Ads are destroying the environment.

[Twilight Hue]

Ads Are Polluting Our World: How Advertising Trashes Our Planet and Our Brains

Have to admit. It's getting to a point that something needs to be done.

Advertising is completely out of control these days.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I especially liked this part:

Kids are under intense pressure to keep up with trends, learning quickly that under the regime of market sovereignty their value, if not their dignity and identity, rests on what they accumulate rather than who they are.

That's pretty spot on. We live in "buy, buy, buy" world, and it's fueled by advertisements. People who doubt the manipulative power of ads and that psychology produces studies that produce results should take heed. They are the most apt for getting sucked into these advertisement woes and not realize they are being manipulated.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I especially liked this part:

That's pretty spot on. We live in "buy, buy, buy" world, and it's fueled by advertisements. People who doubt the manipulative power of ads and that psychology produces studies that produce results should take heed. They are the most apt for getting sucked into these advertisement woes and not realize they are being manipulated.

I remember tobacco and fast food put under pressure to curtail their advertising habits and tone it down. It goes beyond its message to the realm of advertising pollution where ads just have to fill up every single blank spot left that isn't covered by a graphic, flyer, sticker, or sign for someone's product or service that in most cases no one really cares about, or gives a damn about it.

We address light pollution and air pollution, why not advertising pollution. The obsession to fill in every nook and cranny, weather it be land, sea, and air, reeks of a type of mental illness to shove those things into everyone's faces weather they like it or not. Literally destroying one's surroundings and environment with redundant physical and mental garbage.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

We address light pollution and air pollution, why not advertising pollution.

I totally agree. It's so bad that in all reality we can't even walk through our own homes without having ads invading our personal space.
And when it comes to advertising to children, we need very strict guidelines and regulations, and scale it way, way back.

 

[Father Heathen]

I especially liked this part:

That's pretty spot on. We live in "buy, buy, buy" world, and it's fueled by advertisements. People who doubt the manipulative power of ads and that psychology produces studies that produce results should take heed. They are the most apt for getting sucked into these advertisement woes and not realize they are being manipulated.

In many high schools, particularly urban ones, there are social cliches based on what brand of shoes you wear. Kids actually get bullied over it, which adds to the pressure of buying the "right" kind. How ****ed up is that?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

In many high schools, particularly urban ones, there are social cliches based on what brand of shoes you wear. Kids actually get bullied over it, which adds to the pressure of buying the "right" kind. How ****ed up is that?

Me not getting the "right kind" is one of the reasons school was so hard for me. No matter how hard I tried to fit in, it was the wrong colors, wrong sports team, wrong brand, and it seemed like there was no end in sight to my torments. Over mindless, petty ****. And it deserves to be called nothing other than ****, because that's what it is.

 

[Father Heathen]

Me not getting the "right kind" is one of the reasons school was so hard for me. No matter how hard I tried to fit in, it was the wrong colors, wrong sports team, wrong brand, and it seemed like there was no end in sight to my torments. Over mindless, petty ****. And it deserves to be called nothing other than ****, because that's what it is.

Yeah, it's **** like that that makes school uniforms seem like a good idea.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Just on a lark, My single toothpaste box has its name brand printed on the one single package, 7 times.

Not including the tube.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I totally agree. It's so bad that in all reality we can't even walk through our own homes without having ads invading our personal space.
And when it comes to advertising to children, we need very strict guidelines and regulations, and scale it way, way back.

Not just children. Look at what litigation lawyers are doing as another example.

With massive ad campaigns, enticing people via lawyer lottery to get rich by winning court cases. It imo, is and has been progressively devastating to the economy, while with the same stroke, trivializing any real and valid serious court cases where an individual actually does deserve a large settlement award.

The lawyers actually includes court awards in their public advertising. 1 million, 5 million, 15 million. More than their insurance will pay them.

Inviting lawsuits for anything and everything under the sun, not to mention our sanity everytime we get those irritating high speed blabbering after almost every advertising plug on the radio and television.

Of course radio and TV now is just rampant advertising with some actual programming thrown in here and there. Hell, they even got the hosts to plug an a slew of ads and sponsors during the "program" itself.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Of course radio and TV now is just rampant advertising with some actual programming thrown in here and there. Hell, they even got the hosts to plug an a slew of ads and sponsors during the "program".

Reminds me of some movie I watched, with a scene involving a burning apartment. And in the middle of this on-fire kitchen, so clearly on display, was a box of Special K with just the top part of the box on fire. And that's not even a good example of a cleverly hidden advertisement/product placement.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Aside from the mental effects brought about by rampant and intrusive advertising, let's look at one of the shocking realities associated with the physical impact.

This info is just through the marketing that arrives in your mailbox.

From Hubspot.

Shocking Junk Mail Statistics & Environmental Damage

1. Junk Mail Kills 2.6 Million Trees Every Year. I assumed each piece of "standard mail" was junk mail (this is only about 50% of the total volume of US Mail) and assumed that junk mail uses 2 sheets of paper (1 envelope and 1 letter), found the number of sheets of paper per tree, and did some math. Of course some junk mail is only a postcard, but some is a catalog. And some does use recycled paper. But I did not factor in any of the damage caused by all those trucks burning gas to deliver all the mail either.
2. Every US Household Gets 6 Pieces of Junk Mail Each Day. I took the total volume of junk mail and divided by the number of households and the number of mail delivery days and got the answer, which is 6.3.
3. In 5 Days We Produce Enough Junk Mail to Reach the Moon. I took the width of a business envelope (8-7/8 inches) and multiplied by the number of junk mail pieces and divided by the number of inches to the moon, and saw that we could reach the moon 61 times per year with our junk mail. If you divide the number of mail delivery days by 61, you get 5, which means every 5 days we could reach the moon again with our junk mail.
4. Junk Mail Produces 1 Billion Pounds of Landfill Each Year. If you take the 2.6 million trees killed each year and convert that into pounds of paper, you get roughly 2 billion pounds. Even if you assume half of that is recycled (I saw an estimate of 45% on Wikipedia) you still have 1 billion pounds of paper going into landfills
5. Junk Mail Weighs Almost Double the US Military's Tanks. Our junk mail weighs nearly twice as much as all the US tanks in the world, combined. If you take the average US tank at a weight of 67 tons (a ton is 2,000 pounds) and divide the total weight of paper from junk mail by that number, you find that junk mail produced each year weighs the same as over 15,000 tanks. According to Wikipedia, the US military has about 8,000 tanks. By the way, a tank weighs about 40 times more than a standard car.

Addum:. Article written by: Mike Volpe