Advertising is Evil

In my last post I wrote about the 100 Possession Challenge that some people are attempting in order to radically simplify their life. I've spoken to several people about this, and while none of us are willing to try the actual 100 Possession Challenge, it has inspired myself and others to consider significantly decluttering our lives.

This motivated me to think about what other radical ideas I could come up with to significantly simplify and declutter other aspects of my life, both physically and mentally. I eventually started pondering an old idea that advertising is evil. But I don't mean evil as in "really really annoying", I mean evil in the sense that slavery or child pornography is evil.

What in the world am I talking about? Why would I consider this radical notion that advertising is actually evil? Consider the basic goal of advertising. Someone else is trying to modify your thoughts, desires, and even your values for their own financial benefit. They typically use subtle and difficult to counter appeals to very basic emotions, appeals that people are often not even aware of. And they attempt to cause these changes in your mental outlook completely without regards to any harm they may be causing you in the process. Such actions are evil, pure and simple.

But isn't advertising is part of our culture, something we all learn to tolerate? Besides, how could our economy possibly function without it? Well, the exact same thing was said about slavery by its supporters in the early 1800s. People who did not grow up in a culture of slavery could easily see that it was evil, but it took a rare and courageous person who grew up in this cultural tradition to recognize it for the evil it was. And the economy did fine after it was abolished.

But isn't advertising different because it's a voluntary activity for all parties? If you tried to make the same argument about certain forms of child pornography, people would quickly and correctly object because of the harm it causes to individuals and eventually to society in general.

If I focus on the biggest culprits, TV and radio advertising, I can avoid all advertising (or at least the most obnoxious forms of it) by limiting myself to NPR radio, PBS-TV, Book-TV, CSPAN and assorted recorded music and podcasts. That's not that big a change from my current habits, so it's feasible. There are two problems though. What about my family members? I can't insist that they change, and I have to respect their preferences. Does that mean I get up and leave the room every time they turn on a commercial TV station? Maybe so, and just ask them to understand and respect my preferences. The other really big challenge is.... the Olympics start next month. I haven't decided how serious I want to be about this yet, but showing integrity would seem to suggest that I avoid watching the "plausibly live" commercial TV coverage. Hmmmm....