A bunch of folks are pointing out Dove’s new onslaught campaign, which goes part of the way towards helping women deal with self esteem issues, but it could be a much broader scope than that. Want to inoculate yourself, your friends, and especially your children against not only the beauty industry, but everyone and everything else?
Teach yourself and others how to follow the money. When you see a commercial or advertisement, discuss with your kids what the commercial is for, what they want to you to buy, and what tactics they will use to try to make you buy it.
“Honey, this is a commercial for mascara. The manufacturer is going to suggest that if you don’t use their product, you will not be pretty, which of course, is not true. They’ll be using several ways to attack you – and it is an attack on you, just as real as someone punching you – including peer pressure and the granfalloon attacks.”
Maybe it’s cultural in America, but we LOVE to know how the magic trick works, even if it spoils our enjoyment of the trick. There’s no better way to inoculate yourself, friends, and loved ones than to pull the curtain back from advertisers and marketers and show them the catalog of tricks. There’s no better way to defeat a salesperson than to list off the tricks as they use them, and if you don’t particularly like the salesperson, yes, you can list them out loud.
“Yes, fine, Ben Franklin close, time limited offer, exclusivity close. Dude, have you read anything besides Tom Hopkins and Zig Ziglar?”
YOU have power over your mind. Share that power with others, and take it away from advertisers.
