Sojourn of Ben

A legal mandate exists that binds a corporation to its shareholders. This legal mandate assures that a company is operating with its shareholders’ best interest in mind (Bakan37). No matter hat the consequences, the corporation has to use the shareholders’ money to pursue profit over everything else. These consequences not only affect the corporations, but the public as well. The effects of subliminal advertising are to say the least astonishing. The corporation uses these subtle techniques to persuade the public into buying their products. Subliminal advertising has the biggest risk and social implication of a legal mandate that binds the corporation’s best interest to the shareholders’ profit. The Subliminal advertising carries biggest social implications because of the affect the technique has on the psyche of the consumer. Subtle techniques such as the “nag factor,” names, and marketing techniques are used to pull people’s minds in a hundred directions everyday.

Subliminal advertising, by definition is “the use by advertisers of images and sounds to influence consumers' responses without their being conscious of it” (“Subliminal Advertising”). The best form of advertising is often subliminal. Subtle images are placed in front of society every day. A person walks out of their house, and they might see people wearing a certain brand of clothing. They might think, “I might want to buy some of that clothing.” From there, this person goes to the store. In the windows of the neighboring building, there are advertisements for a certain kind of laundry detergent. By the time they get to the store, they have already been subconsciously persuaded to buy a certain kind of laundry detergent. They go to a bar, and overhear people talking loudly about a drink; soon everybody’s going to be drinking that drink. Most of these techniques are called undercover advertising. The people who are talking loudly are working for the company that makes the drink. The people wearing the clothes are paid to wear those clothes. “By the time you go to bed you’ve probably received eight or nine undercover messages” (bakan132). These are the subtle ways that the advertisers get your mind hooked on their product before you even know about it.

Some people might argue that privatization would have the biggest social implications from the legal mandate that binds the corporation to its shareholders. Privatization is a process in which the government “hands over control of institutions once thought to be inherently “public” in nature (Bakan113). Privatization would affect every known “public” service. The firefighters wouldn’t come to anyone’s house unless they could pay them to put out their house. People would be charged for the source of all life: water. Imagine a world where we all need to pay to stay alive. “Public” sidewalks are now running through private property. Disney Land has created a town where apparently, every family goes to be perfect. Disney has put a “public” feeling into their privately owned property (The Corporation (2003-2004)). This allows Disney to market their products anywhere they want in this “town.” Corporations are even trying to privatize the school systems. The Edison school systems are the largest Education Management Organization (EMO) schools in the United States (Bakan114). This beats the path for the subliminal advertising directed toward every aspect of our lives. If the sidewalk goes through private property, what’s to stop the company from putting advertisements on the sidewalk? What’s going to stop the corporations from advertising in our parks and our water sources? What’s to stop the corporation from manipulating our children?

Children have become the new frontier in advertising. Advertisers have been using what has become known as the “nag factor,” a child’s ability to nag their parents to buy a product, on the youth of America. “Kids are amazing when they watch TV, they’re paying attention to the advertising…how many people pay attention to the advertising? Among parents it’s probably quite thin, quite small”(Bakan121). Ad designers are realizing a child’s want for a product could be enough to move it. This also allows for the ads they are designing to navigate around ad savvy parents. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that children who are around ages 8 and under are “unable to distinguish advertising from regular television programming” (Bakan122). This means that children 8 and under cannot understand what is being sold to them, only that they like what they see, so they have to have it. Children also believe that what the advertisement claims to be true. If they see a toy flying, they will believe that that toy can fly. Children have been described as “tomorrows consumers.” This makes them “fair game” in the eyes of the corporation. The corporation explains that “the fate of entire corporate empires could depend on marketers’ ability to get children to nag their parents effectively” (Bakan120). Not only does this affect the child, but the parents as well. Parents who end up giving in to the “nag factor” are being influenced through the minds of their children. They are spending valuable money that could be going toward their kid’s college fund on a Barbie Dream House because “Ken and Barbie need a place to live together and have children and have their own family.”

Some companies use their name as a crutch to lean on most of the time. The corporation depends on society to use that crutch as well. Most people believe that a company’s slogan represents who they are, and what they stand for. Take Beyond Petroleum (BP) as an example. This company had become one of the only “green” oil companies. Their CEO, John Browne, has set up the first “eco-friendly” system there is (Bakan40). However, the legal mandate holds Browne by law to hold his shareholder’s profits over anything else. This might be why Browne has refused to stop bidding on a drill site in Alaska. There are herds of Caribou that feed the tribes and villages of central Alaska. It is feared that drilling for oil in Alaska may upset the migration of the Caribou herd, and therefore take away the food source of the tribes and villages (Bakan43). However good John Browne's intentions are, if he refused to drill in Alaska, he would be held legally responsible for his actions. He would be responsible for the billions BP would make by drilling in Alaska.

Subliminal advertising is a danger to society. The corporations are messing with children’s minds as well as ours. What kind of world do we live in where people need to trick us into buying their products? The corporation has stooped low enough to use our own minds against us to commercialize everything we see; all for the interest of the shareholders. We can’t walk down the street without seeing a billboard. We can’t watch a baseball game without being bombarded with sponsors trying to sell us their stuff. The affects of subliminal advertising on the delicate human psyche are being seen though. Until the day comes when the public is able to turn their brains off to subliminal advertising, we’re just going to continue to be taken advantage of.

Works Cited
The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. Dir. Achbar, Mike. Perf. Jane Akre, Ray Anderson, Maude Barlow, Chris Barnett. Big Picture Media Corporation. 2003-2004

Bakan, Joel. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. Free Press. 1230 Avenue of the Americas. New York, NY 10020. 2004.

“Subliminal Advertising.” New Oxford American Dictionary. 2008.