All-pervasive manipulation. Simple mechanisms that influence us all

The first commercial advertisement was created more than 300 years ago. Benjamin Franklin, the founding father of the United States, delighted with the potential of advertising, devoted special pages to its publication in his Pennsylvania Gazette. Whether we want it or not, we encounter it at every step, and specialists in its creation are coming up with newer and newer ways to reach our consciousness.

Or maybe our ignorance plays the biggest role in all of this? Because it is, according to the structural theory of the creators of psychoanalysis, a force that inclines us to act often against our intention. Could advertising, then, take control of us to such an extent that we become passive executors of the tasks “commissioned” by its creators? 

More and more

Since the monitoring of national income per head, i.e. the so-called GDP per capita, we have been observing a trend of continuous growth. Data from the Bank of England’s statistics (2020) show the UK’s GDP growing from £4,800 in 1920 to £29,000 today (2023). That’s a six-fold increase. And more “in one’s pocket” is more to spend.

However, for our money to find its way to the accounts of the producers of goods, the whole process of arousing the need, finally ending with its satisfaction, must take place. There are things we cannot do without, such as food, fuel, or clothing. Every year we eat more and more meat, dairy and other products. Fortunately, demand is satisfied – shortages would indicate an economic crisis that everyone wants to avoid.     

For the average consumer, shopping is simply satisfying basic needs. What, however, prompts us to spend a larger sum of money on an item that qualitatively does not differ from the cheaper one, and its advantage is only evidenced by the fact that it seems more attractive to us? 

You need what we want to sell you 

Initially, advertisements played a purely informative role. It worked in a very simple way because they had a form of notice. The message was neither persuasive nor manipulative. Competition caused that the customer had to be fought for. And that’s how it functions to this day.

To sell something, you have to become attractive to the customer. This can be achieved through pricing policy (promotions, discounts) or building a brand image, e.g. one that causes the consumer, through the created image, to satisfy their specific needs. It can be a desire to be unique, stand out from the crowd or emphasize your material status (in the case of so-called premium brands).

In addition to meeting our basic needs, we constantly look for something. Often in our homes, we think after some time about the sense of buying some things. However, if time allowed us to reflect, we would notice that at the moment we bought a given product, we lived in full conviction that it was necessary for us. How did it happen?

We are peeping toms

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. These are the media that currently fill our free time to a large extent. Seemingly innocent photos or videos are just fragments of other people’s lives. The authors of these applications, however, did not just create a zone for sharing one’s life. Observing Instagramers in everyday situations, often idealized, almost illusory, the need arises in us for at least a piece of such a life to become our share. So we begin to copy, or, as we prefer, to be inspired by the lifestyle of the observed people. If one of them is perceived by us as a “high achiever”, then the persuasion is even greater.

The way social media work is a mystery to many, but how we use them causes the algorithms that control these applications to “learn”, which makes the displayed content more relevant. So we look at what we want to see. If these materials contain a hidden advertising message (which is not uncommon at all), we become a “victim” of online marketing, the latest tool of “the key to business success.” 

There’s no such thing as a free lunch

It is hard to imagine life without some of the services we use when surfing the internet. Many of them are free, but do we really not pay a price for using them? National and international legislators introduce obligations of informing, but it is done in such a way that we often do not understand. Led by the need of the moment, we click “accept”, “allow” and so on, unconsciously allowing entities not entirely known to us to put in our “piece” of virtual space the content we do not always want. 

Behind colloquially called “free” services are organizations that benefit from our online activity. They track our behavior, collect location data, and thus can present advertisements of local companies. They also have information about what caught our attention to display such content more often. Continually appearing materials presenting a given product increase many times the chances that we will purchase such an item. Whether we need it for life or not is a secondary issue, after all, we like to reward ourselves, and innocent shopping is one of the strongest forms of satisfying our need for pleasure. 

Personalization: benefit or loss?

When the vast majority of advertising content moved to television, profiles of potential consumers were created. And so commercial content was placed in such a way that it corresponded to the assumed audience of the broadcast programs. The same principle applies to the personalization of content on the internet. It can be said that this is a benefit for users – they do not receive information that does not have the potential to arouse the desire to have a specific product. On the other hand, perfectly “tailor-made” advertisements make us wonder and fear how much the application knows about us. These are legitimate concerns, but there are ways to guard ourselves against sophisticated manipulation techniques.

First of all, when making decisions, even in the “instant” world, let’s think for a moment. A short reflection time, devoted to the balance of profits and losses, will allow us to assess whether it is worth investing funds for a given service or product. Guided by such actions, we regain a sense of control over our behavior and begin to perceive the world of intelligent algorithms in a completely different way. We can then appreciate properly matched content, but develop a certain reflexivity in ourselves. We limit our impulsivity and thus protect ourselves from decisions we might simply regret.  

Balance

The ability to contact one’s emotions and to postpone pleasure are one of the many important factors of so-called emotional intelligence. It allows for a sober evaluation of the situation, a calm assessment of one’s emotions and awareness of why they appeared at a given moment. It may turn out that it is not about buying at all, but about satisfying other needs. Having the appropriate knowledge of ourselves, we will gain a sense of control not only over shopping but also over our own lives.