Beautifully Broken Issue #31: The Black Magic of Advertising (And Why You're Under Its Spell)

IDEAS, ART & WISDOM TO REPAIR OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Happy Saturday! Welcome to Beautifully Broken Issue #31: The Black Magic Of Advertising. Each week's issue will be reserved for paid subscribers first (but you can obtain a free preview of an issue as a free subscriber). After a month the issue will become free and can be found in the archive.

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IDEAS:  The Black Magic Of Advertising (And Why It Has You In Its Spell) or Why Instinct Overrides Thought

My friend has a well-trained dog. He can walk it off lead and it listens to his commands perfectly with one exception. If a fireworks goes off or there’s a sudden thunderclap he'd better have that dog on a leash because no amount of training or cajoling will stop it from bolting.

Being animals, we are not so different. 

Society encourages us to measure one another, to judge what makes an ideal, successful human by how much we are able to repress and control our animal instincts and urges. Our conscious human mind is able to override our animal mind. 

 There is a danger with this model though. We are best able to be in control of our instincts in sculpted and controlled environments. Human society provides those environments for us - the family home, the workplace, school, etc…and then sets guardians in place to ensure we are reminded to continually override our instincts - teachers, parents, the police, tax authorities, etc…Because we successfully navigate this maze of socially reinforced behaviour we tend to overestimate our ability to logically and consciously make choices that are in our own best interests. We have a massive blind spot.