Being sucked in by advertising
Despite being fully aware of the advertising industry and the clothing industry’s ways of manipulating the consumer, I am still sucked into certain advertising and clothing industry campaigns. For goodness sake, I just got an email from ASOS about 20% off and I clicked straight over without hesitating, just in case I found something, even though I recently bought something from them.
I love Benefit’s kitschy packaging, without really using anything from them (apart from Bad Gal lash, the best mascara ever for me – not bought in store in Australia because I may be a sucker, but I am not paying Australian retail prices), I adore MAC and NARS lipsticks even though there are cheaper alternatives. I just ‘feel better’ when I use them. Advertising at work, and I know that’s what it’s doing and yet I am enticed anyway. I have bottles upon bottles of ‘niche’ perfume and I really don’t want to think about how much I’ve spent on them over the years, all because I want to smell ‘good’ and ‘different’. Advertising.
So, why, even knowing all this, do I allow myself to be drawn in in the first place?
I don’t really know. I don’t really believe my life will be better with that product, or wearing that dress. But it’s not just as simple as, ‘because I like pretty things’ either. Maybe it’s a mix of both?
It can be so hard to constantly fight against advertising. It’s exhausting and you feel like giving up and giving in. I have people tell me to stop thinking about it if it bothers me so much. Which … I’m not even getting into the wrongness of that statement right now.
I suppose if I recognise that occasionally, I will be sucked into advertising campaigns, whether by the promise of a better life or simply because the marketing speaks to the femme part of me, and if I continue to question the reasons behind my ‘sucked in’, then progress is being made.
