The average American consumes anywhere from several hundred to several thousand messages per day. Regardless of their activities which would cause the fluctuation of message intake, the fire hose of consumer marketing is relentless. We face a steady and forceful stream of what to think, what we need, how we should feel, what we should value, and what we should consume. Recently I was in a supermarket with my wife and could not continue a conversation with her or think clearly because of the tyrannical volume of a large flat screen television towering in the store's high traffic perimeter. It was an advertisement blaring to passersby. We made our way to an interior aisle only to face another flat screen mounted to its end loudly proclaiming which toothpaste we should purchase. I was annoyed and after a few more interrupted attempts to connect with her I was browbeaten into silence, only there was no silence. The two televisions jarbled each others' communication as we quickened our pace. Having a degree in communication studies and ten years in sales, I was aware of what the advertisements were designed to do to me. I put my hands in my hoodie pocket and thought in defiance about how ineffective the ads were on me, or was I wrong? About a week ago I met a friend for breakfast. I was looking forward to catching up with him over coffee. We sat down among the smell of baked bread and eggs and began to talk. Our eyes squinted as we leaned in before we realized that we were struggling to focus due to the loud pop song that rained down on us from the speakers in the ceiling. The immoral and incredibly stupid song desired to take up space in our minds with the useless and base premise from which its lyrics were constructed. The poor song writing combined with a simple and repetitive rhythm would have been effective in making a memory groove in our brains had we not grabbed our breakfast and headed outside. Is this constant immersion annoying yet harmless? Or is it destructive to the person wishing to filter the sources that influence and shape their thoughts? We have advertisements, political agendas posing as news, entertainment overload, all mass mediated to us. Recently I began to notice how often I find myself reading personalized license plates and bumper stickers while I am driving. I don't know why I have the impulse to read someone's attempt at summarizing themselves on the rear portion of their car. It cannot be because the license plated attempts are interesting or helpful in any way. Is it because I have become addicted to taking in messages? Are we cursed to be sated yet insatiable? When the billboard I drive by portrays a guy acquiring the beautiful lady's attention because he bought the right type of soft drink, I am confident in my ability to analyze, discern, and discredit the message within the ad. I am less confident in my ability to shield my mind from the residual effect from thousands of injections of similar messages into my brain each and every day. We are all effected by the hypodermic needle of mass mediated messages. The "hypodermic needle theory" implies that mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as powerful influences on behavior change within people groups. Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including: the fast rise and popularization of radio and television, the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda, the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the influence of motion pictures on children, and Hitler's monopolization of mass mediated messages during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party. The theory proposes that mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘injecting’ them with the respective message designed to trigger the desired response. There is no escape from the effect of the message in this model. People are seen as passive while having a lot of media material "injected" into them. People end up thinking what they are told to think because there is no other source of information.
In addition to the increase of mass mediated volume, we have the fact that in the last century the impetus of advertisements have undergone a sinister metamorphosis to deal with. In the recent past advertisements were designed to represent the quality of the given product to the consumer. These ads would have boasted in the hand-stitching of a garment or the endurance of the material the product was manufactured from etc. While manipulation and appealing to emotions in order to persuade is timeless, the sophistication of the techniques began increasing while the public's education and ability to analyze began decreasing. Studies of how to affect the human psyche in order to persuade the masses for profit were on the rise. The questions became: What does a human being really want and need? - How can we attach the product or service we wish to sell to the realization of these deeply human needs to be loved, to belong, to be accepted, to be safe? Advertisements began depicting product in the hands of the very happy and fulfilled consumer who are as a result of purchase, surrounded by beautiful and loving people. Modern advertisements do not only seek to represent the quality of the product or service. They are carefully crafted to subtly offer to fill needs they can never meet. These subliminal suggestions are easy enough to dissect and discredit for anyone who has learned how to analyze messages or for anyone who has a mental mainframe of reference they can compare the injected message to but it is the overall residue of many thousands of injections that concerns me. It is also troubling how much of the education offered to future generations is one that is walking away from the classical approach of teaching the student to think. The learned ability to pick apart a message and to hold it to the light of truth for inspection is the education that will keep a free people free. The most heinous marketing utilizes the poison of fear only to offer the antidote at a price. Upon observation one may see that fear as persuasion is prevalent.
As a Christian, I find it problematic to have a continual flow of messages approach me boasting of a product or service that will fulfill in me a need that only the Lord can provide for. I am grateful to have the mainframe of reference that functions in my life much like a counterfeit pen. If you have ever held employment dealing with large amounts of cash and the public you probably know what I am referring to. A counterfeit one hundred dollar bill may deceive even the sharpest inspecting eye, but with one swipe of the counterfeit pen, the mark it leaves on the bill eliminates deceit. There has been no lasting peace, fulfillment, or joy in my life that is not directly or indirectly from my connection to Jesus. Knowing him, his word, and his goodness is my counterfeit pen. I am often weary from the onslaught of messages that oppose his words and his teachings. I am susceptible to being deceived and to begin pursuing something infinitely less valuable, so I pray often that the Lord will renew my mind and fill my mind with his word. He is faithful to remain present in my struggling, renewing my mind, and assisting me in the fight against conforming to this world.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)