Oct 25, 2006

Another Advertiser Who Does Not Want Us to Think

Tags: Trends, Advertising, Media, American Society, Nintendo,

It concerns me that we, as Americans, are consistently being encouraged not to think. We are bring trained just to fear, keep our heads down, stay in the race, keep moving and never stop and think. It shows up in our magazine ads, our TV commercials and out of the mouths of our political leaders.

Your first reaction might be, "What in the heck are you talking about now, blogger?!"

This time, I'm talking specifically about a new ad I recently saw for Touch Generations, a series of games made for the handheld Nintendo DS video game system. The ad depicts a doctor's office waiting room with two very bored and unhappy looking people wearing drab clothes. A third, giddy looking woman, in a bright red blouse is sitting in another chair playing a handheld video game system. She looks like she's having a good time.

The main text of the ad says: "The average wait in a doctor's office is 23.4 minutes. Do something with your nothing." The smaller text of the ad says:

You have time. That nothing time. The time between everything else you have to do. TouchGenerations is a series of games that easily get you in, out, and on with the rest of your day. In just a few short minutes, you could make a dent in a Sudoku puzzle or play three holes of golf. It's your nothing time. Do something with it.

In other words, don't just sit there and think, block out the world around you and throw yourself into an electronic device in the name of "doing something".

Many people would think, "But it's just an ad for video games! Big deal!". But hey, pay attention! It's all part of the zombie society we're living in. These ads creep in everywhere. I saw the ad in O magazine—a magazine geared towards women who want to improve their world and think.

So why does this bother me so much? Because I feel like I willingly and mindlessly stepped into this lifestyle. I enlisted indefinitely in the Zombie National Army, so to speak. I bought into it all without stopping to think about it and what it was doing to me. These days I'm working on getting better, but I still have a very hard time not picking up my Sidekick to check e-mail at every free moment. When there's even a minute of down time, I have a lot of trouble handling it. I immediately look for something to which I can fork over my attention. I need to occupy myself. I am overstimulated and I can't just sit there anymore, I need to do something. And that something inevitably involves an electronic device, a Sidekick, an Ipod, a PC, a television, etc... And now there I was taking a break and reading O magazine—a publication that is supposed to encourage me to become a better human being—and this ad slips in, reinforcing my "zombieism".

I'm not saying or implying that there is some underground calculated movement to turn us all into zombies (though there could be I suppose!). These ads are just addressing and perpetuating a market that's already established.

But I am implying that we're letting it happen. How? Buy buying these devices, by overusing them, by allowing these ads to manipulate us, by not making a concerted effort to take time, to think and to look—really look— at the world around us and become conscious of what is happening to us as a society.

And why is this bad? Because when we don't stop and think for ourselves, we become slaves. Slaves to devices, slaves to the media, slaves to the Internet and slaves to workaholism. There are no two ways about it.

So think about this today. Pay close attention to whether or not you are able to wait in a line, sit in traffic, sit on the toilet or even eat a meal alone without feeling a strong need to be distracted by something to read, listen to, watch or play. Even a single day of paying attention will bring about a more conscious tomorrow.