THE DISTORTED MIRROR: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising

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Abstract

While the metaphor of brain surgery may be hyperbole, the inflated rhetoric so characteristic of advertising, it still contains an element of truth. Advertising is without doubt a formative influence within our culture, even though we do not yet know its exact effects. Given its pervasive and persuasive character, it is hard to argue otherwise. The proliferation and the intrusion of various media into the everyday lives of the citizenry make advertising environmental in nature, persistently encountered, and involuntarily experienced by the entire population. It surrounds us no matter where we turn, intruding into our communication media, our streets, and our very homes. It is designed to attract attention, to be readily intelligible, to change attitudes, and to command our behavior. Clearly not every advertisement accomplishes all of these aims, but just as clearly, much of it must-otherwise, advertisers are ?nancially extravagant fools.

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Pollay, R. W. (2014). THE DISTORTED MIRROR: Reflections on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising. In Readings in Advertising, Society, and Consumer Culture (pp. 291–318). Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315701271-32

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