Many people grow up believing that disapproving of things makes you a better person – ie the more things you disapprove of, the more virtuous you are. The problem with this is that you end up disapproving of everything. But it’s easy to rationalise this disapproving attitude as responsible and moral, since some sense of disapproval is obviously justified in everyday life.
But what we seek to escape controls us. Advertisers seem to understand this – most advertisements target our disapproval feelings. As children, we received the message: “you have to be good to get approval”. As adult consumers, we receive the message: “you have to own these items to get approval”. As a result we have the highest consumer debt levels in recorded history.
Advertisers seed disapproval-anxiety within “love” relationships. Disapproval-anxiety amounts to sexual anxiety in this context. If “real” love is unconditional approval, then what kind of “love” is founded on the endless comparison of economic and social status, body weight, hair shininess, etc, to “approved” levels as defined by marketers?
Full Article via Jan Erik
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