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Advertisers themselves often deliberately trivialize what they do, playing on the general belief that ads “have no effect on me.” This is one way that they get beneath our radar. But it’s important to understand that ads aren’t just selling specific products. Advertising sells images and values and concepts of beauty and sexuality and success and normalcy. Whether or not the ad persuades you to buy a particular product, it’s still selling the larger concept of consumerism, the idea that whatever you have is never enough. The ad is selling anxiety – about appearance and acceptance for women, and about status and power for men.

The advertisers don’t want consumers who are media literate. They want people who feel superior to advertising, superior to its appeal. Many ads are aimed exactly at people who think they’re not vulnerable to advertising. What we need to be more aware of is the general message, the climate of belief that advertising propagates.

Read the interview with Author Jean Kilbourne @ Counterpunch