materialistic evolution is diametrically opposed to spiritual evolution. The dominant consciousness in the world is based on the former. As a result of a large collective mindset, they deem it acceptable to commit such heinous atrocities as animal slaughter without fear of the inevitable consequences. All you have to do is drive past a billboard to see these appalling adverts about this kind of burger or that kind of steak. Very sad.
Remember, sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side.