The French Cities Trying To Ban Public Adverts (theguardian.com) 113
For decades France has had one of the most well-organized anti-advertising movements in the world, ranging from guerrilla protests with spray-cans to high-profile court cases. But now the boom in what is artfully called "digital-out-of-home advertising" -- eye-catching video screens dotted across urban areas, from train platforms to shopping centres -- has sparked a new spate of French protests, civil disobedience and petitions. From a report: High tech video billboards are multiplying in city spaces across the world, woven into the fabric of everyday life, from ribbon videos down escalators on the London underground, to French metro corridors, New York taxis, bus-shelters, newspaper kiosks, and -- increasingly -- broadcast from shop windows onto the street. They are becoming more sophisticated and interactive, with the potential to collect data from passersby; increasingly bright and inescapable -- impossible to click off or block like you can online. But in France, there is fresh debate on how urban planners and local councils should limit them in the public space for the sake of our overloaded eyes and brains.
The trend to squeeze every bit of city downtime into an opportunity to place people in front of screen has become a political battle on the left. Francois Ruffin of the French left party, La France Insoumise, recently tabled a French parliamentary amendment to ban video ads above urinals and toilets. It was dubbed the "Pee in Peace" motion. Ruffin said he was horrified when standing at a Paris cafe urinal to be visually "assaulted" by a video advertising Uber, a bank, and the book and tech store Fnac. "Who doesn't enjoy that rare moment of calm: having a piss?" he wrote in the amendment, warning that since 2015, over 2,000 of the screens had "colonised" 1,200 urinals in 25 French towns.
The trend to squeeze every bit of city downtime into an opportunity to place people in front of screen has become a political battle on the left. Francois Ruffin of the French left party, La France Insoumise, recently tabled a French parliamentary amendment to ban video ads above urinals and toilets. It was dubbed the "Pee in Peace" motion. Ruffin said he was horrified when standing at a Paris cafe urinal to be visually "assaulted" by a video advertising Uber, a bank, and the book and tech store Fnac. "Who doesn't enjoy that rare moment of calm: having a piss?" he wrote in the amendment, warning that since 2015, over 2,000 of the screens had "colonised" 1,200 urinals in 25 French towns.
it's a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re: it's a good thing (Score:2)
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I'd expect this is the former Eastern cities.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, many cities like Prague and Budapest were so beautiful.
When I returned a few years later, they were desecrated by American-style billboards everywhere. I'm sure not all locals saw this as progress and a promise of imminent wealth.
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Which part of "French city" did you misunderstand ...
I'm going to blame the swipe-entry on my phone for this. It was supposed to say "I'd expect this from the former Eastern cities.
I did understand, just garbled my post. Sorry for that, did not intend to upset you.
Oh, sorry - you're an American, so I need to take into account your geographical ignorance
Australian actually, but there is plenty of ignorance here from those who have not travelled further than Bali and Thailand :-)
Zoning (Score:1)
Variety is the spice of life. Have ad-free areas, but bling and lights are fun at times. It's a matter of judicious zoning.
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Not to me, at least not the type you see in ads and billboards. YMMV.
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Can't please everyone, gotta compromise. Zoning is a decent compromise, in my opinion.
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In Australia birds attack billboards (Score:1)
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Commerce can follow important goals. Really.
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There should be limits, and the current trend has gone way past them.
The movie was mediocre crap, but the quote in Ready Player One was spot on for today's market:
We estimate we can sell up to 80 percent of an individual's visual field before inducing seizures!
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This is mystifying. Ads are parasitical. They require resources to produce, yet do not add value. Some advertising is a necessary friction for a market economy, but they should be highly regulated to keep the necessary evil from getting out of hand.
Buying random crap doesn't help anyone (except the random crap sellers) achieve goals.
advertising is a blight on society (Score:5, Insightful)
look, if I need or want something, I'll just go get it, I don't need or want advertising. In fact, I avoid purchasing advertised items or shopping at stores that advertise in ways I don't appreciate. I talk with my wallet, and I'm tired of advertisers stealing my time, lying and trying to manipulating me
the whole industry is abusive and deserves to be heavily regulated in the public interest, affluence shouldn't be able to unethically buy influence
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Yes and no. I think advertising will still affect you in things like product awareness. How much depends on the thing of course.
But I am basically the same at core, any companies with annoying ads go to a black list of "do not buy".
As for being abusive: Yes, they have definitely become more and more so. Basically there has always been an "evil wedge" in advertising(Think of "doctor so and so ointments from the 1800s as example), but that wedge has been growing a lot in the last few decades as more and more
Re:advertising is a blight on society (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes and no. I think advertising will still affect you in things like product awareness.
It doesn't. If I want to know about products I don't look at ads. I read articles. When I see ads, I'm less likely to buy the products depicted, because I know they're spending the money I give them on annoying me with ads instead of on the product.
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This, advertising should be sharply restricted. Many of the most terrible and ridiculous aspects of modern capitalism are driven by advertising behavior - surveillance capitalism and the celebrity positive feedback loop for example.
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How do you know if you need or want something? How do you know which one to get?
Advertising was created precisely to let people know certain products (or even whole product categories) existed. If all that was possible to share was exclusively word of mouth no products would ever make it to market.
I hate advertising as much as the next person but on the flip side but it is none the less a source of consumer information, if not at the least a catalyst to have a consumer actually inform themselves.
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Greetings, sirrah. I am pleased to report that your time machine has conveyed you to the 21st century, where we don't exactly have a problem getting information about what's available...
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Lol. Mod the AC up.
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As if that information you're getting is never the direct or indirect result of the work a publicist or advertising agency.
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As long, as it's just you, and not the majority - things are going to stay, the way they are.
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Indeed, but it is also important to let them know that you specifically avoid companies that drag your attention to them using advertising. Which is a really hard metric for advert-tracking software to track, and possibly not to the benefit of advertising companies to actually measure.
I boycott Shell stations with ad players (Score:5, Interesting)
I make a point to not stop at Shell stations that have video ads playing while I gas up.
I wonder if others do likewise. And then I wonder if corporate notices a dip in revenue at those ad-playing stations.
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These days Shell is often the lowest-priced option in some bumfuck little town, ten cents per gallon less than a Chevron across the intersection. I will sit through some dumbshit ads for a discount when I'm filling my tank. In larger towns there's usually something cheaper, though, and the cheaper stations don't have video ads on the pumps.
Re: I boycott Shell stations with ad players (Score:2)
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Shell is always 0.25 higher here than everyone else.
That's how I'm used to it being, but lately in nocal it's cheaper than the other big names. Maybe they're not so all-in on whatever scam is being run on us, with fuel prices so much higher than even other states that don't have their own refineries.
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Get a Costco membership. Their gas is about 30 cents/gal cheaper than prevailing rates. If you fill up twice a month, your savings on gas alone will pay for your membership twice. Also, no video ads at the pump.
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Get a Costco membership.
I may, since there will be a Costco where I'm going next. There isn't one where I've been living. Where I lived last there wasn't one either. However, I could get fuel on the res for thirty cents less than everywhere else, but the nearest tribal casino's fuel prices are actually the highest in the area, which is weird.
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ten cents per gallon less than a Chevron across the intersection. I will sit through some dumbshit ads for a discount when I'm filling my tank
probably why the gas is cheaper - for now.
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If it's not cheaper, I won't go there. So either I get something for being exposed to the ads, or I go somewhere else. At least I'm getting something. Most advertising just pisses on your mind and you get nothing except pissed on.
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advertising just pisses on your mind and you get nothing except pissed on.
Indeed. It defines wasted time.
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Did you take it to the manager? Have him call up his manager at home (if it was between 01:00 and 06:00)?
If you don't tell them how much you hate advertising, they will interpret your sullen resentfulness to mean "give it to me harder, big boy ; used sand not lubrication. Sideways! Sideways!" Certainly, that is how the advertising industry will interpret it when lieing about their performance,
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I wonder if others do likewise. And then I wonder if corporate notices a dip in revenue at those ad-playing stations.
No. Because people who boycott advertisements are such a small drop in the bucket that they would be nothing more than a rounding error in discarded data.
That and petrol customers generally fall into three categories:
Price conscious - they won't boycott an advertisement when they can save a few cents.
Convenience conscious - they will go to their nearest petrol station, or the same one they always do, or the one on the way home from work, etc.
Emergency customers - they just need fuel and don't give a crap.
Ve
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No. Because people who boycott advertisements are such a small drop in the bucket that they would be nothing more than a rounding error in discarded data.
That and petrol customers generally fall into three categories:
Price conscious - they won't boycott an advertisement when they can save a few cents.
Convenience conscious - they will go to their nearest petrol station, or the same one they always do, or the one on the way home from work, etc.
Emergency customers - they just need fuel and don't give a crap.
Very VERY few customers for fuel are loyal or care about anything other than fuel which is precisely why oil companies have for years been working with loyalty programs or with major food outlets to help increase patronage.
Quality conscious is a thing as well. My turbocharged car requires premium gas, so it's already more expensive and I accept that. Not going to cheap out on gas to save a few cents.
I use Shell because it is both Top Tier rated ( https://www.toptiergas.com/lic... [toptiergas.com] ) by my auto manufacturer, and I know their premium "V-Power", at least locally, contains no ethanol which I intentionally avoid.
Others may prefer even higher octane ratings at the cost of ethanol in the blend. Using fuel that your car works well
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I'm amazed at the folk (usually older) filling their cars with the cheapest, lowest-octane (91 here in Oz) fuel when I know their owner's manual says "95 or higher, only use 91 if there's no other option".
I suspect they're still stuck in the "running super doesn't give any more power, so why pay the extra?" mind-set.
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Remind me to not approach you for car advice. It has been well over a decade since "premium" (i.e., leaded) petrol has been available here. You need to put some weird poisonous jungle juice into the tank, and get your engine re-machined if you want to use leaded gas these days.
And "performance" cars are invariably capable of driving at exactly the speed of everyone else, or driving into the back of the next traffic jam while catching a speeding ticket.
The "averag
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It has been well over a decade since "premium" (i.e., leaded) petrol has been available here. You need to put some weird poisonous jungle juice into the tank, and get your engine re-machined if you want to use leaded gas these days.
Semantic games don't phase me. Both the car manufacturers and the gas vendors call it "premium" unleaded, meaning it has higher octane, and a "better" additive package than "regular" unleaded. How much higher seems to vary from place to place.
And "performance" cars are invariably capable of driving at exactly the speed of everyone else, or driving into the back of the next traffic jam while catching a speeding ticket.
But they will also be invariably more fun, unless you consider cars an appliance. Remind me not to approach you for car advice.
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It's not just Shell; where I am BP, Shell, Sunoco, and others all have the video ads. I don't know of a single gas station that doesn't have them, so while I initially stopped going to BP (the first to implement the ads), everyone has them so it just doesn't matter any more which brand of gas I use. Driving a long distance to avoid the ads just doesn't seem practical, I haven't done that.
But to add to the question of how revenue may have changed, the other thing I noticed is how much slower the new pumps a
needed (Score:5, Insightful)
This needs to happen, and not just in France.
It's the Tragedy of the Commons all over. Ads have become annoying and intrusive, because the public space is free for the taking.
Once you've stepped out of the "that's just how it is" mindset, you begin to realize that how fucking annoying and hostile and attention-taking this shit is and how ad companies are trying to forcefully take your attention at every corner.
And then you do some reading and understand that attention is one of the strictly limited human resources and exhausting it is a real thing with real negative impact and then you're not surprised about the state of the world anymore.
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The spray paint approach sounds pretty promising.
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The spray paint approach sounds pretty promising.
yeah, it's looking that way.
Re:needed (Score:4, Interesting)
Here in BC the government is in charge of the public land and there is no advertising on it as why should someone have the advantage of using public land?
OTOH, there's lots of billboards on the native's land as I guess it is a form of income for them.
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Re:needed (Score:5, Informative)
If you're ever in the north-east USA, the change from upstate New York (the 95% that's not NYC) to Vermont is shocking. (Same with the southern Mass border and New Hampshire, to a lesser extent.) Vermont decided that since their scenery is what the tourists come for that they should ban billboards.
You go from advertisements every mile or two in New York to unobstructed rolling green hills in Vermont in just the span of a few miles. There's just a different feel to it all when you're driving down the same highway, but suddenly everybody and their brother aren't trying to sell you everything under the sun. Every exit they have a little sign of "things you can find at this exit", but it's nothing like the rest of the USA.
Here in the midwest there are a few billboards which are made of an array of LEDs about as bright as the sun. I swear that they can cast shadows on the road at night. Animated, of course. I wish death upon their creators and owners on a near daily basis. It's like they saw Blade Runner as an inspirational goal.
Serious question here... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Complaining feels better when you take it to the extreme. Especially if you feel like you're not being heard. So in this case, NO ADS ANYWHERE EVER!
Re:Serious question here... (Score:5, Insightful)
If I want something, there are tons of places I can search for information on available products that will meet my needs. I absolutely don't need the manufacturers/distributors/whatever to push their "creative" advertising at me, which I will ultimately end up paying for through the loaded cost of their product.
Re:Serious question here... (Score:4, Insightful)
For a minimal amount of money they could make their own website filled with information and allow search engines to spider it. That's about all it would take for me to find most products I might be interested in.
Re:Serious question here... (Score:5, Insightful)
Increasingly, that problem doesn't exist. Where in the past you'd have to depend on local merchants, these days thanks to the internet, we can find every single producer of widget X on the planet.
And by outlawing advertising, you level the playing field: everybody's product gets the same amount of exposure.
The world would be a better place without ads.
Well, I know where... (Score:2)
... everywhere, where you want to try the thing out before buying it.
For me, buying e.g. clothes online, is an absolute no-go. They never ever fit my (a bit unusual) body.
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Nope, still don't need advertising for that. Look up the local clothing stores, then go shopping. Much better than driving to store X because you've seen its advert while ignoring store Y right around the corner from X.
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And for me, I won't ever bother going to a department store again.
Yes, it took two tries to find dress pants and jeans on Amazon that fit me. Now I just hit "reorder" and 2 days later they are at my house. That takes me all of 1 minute to accomplish.
Going to the department store, I can go through rack after rack of nothing in my size, nothing I want, wrong style, etc., and at the end of those hours of searching it might not fit anyway. I've got better shit to do with my time.
After 1 minute of amazon shoppin
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Then try a shop where you can sent in your measures. In Europe this is quite common.
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I assume that somewhere on the relevant website, there is a specification for how to carry out these measurements. Because if I know one thing about mensuration (the science of measuring things), it is that if
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If he shopping sites support it, you simply use a measuring band an put it around your belly, shoulders and chest.
Bonus point if you measure the length of your arms.
Legs work similar ...
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Not a performance I'll repeat.
In general, it is important how you perform a measurement. The more accuracy you need, the more precise you have to be about how you perform the measurement.
I
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UNCLEAN!
Unclean!
Burn the non-standard person. BURN them!
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Someone once said (and I paraphrase here) "You need to do three things in life, eat, shit, and breath, everything else is optional.
And no it wasn't Sheldon, he was paraphrasing as well.
At least 95% of the crap we buy is not essential, but it gets bought anyway. Why? Advertising and social pressure brought on by advertising.
It works, it may not work for you, because you are above such petty influences, but it w
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We have media that reports on new gadgets presented on tradeshows etc.
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And you think that doesn't come from the advertising budget?
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Which is why journalists hand out their business cards at trade shows. A few days later, the vendor's sales department calls the journalist ... "are you going to be writing about our FlangeSprockets? ... Yes? ... Oh, that'd be great. We'd really like to run a full page advert opposite the first page of your article ... oh, two pages, well the last page too. Obviously, none of our competitors in the same section of the
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It's so bad that in order to compete *everyone* has to advertise. The heads of universities are hired for their fundraising abilities. Charities spend more on advertising than on actually doing what they're supposed to. Governments too.
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these days thanks to the internet, we can find every single producer of widget X on the planet.
This wonderful protests is called advertising. We are not the US patent system, just because you're doing something on a computer doesn't mean you get to claim it's new or unique.
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The world would be a better place without ads.
Depends on the ads. E.g. pro vaccination ads are not that bad. So are all adds that point out an important event in the near future. Or adds for completely new products.
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I was talking about "pro" versus "anti" vaccination adds, there are no adds for a new vaccine in europe ... Only adds for: go and get the recent vaccines.
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No one is saying that all advertising should be banned. For instance, storefronts and names above each business should still be allowed. And advertising on the internet should still be allowed, it should just be regulated.
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I run all my household's DNS via Pi-hole, for 2 reasons:
1. - the most important. Malware defense. If your advertising can carry malware, and of course you won't guarantee that your ads are safe, then you don't get to put your banners and pop-ups on my computers. NoScript helps a lot, too. I can see just how many third-party domains a website will drag with it. The worst I've ever seen had calls to more than 20 other domains.
2. I pay for internet access, and I decide what comes down that pipe, not you.
Very simple: By being honest for a change. (Score:4, Insightful)
E.g. by putting your product in a searchable product database. Or the physical equivalent: By simply placing it in a shop where people go. And most importantly, by *having a good product*. People will spread the word themselves. It's how Google's search got into the market.
E.g. I only shop electronics via geizhals.at. (Not affiliated.) Because there, I can filter and sort precisely by the actual features and the value that I need. (Instead of being presented with empty posters that aim to trigger feelings and contain no data whatsoever, like some fuckin' psychopaths.)
I usually drill down until only a few are left, enable some columns for comparison, and sort by price per unit.
If your product is good, it will pop up there, and I will buy it, even if I never heard of you before. Done that for 20 years now.
(Somebody should make a US version of that site.)
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It is probably illegal in America. Defamation, interstate commerce regulations, they've got all sorts of shit for preventing people from investigating companies and products before you buy. "Buy first, think later" has been promoted by their advertising industry for over a century.
Re:Serious question here... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah, the standard marketing refrain. I had a friend who was a marketing manager for a lottery. She'd basically say the same thing, going on about how marketing is matching up customers with their ideal product/experience, so it's really a service you provide to them.
Then she quit. She's much happier now, and doesn't have to self-justify like that anymore.
Some advertising might be a necessary evil. In stores (including websites like Amazon that actually sell the things), opt-in catalogues, things like that. The modern follow-the-sucker-around-yelling-at-him-until-he-buys approach is abusive.
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It's a technique that ... certainly pre-dates "soap operas" on the radio. The oldest example that comes readily to mind (because of his contributions to quality control and the mineralogy of ceramics) is Wedgewood (of the Darwin family) using his supply of crockery to the Royals (about the time some American terrorist rebels started a guerilla insurgency) to generate lots of "commentary" in the newspapers of the time.
The probably was a long wa
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No one said anything about the internet.
Think of this as a job-creation tool. With less public billboards, you need more salespeople. And in Belgium for instance, where billboards are banned, you also have to rely much more on the internet to find what you need.
Re: Serious question here... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Serious question here... (Score:5, Informative)
Hence why you in France can't legally sell any Champagne, Bordeaux, Brie, even if you stick to the ancient recipes unless your business was approved by the local trade mafia.
Err who modded this crap insightful. Those three products fall under EU PDO (Protected Designation of Origin). You can make them out of hydrogenised dog droppings for all anyone cares, the only requirement is that you make those products in the region which bares their name.
Don't even get me started on the sunrise on .fr domains when you needed a local police constable or mayor to sign off that your name and business existed.
Welcome to the internet. Many countries require you to prove you have rights to a name before you get the domain. On the opposite side of the world from France the only reason I was able o register my name is because I have a business registration with the tax department for that name, and the domain registrar asked for the relevant tax number at registering. Same in France and the police have absolutely nothing at all to do with it.
This is also the country that taxed wealth for some time
The wealth tax is a rounding error in tax on the wealthy and critically applies to international wealth that isn't covered under double taxation. As such moving your business or assets overseas doesn't prevent you from having to pay the tax. Incidentally the cost of moving those assets oversees far exceeds the pathetically small amount of money people pay so only the colossally stupid would attempt to do so.
causing a massive economic crash which eventually led to the rolling protests in Paris streets we've seen over the past few years.
Look do you just make shit up or is there actually a source for all your wrong information? There was no massive economic crash in France that hasn't been linked to the 2008 crisis. Fast forward to 2018 and they are still battling with unemployment linked directly to 2008 combined with a double whammy of slow growth from Brexit in all of western Europe, pressure from the EU to cut spending, and rising costs of living. All that combines to cause a massive hit on the government which is not getting tax dollars and is overburdened on welfare due to high unemployment.
End result, they cut welfare and proposed a tax on fuel and other essentials. *THAT* caused the rolling protests. Not some fantasy tax on the rich.
I'm beginning to wonder if you magically linking a few bad things in France with talking points of the Democratic nominees to protests not at all related to anything on topic for reasons that have nothing at all to do with France.
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Re: Serious question here... (Score:5, Informative)
the only requirement is that you make those products in the region which bares their name.
The appellation d'origine controlee (AOC... "protected designation of origin") is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, ... The INAO guarantees that all AOC products will hold to a rigorous set of clearly defined standards. The organization stresses that AOC products will be produced in a consistent and traditional manner with ingredients from specifically classified producers in designated geographical areas.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Sure, there are lower quality grades for wine that have few requirements other than the address of the manufacturer, but it can't be called Champagne.
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Delocalizing entire factories
Re: Serious question here... (Score:4, Informative)
It's France, local wares and name recognition is literally mandated by law. Hence why you in France can't legally sell any Champagne, Bordeaux, Brie, even if you stick to the ancient recipes unless your business was approved by the local trade mafia.
Also called WIPO, or the World Intellectual Property Organization. I have trademarks in some countries and regions like Manuka, in New Zealand, are forced to trademark the names of their towns because the honey they make is so popular everyone wants to cash in on their brand. Just like Champagne.
So you can make or sell whatever you want however if you infringe on a trademark someone has invested tens of thousands of dollars in so they can protect the brand of the business they're building that is, of course, going to attract legal action. In some cases you are required to undertake actions to demonstrate protection of your brand to the authority that granted the trademark or you forfeit the mark.
Pecunia non olet (Score:2)
It's either ads or 50 cents for Madame Peepee.
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It's either ads or 50 cents for Madame Peepee.
Back in the 70's I remember the bathroom door latches in New York took ten cents to open.
But ads on the potty?! This is a new breed of avarice.
I wonder what 3 inches of steel will do to that screen. Or just with the very tip etch "FUCK ALL ADS" right on the screen.
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The Fugs - Caca Rocka [youtube.com]
Down in the subway, come from a dance
Lookin' for a toilet, gonna shit my pants!
Uh uh, uh uh
Uh uh, baby uh uh
Dig in my pocket, lookin' for a coin
All I find is three pennies and a joint!
Uh uh, uh uh
Uh uh, baby uh uh
Out of my skull, kick in the door
I don't have a dime, I'm gonna do it on the floor!
Uh uh, uh uh
Uh uh, baby uh uh
Along come a cop, big as a tent
You don't get no shit, for just three cents!
Uh uh, uh uh
Uh uh, baby uh uh
If I had a nickel, if I had a dime
I'd put it in the toilet and
Well, it's normal to pay for toilets, in Europe. (Score:3)
You want them cleaned. Cleaning costs money. There's no such thing as a free clean toilet. It's a no-brainer, really.
They also waste energy (Score:1)
Small precisions (Score:3)
I support the movement as i find ads intrusive and push consumption of useless stuff and promote dumb status symbol values. The world would be better with less ads.
But TFA has made some imprecisions: La France Insoumise is not a left wing party but a far left nutty one. What they say is rarely taken seriously beyond their electorate. Lille is indeed an ex-industrial city but it is not an artsy-farsty one like the article suggest. It is a rather poor city with lots of unemployment.
I read in a newspaper that the Swedes used to ban adverts to children. On the account that children should NOT be influenced by ads. Period. Can a knowledgeable slashdotter fill me in on this ?
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La France Insoumise is not a left wing party but a far left nutty one
La France Insoumise's leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, scored 19.58% at last presidential election, which is not so far away from winner Emmanuel Macron, who scored 24.01%, hence the party is far from being unsignificant
On the other hand, you are right that its proposal are mostly ignored, since Emmanuel Macron's party controls more then 50% of french national assembly. Other parties proposals are ignored most of the time.
They've got my support! (Score:2)
All advertisement is by definition fraudulent and manipulative.
If it wasn't, it wouldn't be necessary, as it would automatically be at the top of your list of what you need. (Including events of the week, like concerts etc.)
Anyone offering a truly honest deal, will have no problem being limited to price/feature comparison sites. (geizhals.at or skinflint.co.uk being my prime example of how to do that right by giving people choices.. it basicall offers full SQL SELECT functionality.)
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Edward Bernays, creator of modern advertising (Score:2)
Bernays [wikipedia.org] was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and one of the first to read Freud's work and apply it to advertising which, until then, had been done in a factual way. Bernays used Freud's work to transform this into emotional appeals, which proved far more successful.
Billions go into the creation of those images to elicit an emotional appeal which messes with some pretty deeply hardwired responses in primitive (or primal) parts of our brain.
I've often wondered what the long terms effects of exposure to th
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How is this possible ? (Score:2)
Awesome, we need this everywhere (Score:2)
Sometimes you know, the French and their attitude is just great. Use that attitude against advertisements, hell yes. Truly, ads that are brainwashing us nonstop are just sort of evil.