"Fear Based Advertising." A book I'm reading suggested I google that phrase, and so I did, as I was curious, never having heard it before. I have to admit that I was shocked....and then again, I wasn't considering how sinful man is. I knew that advertisers used sex and other sins to sell things, but I'd never considered that they used the sin of fear as well. Check out what one of the first things that popped up on the search says about it:
You might want to check out some of the ways it's done too...pretty interesting! And maybe by knowing about it, it will help us remember that God is in control, not man, nature, the world, or Satan. I mentioned Satan on purpose though as this is surely another of his schemes. He's the master liar, and he most certainly attempts to keep us afraid. He wants us to fear that we're not really saved, that God doesn't really love us, that He doesn't hear our prayers when we're hurting, and that we'll be left behind to face His Wrath in the tribulation, among other things. He wants us to fear that God won't provide for us when we can't pay our bills, when we're sick and need healing, or when we're in pain and can't take it anymore. He wants us to fear that we're on our own with no one to help us, whatever our situation is, when that's obviously not true according to God's Word. Right now, he wants us to fear that if we don't store up a bunch of food and any money we can, that we'll never make it through the economic crash that's coming...as though we had no Father who loves us and will take care of us. Then of course there's the biggest fear of all that Satan throws at us, and I see this through advertising a lot: the fear of death. Amazing when you think of it because we're told that one of the reasons Jesus came was to set us free from the fear of death! (Hebrews 2:15)
Now that it's been brought to my attention, the more I think about it, the more I see fear based advertising everywhere. That's good, because now when I see it, I can laugh at it and be victorious over the mastermind behind it!
Quote:
| Sex doesn't sell, it's fear. In the first episode of Mad Men (Smoke gets in your eyes) Don Draper outlines the appeal of fear as a tool for selling with chilling clarity. "Advertising is based on one thing: happiness," he calmly tells his clients. "And do you know what happiness is? … It's freedom from fear." This has been the simple quest of consumerism for the past half-century: to pinpoint with laser-like accuracy the anxieties of the consumer at any given moment, from the nebulous (economic insecurity) to the specific (bird flu). One former marketing executive from a soft drinks multinational even told me how they would brainstorm these anxieties on a "whiteboard of worry". The purpose? To brilliantly, cunningly hone a product that offers temporary "freedom from fear", temporary because a new fear and a new product will be on their way soon. Here are some of the ways it is done. http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...y-concept-fear |
You might want to check out some of the ways it's done too...pretty interesting! And maybe by knowing about it, it will help us remember that God is in control, not man, nature, the world, or Satan. I mentioned Satan on purpose though as this is surely another of his schemes. He's the master liar, and he most certainly attempts to keep us afraid. He wants us to fear that we're not really saved, that God doesn't really love us, that He doesn't hear our prayers when we're hurting, and that we'll be left behind to face His Wrath in the tribulation, among other things. He wants us to fear that God won't provide for us when we can't pay our bills, when we're sick and need healing, or when we're in pain and can't take it anymore. He wants us to fear that we're on our own with no one to help us, whatever our situation is, when that's obviously not true according to God's Word. Right now, he wants us to fear that if we don't store up a bunch of food and any money we can, that we'll never make it through the economic crash that's coming...as though we had no Father who loves us and will take care of us. Then of course there's the biggest fear of all that Satan throws at us, and I see this through advertising a lot: the fear of death. Amazing when you think of it because we're told that one of the reasons Jesus came was to set us free from the fear of death! (Hebrews 2:15)
Now that it's been brought to my attention, the more I think about it, the more I see fear based advertising everywhere. That's good, because now when I see it, I can laugh at it and be victorious over the mastermind behind it!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment so we can grow in faith together and edify each other.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.