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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Wed Mar 18, 2015, 05:54 AM Mar 2015

Fear Sells, And We're All Buying: How Marketers Channel Dark Forces to Rake in Billions

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/fear-sells-and-were-all-buying-how-marketers-channel-dark-forces-rake-billions

Like any good con, advertising relies on sleight of hand. There’s an art to convincing an increasingly ad-weary and debt-saddled American public that it should spend money on products it neither needs nor can afford, and as it turns out, that art is mostly built on fear. If you cannot remember the last time you were essentially terrified into buying something, that’s only because savvy advertisers have gotten incredibly good at their jobs. Evidence of fear’s efficacy in advertising is everywhere, from off-road vehicles that never leave the streets of the Upper East Side to anti-perspirants that do nothing to help wearers find their soulmates. Studies confirm that the “interest [in] and persuasiveness of” ads is increased by fear, which explains why “fear appeals are one of the most frequently used motivators” for getting people to respond to marketing of every sort. From snake oil salesmen to digital marketers, advertisers have long preyed on our insecurities to sell us products that don’t so much solve our problems as they do allay our darkest fears.

They do this because it works, and because fear is an endlessly adaptable tool. As Gavin de Becker writes in The Gift of Fear, “What you think you fear is rarely what you fear – it’s what you link to fear.” So whereas fear once served as a survival instinct – the emotion that saved us from real life saber-toothed cats and giant raptors – modern Americans’ fears of mortality have taken the form of imagined predators from Communists to immigrants to street gangs to ISIS. We fear being friendless, loveless, invisible, socially ostracized and – perhaps most obviously – alone. Humiliation, science now tells us, is a soul-crushing feeling we’d do anything to avoid. With so many subconscious fears plaguing us, it’s unsurprising that studies find people “better remember and more frequently recall ads that portray fear than they do warm or upbeat ads or ads with no emotional content.” We are the products of a culture that teaches us to fear an endless list of things that advertisers can, and absolutely do, use against us. The oft-repeated phrase that sex sells turns out to be wrong after a little scientific investigation. Sex just gets your attention. Fear actually moves units.
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Fear Sells, And We're All Buying: How Marketers Channel Dark Forces to Rake in Billions (Original Post) xchrom Mar 2015 OP
Yeah... chervilant Mar 2015 #1
Although a little dated now, the movie Network nailed it in the '70s deutsey Mar 2015 #3
Fear only works to a certain extent laundry_queen Mar 2015 #2
That's why I turn off the ads. Dont call me Shirley Mar 2015 #4
That is how they sold the Iraq war GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #5
"And Religion uses lots of fear as well" FiveGoodMen Mar 2015 #6
I'm starting to think the marketing and advertising industry might be the source of all our misery. Initech Mar 2015 #7

deutsey

(20,166 posts)
3. Although a little dated now, the movie Network nailed it in the '70s
Wed Mar 18, 2015, 08:10 AM
Mar 2015

What is finished... is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It's the individual that's finished. It's the single, solitary human being that's finished. It's every single one of you out there that's finished, because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some 200-odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-that-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings, and as replaceable as piston rods... Well, the time has come to say, is dehumanization such a bad word. Because good or bad, that's what is so. The whole world is becoming humanoid - creatures that look human but aren't. The whole world not just us. We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first. The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things...

laundry_queen

(8,646 posts)
2. Fear only works to a certain extent
Wed Mar 18, 2015, 08:01 AM
Mar 2015

Basically, psychological studies show they can't scare you TOO much and they have to provide a reasonable solution to your fear that makes sense (which, obviously, would be their product). When they trigger excessive fear, people tend to tune it out. So it's a fine line. Of course, the real problem with this is that they spend tons of money on psychological research like that to find out how to manipulate people.

ETA: most people think they are immune to being manipulated by advertising. Research shows they are wrong - almost everyone can be manipulated by advertising, even those people who think they are above it. Advertising works.

GreatGazoo

(3,937 posts)
5. That is how they sold the Iraq war
Wed Mar 18, 2015, 09:26 AM
Mar 2015

It is not just consumer products that get sold this way. And Religion uses lots of fear as well.

FiveGoodMen

(20,018 posts)
6. "And Religion uses lots of fear as well"
Wed Mar 18, 2015, 12:27 PM
Mar 2015

'Agree with us or burn forever!'

I think you might have understated the case.

Initech

(99,915 posts)
7. I'm starting to think the marketing and advertising industry might be the source of all our misery.
Wed Mar 18, 2015, 12:39 PM
Mar 2015

Think about it - for every product you buy, how much goes into marketing and advertising? Look at the for profit education industry - for every $10 you spend on it, $8 goes to marketing. $2 goes to improving the product. And then health care - the pharmaceutical companies spend like drunken sailors to convince doctors to give you drugs you don't need. Or tobacco,and how much Philip Morris spends to convince small countries that plain packaging laws are the devil. I'm sure we have people on this website that work in that industry, but prove me wrong.

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