That’s the Dumbest Thing I Have Ever Heard In My Life!
We Are Losing A War . . . the Information War!
We could all learn a lesson from Bill Cosby in this clip of the Cosby Show.
We need to learn how to say: “That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life.” We need to teach our children to do so as well.
Consider these statistics:
- Television – Direct TV has over 250 Channels
- Radio – Breaking it down, there are 4,776 AMs, 6,309 FMs and 2,892 educational FMs, which the FCC lists separately.
- Internet – Yahoo registered 19.2 billion websites
- Consumers today encounter from 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages per day, vs. 500 to 2,000 in the 1970s, says J. Walker Smith, president of consumer and marketing watcher Yankelovich.
- Two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day
- Kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs
- Kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games
- Children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight.
- Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.
- In Canada, the average child watches about two hours of television a day and sees more than 20,000 commercials per year. And marketers have become increasingly sophisticated, using research into developmental psychology to exploit children’s age-specific vulnerabilities and make their messages that much more powerful:
- Up to age four or five, most children don’t understand that there is a difference between entertainment and advertising. They watch commercials and television programs with equal attention. Commercials aimed at this group often associate the product or brand with fun and happiness, rather than talking about actual product facts.
- Children don’t develop a concept of other people’s beliefs, desires, and motives, known as “theory of mind,” until they are at least six years old. It’s difficult for children younger than seven or eight years old to understand that the intent of advertising is to get them to buy things. They also tend to take advertised claims about a product literally.
- Tweens, age eight to 12 years, understand the purpose of ads but are still vulnerable to them. These children are starting to develop their sense of identity. “Aspirational” marketing targets their desire to be slightly older and seem more sophisticated than they are.
- Teenagers are trying to differentiate themselves from their parents and fit in with their peer group. Marketing aimed at teenagers may focus on teens’ insecurities, or it may take positive qualities such as their activism and desire to challenge conformity and repackage them in the form of cool, counter-culture brands.
As we “Americans” seem to be struggling in every area of life.
- Health
- Finances
- Relationships
- Careers
It is my opinion we as a nation are are living in insecurity and until we as individuals regain confidence in ourselves life will continue to be an unfulfilled struggle.
Why Is That?
As stated above the average American receives 3,500 – 5,000 marketing messages per day. These messages come to us in a variety of ways and regardless of how they act like they want to help us . . . most messages have the senders best interest in mind. In the United States alone, $6.7 million is spent on market research each year. This means that $6.7 million is spent on understanding how babies to elderly people think and behave. The business world knows that if they learn how you and I think and behave that they will be able to speak to us in ways that will influence, motivate, or manipulate us to take action in their favor.
They know what they’re doing . . . and they’re winning!
Let Me Ask You a Question!
With of all of the 3,500-5,000 messages your children or students are hearing on a daily basis, what are you doing to make sure your message gets the attention you need it to?
We wonder why parents are having trouble controlling their children. We wonder why teachers are having a hard time in the classroom. How are your messages competing with the thousands of other messages coming at them?
They’re not . . . and that’s a problem!
Parents and the education world need to start thinking like a business. What do you need to learn about the children you are working with to touch them at their souls? Businesses need to start treating their employees like they are customers. You do market research for a reason. Why don’t you give the same attention to your most important resource . . . YOUR PEOPLE?
Is There Any Hope? Can we win this war?
It’s not looking good!