Selling Happiness : The Illusion Of Persuasion

A Harvard study conducted across 100 countries found that whether rich or poor, people who give to charity are happier. Perceived happiness increases, even more, when we see the impact of our gift has on someone.

Advertisements are making a negative impact on American culture, as they sway people’s emotions and moods, causing them to purchase unnecessary products. In the web article, Seven Reasons Why We’re Irrational Shoppers, Dr. Alain Samson observes that, “51 percent of respondents said that ‘feeling happy’ was a trigger for unplanned purchases” (Samson).This shows that, at times, a person’s feelings can also be a play a crucial role in persuading him or her to buy a specific item or good. For instance, a person may be having a great day, due to some special circumstances, and this excitement may cause them to purchase unnecessary items, such as

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

Every minute of every day, millions of people are exposed to advertisements. They plague televisions, streets, radio waves, and all means of communication. These advertisements employ many methods of persuasion and their influence is irresistible. Just like prisoners in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, we are told every day to invest our time and interest into the subject of these advertisements, and to accept the forms of reality they serve us. Whether it be a commercial for a must-have new car, to a spot featuring desirable fast food, or to magazines with photoshopped models; we are seduced to accept these false

The average United States Citizen views about 5000 advertisements a day (Johnson). Advertising is everywhere. Billboards on the way to work, ads on the internet, and paper products such as magazines or newspapers display a sale or a promotion of a good or service. Usually, the ad will give a brand or company name, and uses the product’s merits to draw the consumer closer. This has grown exponentially as advertisements in media in 1970 were estimated to be 500 a day, a ten percent increase in the last 48 years. (Johnson). This is due to the rise of technology, as the computer has become a household gadget within the new millenium. These advertisements are meant to give a synopsis of the product or service’s purpose, quality, and efficiency. If a consumer views 5000 advertisements in a single day and assuming the commercials do not repeat, 5000 goods or services are introduced. With more options to choose from in such little time, the consumer has a harder time differentiating the quality and perhaps necessity of the product. The marketers rely on the quick, impulsive decision making of consumers. With the misleading nature of many infomercials or radio broadcasts, the people of American society are bombarded with constant propaganda, thus making seemingly harmless promotions more potent to filling industries’ pockets and lessening the common population’s

Entertainment is the most addicting form of media that people enjoy viewing on their free time. Some people find entertainment to be either good or bad, depending on what the individual believes to be appropriate to watch. Most people derive amusement, fun, pleasure, and relaxation from the movies and TV shows we see in our daily lives. Whether it is a movie trailer we watch or an advertisement on TV or the way the companies market the material, the material overall can be encapsulating and attracting toward consumers. In most cases, the materials we watch can leave us feeling a certain way throughout the course of the day. As technology increases, the need for consumers increases from the wide majority of the publicity materials that are being

“There are over 250 billion advertisements released to the public every year with the average person seeing over 3000 ads every single day” (Kilbourne). This is an astronomical amount of information for anyone to process in a week let alone in one day. This is a prime example of Capitalism at it’s finest. Controlling the consumer in every aspect of their lives. Jean Kilbourne also talks about how “Only 8 percent of an advertisement is actually processed by the conscious mind, with the other 92 percent being soaked up by the subconscious” (Kilbourne). Thinking about those numbers really brings into perspective how much we are truly influenced by media

Coming from commercials, newspapers, movies, and magazines, advertisements are one of the most prominent things that we get bombarded with on a daily basis. The problem with a lot of people including myself is that we fall victim to the manipulation of the advertising sharks and their devious tricks. In the article ‘Advertising’s 15 Basic Appeals’ by Jib Fowles, the author describes how advertisers will use 15 basic emotional appeals in order to get you to say ‘I want and need that!’ In National Geographic, a historical, anthropological, discovery-based magazine, advertisers focus their energy on the middle-aged, middle-class, educated audience, who want to improve not only their intellectual integrity, but also improve their families lives if the readers can help it. National Geographic advertisers can do this by appealing to the readers’ basic needs for achievement, nurture, and guidance.

Presenting before you, one of the world's biggest business tycoons, Mr. Walter Scott who is going to share his inspirational journey from rags to riches only on our glorifying television show, “The icons of the World” who will express his views against “Can money buy happiness?”

Over the last few decades, American culture has been forever changed by the huge amount of advertisement the people are subjected to. Advertising has become such an integral part of society, many people will choose whether or not they want to buy a product based only on their familiarity with it rather than the product’s price or effectiveness. Do to that fact, companies must provide the very best and most convincing advertisements as possible. Those companies have, in fact, done

In an average day, an American is exposed to over 3000 advertisements, (Kilbourne). Whether they want to admit it or not, they are drawn toward them. A common scheme of the advertisers is to allow the consumer to “picture the new them.” Whether this be a wealthier them, a skinner them, or a prettier them, they gear there product towards every person and want everyone be able to connect with the advertisement and picture the “new them.” American Idol, Nutrisystem, and The Biggest Loser, the lottery, and many other “products” promote that anyone has the chance to be famous, fit, or fortunate. The successes from these “products” present themselves as they were before, with the sob story that hopefully touches a nerve with

Influences: The Psychology of Persuasion was written by Dr. Robert Cialdini and originally published in 1984. Dr. Cialdini is a former marketing and psychology professor at Arizona State University. The book explains the psychology of influences and persuasion and how to apply the science to get people to say yes. Cialdini conducted studies on different compliance professional for three years. He observed thousands of different approaches in order to persuade people to yes, but he concluded that all of the different tactics fell into one of six major categories.

“Advertising can assume the form of either arguments or narratives. Argumentative advertising tends to present fact-based information that persuades through logical arguments and lectures, whereas narrative advertising tells a story about product consumption or related experiences or presents the consequences of the product’s usage and achieves persuasion by appealing to the consumer’s affective and emotional responses. Narrative advertising often uses drama and story telling, humor, and/or editorial narrative to evoke a person’s emotions and empathy with the characters in the story.” (Ching, Pingsheng, Chen, and Chen, 2013)

The myth of happy people experiences more positive events in their lives than do unhappy people. This myth is seemed believable to people the reason being is that a person who they see happy most or all the time and if they are happy then they probably have many good things in their life then an average person. I learned about it by my thoughts from being optimistic and seeing others where happy with themselves and their lives. It can be as “common knowledge” as a person who lifts their head up go through what can be hard times even with a smile can go through more happy events in their life. I know what I have known for the myth just from going by life and seeing how there are people who are just happy but I don’t know their story from what they gone through and people who were seen happy but they hide their suffering. The myth can be reinforced as from an optimistic view or from people who when they were young parents wanted them to be happy, or others who are on the down side and see people who are happy thinking how they are all having a better life than them. People might see people who are having a good time with luxury and might see how those people are having the time of their lives from what they have from wealth. Jan Delhey, and Leonie C. Steckermeier, have debunked two popular myths dealing with the good of life. People who live in the richer places aren’t usually filled with happiness or aren’t having a good life. As the two have went through Europe have found

Happiness is simply what we think , what we do, what we loose and what we achieve . Happiness is not only state of being happy or satisfied, it’s much more than that. It’s the experience of joy , it is something what we get after overcoming an obstacle. It’s a feel to be felt .