How to Remain Happy in a World Full of Ads, the Fight Between Need and Want

It is my honest opinion that human psychology has been studied for decades if not centuries, to a state where all are material and non-material needs that we genuinly have are exploited to a point where you see ads everywhere and feel unwillingly unhappy because you cannot have all that is splashed in from of your eyes continously. What's even worse is that some fake needs are created for the sake of increasing sales, new products invented that really are not of any use to anyone, but are developed by a “well known and branded” company so people want to have it.

Think about buying a car. The purpose of any vehicle is to take you from A to B in a safe manner. But there are hundreds of brands of cars worldwide, how do they each compete and sell, what do they offer that others don't? Comfort, quality, social status? Sex appeal in commercials works very well, so you see a lot of cars advertised along side some models in sexy outfits, and the subliminal message of the ad is “get the car, get the girls too”. Essentially a car is a car, if it's working fine and it did not cost you a fortune, it was a good deal and you have solved your need of having a car.

But wait, car companies have a lot of employees and other costs so that need you to buy a new car every so often so keep up with their profit margins.

Thus, a new generation of cars is produced and pops up in an ad on your TV, promoting it's got some new technology, design, etc but stop for a moment and think, do you really need that shiny new car or have you just been brainwashed by a very well made ad, which has made you feel unhappy of your current car, athough it does not have any problems and you have been using it for your needs so far happily?

Buy this to do that, you also need this and this, bla bla bla, but the underlying message in all ads is “we are selling you a teaspoon of happiness here, buy it now because we have made you feel that you are unhappy without our product”.

We live a world where we are so easily manipulated at every step, so it's our duty to understand what makes us happy and do those things while at the same time ignore the most recent commercial yelling at you from the corner.

What about being happy that it's a good day outside, that you are enjoying your free time, pursuing your hobbies like biking, fishing, swimming, surfing, etc. Can all that make you happy and keep the feeling going when you are constantly bombarded with ads on TV, online, in your elevator, even while on the toilet seat? The answer is up to you.
You need to remind yourself that each ad you see in front of you is engineered in a way to make you buy a product, that's the purpose it was made for, to make sales. So see behind the nice shinny colours and music of the ad and if you really think you need that specific product, then get it, but understand that hapiness is not derived from what and how much you own.

When you make your mind up, you will be happy again and it's just time for another, you guessed it, advert on TV!

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0