A few days ago I treated myself to a yummy meal at a great café in the Sunset District of San Francisco. It’s a family business that my kids and I enjoy for it’s history, crew, and quality food at fair prices. The place has a couple big TV’s that are generally tuned in to sporting events. Anyone who knows me knows I couldn’t care less about professional and college sports. Don’t even get me going on this! So, the actual programming doesn’t get my attention in the least. But, since I don’t have a TV in my life except for on occasions like that, I rarely see commercials. When I do, I am pretty much sickened by them.
I made my living for 30 years as a commercial photographer specializing in creating compelling imagery for my clients. Whether that was for a hospital, clothing brand, guitar manufacturer, fruit warehouse or a university, it was all the same. The overarching goal was always to create in the viewer a sense of need to either use that service or buy their product. Looking back, I have no qualms regarding who my clients were and what they were selling. Some I’m even proud to have been a part of. But, there were a few where I created imagery which tapped in to making people feel like their life was somehow ‘less than’, or at the very least would be much improved by buying or supporting that thing I was part of selling. I really don’t feel bad about that because it was my job and I didn’t have the particular awareness and sensitivity that I do now. I enjoyed my work as a pro photographer. It was always challenging and interesting with a lot of diverse environments and opportunities. I was lucky to have had such a career!
In 2013 my life changed quickly and radically. Everything in my personal world came apart and my priorities could not have shifted more dramatically. A year into my journey of intense personal work with ACA, (Adult Children of Alcoholics), I felt more and more conflicted with being a significant part of any marketing machine. As a side note, this is the time when I began to realize that the only photography of genuine value that I had ever created were personal portraits for individuals and families. Another year on, and on the heels of my second Burning Man in 2015, a dream showed me my new path. When I awoke from it I knew it was what I had to do with my skills and I’ve been solidly on that path ever since.
It was at that point that so much changed for me. It was then, with a new purpose rooted in using my gifts to create meaningful photography for individuals, that the heaviness I’d been living with began to lift. I feel that dream and purpose were a gift from deep within me. An uncovering of something I had known forever but hadn’t been open enough to see, let alone act upon.
I know what it is to live in a constant state of compulsion to meet and exceed the expectations of others in my world. In their defense, they weren’t the ones putting me in that frenzied and desperate state. I was. When we feel that way, it’s always because we are somehow allowing it to be so. Nothing will make you feel more fearful and inadequate than letting other’s expectations define your self worth!
So, what does all this have to do with advertising? Quite a lot actually. Advertising is the art of creating in you a sense or expectation that you need what they are selling in order to be either happy or safe. Neither of which any product or service can genuinely provide. Happiness can only come from within and nobody is ever truly safe. You’re only ever as sexy or beautiful as you believe you are. Your financial assets can disappear in the click of a mouse. Your physical property can be taken away overnight. Your body can be forever broken in the blink of an eye. In one way or another, advertising always preys upon these fears and insecurities. I see it in every product and service ad from pharmaceuticals to kid’s toys. Remember the status we endowed upon our friends who had the latest hot toys when we were kids? It was instant status and I remember feeling so much like their lives had to be so great compared to mine. All because they had the new rad Hot Wheels track set and I didn’t. Granted, a child growing up in the circumstances that I did is far more likely to be vulnerable to that. But, on the flip side, the kid with the cool toys and admiration felt the pressure to stay cool by having the next hot toy that came out. Influential advertising is a cornerstone of creating the pressure that supports those sick cycles of perceived personal worth based on material possessions. The more lack we feel in any aspect of our lives the more effectively advertising works on us.
As all of this reality regarding advertising took deeper root in me, the less I could be part of it. It's to the point now that I would sooner work at a garage doing oil changes than ever shoot commercially again. While it may sound like I have issues with creative professionals in the advertising world, let me assure you I do not. It’s simply not for me anymore.
The overarching point I wish to make with this post is that no product or service will ever define you in a manner that actually matters. The US is a capitalist country to the extreme and we are relentlessly bombarded with advertising in every medium and arena. Practically all of it is engineered to create in you a sense of 'lack' somehow. It’s important to understand how it works so you will recognize when it’s negatively influencing your decisions based on underlying fears or insecurities you may have. If you can recognize that sort of thing it will help you take steps toward understanding the root of that fear. With such understanding you can move beyond it and be less susceptible to the programming being constantly hurled at you by advertisers.
Take time to search yourself anytime an ad makes you feel actual ‘need’. You may truly need that tool or service. But, if in looking deeper you realize your sense of need is actually a ‘want’, be sure you want it for the right reasons. Advertising is a science and a language worth educating yourself on so that it works for you, not on you.
