Beyond simply being able to recognize a certain brand just by hearing a snippet of its jingle, my constant exposure to media has shaped the way people act around each other, as it has created a sort of a culture in which people advertise themselves even in the most casual of encounters. For example, whenever someone says something good that they've done, such as achieved a high grade on a test, others often feel practically obligated to tell of their own successes as well in order to promote themselves as if they were a product. In commercials, such as those produced by Sprint, story-lines often fall along those of comparing themselves to other brands in order to make their own product seem more desirable. This type of advertisement always shines a negative light on others and degrades their achievements for the sake of success. When someone feels the need to promote themselves at the expense of others' happiness and self-esteem, their motivations are based in an advertisement-like need to succeed and make themselves seem like the better "product," when in reality the success of one person does not make another less successful, at least in terms of test grades. Social media is another way of promoting and "advertising" ourselves; we only ever post what we feel is the best of us, showing us doing whatever we feel will make others either jealous or happy. By posting photos of ourselves in order to attract positive attention, we promote ourselves in the same way a brand would promote a product, using our ideas of beauty to make us seem more likable and desirable as a person.
Yet another way we promote ourselves is through how we carry ourselves and the persona we have created as a result of what we feel is acceptable in our society. For example, the clothes we wear promote not only the brand from which we purchased them, but ourselves as well. We are simply an accumulation of what we feel is acceptable in society, and our clothes are a direct representation of this. As humans, it is natural for us to judge someone simply by looking at them, and they clothes they wear are a natural point on which we based our uneducated judgement. They decide whether someone is acceptable to talk to, and if they are more successful than you in the ongoing competition to both fit in and stand out. This type of subtle marketing has, in part, created the stereotypes on which we base our judgment as well, as they decide whether or not the presence of the person who fits in a certain stereotype will make us more or less acceptable. Such stereotypes are racially based, and when someone decides whether or not to embrace the stereotype with which others associate them they are deciding subconsciously how they wish to market themselves. Our judgment based on such stereotypes is often harmless, but in some cases it can be deadly. For example, the personal advertisement-based judgment of a police officer is much more dangerous than my own, as seen in the seemingly weekly shootings of people of color at the hands of white cops.
The way we market ourselves to others is the physical representation of what we feel is good and acceptable in society. We learned the technique of promoting ourselves to others from the millions of advertisements to which we have been exposed in our lifetimes, and it is affecting our relationships with others.
I find this post very interesting. I have always been aware of how people, including myself, try to present the best version of ourselves. However, I have never connected these behaviors with all of the advertising we are surrounded by. It makes sense to think that we market ourselves the way we do because we have learned from the best advertisers. I also agree that some people's judgements based on appearance are much more important than mine, like police officers. However, the example provided is something that we cannot control, our skin color. While the police officers are judging based off appearance, they are not judging based on a way people market themselves. I would find it interesting to look into how much our judgements are based on peoples' marketing tactics versus things they cannot control.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting idea. When I think of advertising I think of something used to sell a physical product or even some sort of idea. And I guess in a way, we are trying to sell something. Just as Sprint and many other companies create a character to sell their product, we are creating a character to sell ourselves. First impressions can be very important and many of us create this character to sell ourselves to others with their very first impression of us. This is exactly what many advertisers do, they make something that we can see for only a few seconds but that gets our attention. When we dress, speak, act, or even think a certain way, we are trying to create our personal character that will sell us to others, even if it isn't who we really are.
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