Power of mind vs. Power of Commercials.?
I think if you made a commercial that sold korans as magic books that guaranteed to improve your jump shot and send you to heaven when you die, people would beleive it.
Today, in Iraq I had picked up lunch for a local national that was doing work for us. He was a diabetic so I made his lunch special avoiding sugars, lots of breads, and giving him caffeine free diet soda. After his meal I saw him grab a Gatorade from the cooler to drink.
That’s when I got into an argument with the other American escourts about the power of American media vs. the true value of Gatorade. I argued that it was not good for him or us but we all think it is because of commercials. They disagreed beleiveing it hydrated you with electrolytes.
Even after explaining why this was false they still thought it was good for the guy.
Every living cell has a sodium potassium (electrolytes) ion exchange pump which regulates the water balance inside and outside cells. Water is attracted to particles (electrolytes) and sodium has a different charge than potassium, so as sodium and potassium will naturally balance out due to polarity water will follow and homeostasis occurs. (Hydration - given they have water.)
Thus you do not need gatorade for electrolytes. In fact gatorade has too much "electrolytes" and has a higher osmolar pull thus reducing the amount of water that goes into your body. Not to mention the sugar in it - put in it only to make it sell better. Sugar is a diuretic. (It makes you pee thus making you less hydrated.)
Plus, sweat is hypotonic. Contains less electrolytes than your blood has. Fluid loss is more of a problem usually than electroylte loss in hot days, especially for people who eat regular meals.
The drink was used on Florida Gators and was attributed to their win, but that was a different formula. Once there became a demand for it they pumped it full of sugar and mass marketed it as a sports drink.
Even after explaining all this, the other American soldiers still thought gatorade was good not only for them, but for the diabetic.
So, back to my question. Being that gatorade, like the supposid health benifits of cigarettes of yore, is unhealthy but beleived to be so because of advertising - how able are our minds to resist what society says around us even despite rational clearly laid out arguments against the statements the t.v. (society) holds as true?
Filed under: Potassium Diet
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
You are asking whether people can resist advertising, or in general social pressure. I shall answer that question.
For any product, there are people who who would never buy it, and people who would buy it, whether regularly or not. Those would not be influenced by advertising. Between those two groups, there are the undecided, who may or may not buy the product. It is this group that advertisers are trying to reach. Such action is legitimate, provided the businessmen are honest about their product. Some ambiguity in the ads is allowed, as exactitude may be wordy and distracting to the intended audience.
Dishonest businessmen would stretch the limits, taking advantage of the people’s ignorance. That is not to say they take advantage of the fools. Our time and efforts are limited, and we cannot know everything. We all direct our resources to the most pressing matters, and allow "waste" in the the small issues, where we are not as careful.
As you see, people as a group are doomed. There will always be some who will try to take advantage of the ignorance of the many. The situation is different on an individual level. Some will spend the time and effort to educate themselves, so as to be better customers, so as to spend their money intelligently.
Look at the amount of knowledge you can bring to this conversation. So perhaps it is not some intrinsic capacity of mind that is lacking in your fellows or cigarette smokers of yore but knowledge.
Knowledge will give you defenses against what you know something about or will take the time to learn. Some people will not take the time and what can you do about them. But even a knowledgeable person cannot be knowledgeable about everything. But there is another study for the mind that can help.
Classically it was called rhetoric. It is a study of arguments. The ancient Greeks numbered different arguments and made it clear why we shouldn’t listen to them but we so often do. Some of these arguments are:
the argument of the masses: We do or thing something because everyone else does it. You have heard this in commercials all the time…98% of the people when asked…
the argument of authority: we should because he does or says we should. In commercials you see the argument that some great sports figure (or team) drinks gatorade so you should too…
Sometimes I sit and watch commercials and look for the arguments which are also knows as fallacies. You will see appeals to sex, age, exclusivity, and money most frequently. They are "hooks" and also a warning sign not to be hooked and to watch out for what is not said.
Rhetoric is also a study of how things can be said to be convincing. I have heard it said that the original "3 R s" were reading, writing, and rhetoric (not arithmetic.) It was once an important and fundamental study that has been extensively downplayed for over 50 years. It is not surprising that this is also period during which advertising has developed such a hold over people. The advertising today would have been scoffed at by people 100 years ago.
The mind is capable if properly taught and quite susceptible if not.