It's Doctor Recommended: How Advertisers Manipulate Consumers

Industries have created a new, ground breaking art form that can control the minds of people. It is an expression of human creative skill and imagination but in an unexpected, twisted way. It can be written, drawn, painted, sung, danced, or composed –this art form can be presented through multiple forms. But it is like no other art because it contains the ability to control how people live their lives, how they think, how they act, and how they spend. What can this art form possibly be? You may ask. It is the art every advertiser uses to get more money in their bank accounts. It is the art of manipulation:the art of exerting clever, devious influences for the company’s own advantage. They do not care how the product affects you; they only care how the product affects their pockets. My topic is formulated to fit CBC Radio’s podcast show “Under the Influence” with Terry O’Reilly. Since manipulation is a broad topic, I will try to solve the problem of how advertisers are able to manipulate us, through tobacco ads. After carefully analyzing the audience of “Under the Influence” through mediums like Terry O’Reilly’s episode “Dear Terry”, where listeners sent in unsolved questions that they had about advertisements like: “how do ads grab our attention even when they don’t really advertise anything?” or “does having the same actors in TV ads help hinder the brand they represent?”; I discovered that the listeners of this podcast enjoy learning the fundamentals of advertising. This is why I chose to explore how advertisers are able to use manipulation through tobacco ads in the 50s.I believe this issue is an important topic because everyone in Western culture is affected by the advertising they see in the media –I will like to explain to all of you how companies are able to control our lifestyle and how they affect our way of life through the example of tobacco. The broader issue I wish to cover is to show listeners how we are all truly under the influence of advertisements through their unique ability to control our minds. The complex, imaginative, omnipotent, devious art form of manipulation has changed the world we know and I will like to show you how.