Analysis Of The Cult You Re In

1046 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The influence of media advertisement on consumer's buying behavior

Imagine living in a society where everything is uniform. Anything you wear, eat or think is controlled. Then you realize that your life is not actually yours. This sounds bizarre, but it’s true. Without knowing it, everyone dreams of the same things in life; the perfect job, the perfect family, or the perfect house. We may not all agree to this, but the fact is that we all dream the same dream. In some way, we are all part of one big “cult” because our desires are similar to one another. When the word “cult” comes to mind, it has a negative connotation. American society makes most of its profits by the use of advertisements. In Kalle Lasn’s essay “The Cult You’re In,written in 1996, he uses rhetorical tactics such as ethos, pathos, and logos to illustrate how ads increase a person’s desire for goods and services that he or she may not want. There are some aspects of as in his essay that are rhetorically effective; however, there are some aspects of his essay that are not. Lasn uses second person point of view to establish ethos. He employs “you” throughout the essay because he wants to connect more with his audience. The word “you” shows how informal Lasn’s essay is. He also establishes ethos with his audience by using personal anecdotes. Finally, Lasn utilizes satire as his way of poking fun …show more content…

He tries to grab the attention of his audience whom includes anyone who desires what they cannot have. Lasn also draws in his audience’s attention when he writes about “The state college you graduated from left you with a $35,000 debt” (pp 114, paragraph 4). This quote implies that the average college student always has student loan debt. Nothing in life is perfect so someone is always dreaming of a better life thinking that all their problems will be solved. But nothing is set in stone. Famous name brands mentioned in the essay continuously show how luxury is one of the things a person desires to

Show More
Related

  • Jean Kilbourne 'Jesus Is A Brand Of Jeans'

    505 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article Kilbourne is stressing the Idea that advertising is stripping us of our spirituality, culture is becoming commercialism. Kilbourne believes that because of the way advertisements are deployed they’re changing our values in what I (and I’m pretty sure she) would consider an extremely negative way. Kilbourne talks of their efforts to addict us to consumerism as children and leave us emotionally starved, expecting products to fill the void that they create in us. The culture that comes with these advertisements is turning us into self-indulgent, close minded people Kilbourne sums this idea up quite well bemoaning that “This apparently bottomless consumerism not only depletes the world’s resources,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Daily You By Joseph Turrow

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Turow wants to bring to light what happens behind the scenes, and why the benefits of technology also come with a cost that many are not aware of. He does this through a hypothetical that involves the lifestyle of a family. They eat fast food, are of lower income, and have issues with weight. Advertisers use this information to direct coupons to fast food restaurants to the family, show ads for used cars, and direct diet pills and gym advertisements to the females of the family (Turow 229). This is an effective illustration and lead in to the bulk of Turow’s essay and argument. Turow argues that while some might see this targeted campaign as beneficial, he goes a step further and extends the hypothetical. In this situation the members of this family talk with other members of society and find they have a different advertisement experience compared to them. This leads to a feeling of comparison, with directed advertisements dictating an individual’s place in society. The strategy behind using a hypothetical situation makes the information not only easier to digest, but it makes the impact feel more personal. This point addresses the sociological and emotional impact that such advertisements can have, and is a logical step from the information that is

    Read More

  • Advertisements for For-Profit Colleges

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    By giving form to people’s deep lying desires, and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for, advertisers have best chance to arresting attentions and affecting communication. The immediate goal is to tug psychological shirt sleeves and slow down long enough for a word or two about the the product is being sold.[Jib Flowes]For profit schools directly attack this psychological need of the audience. The need to achieve something in being targeted by the commercials. By investing in the advertisements, they also earn higher profit. By applying different advertising techniques ,the advertisers’ ultimate goal is to sell their product and earn maximum profit.

    Read More

  • The Cult You’re In

    1918 Words  | 4 Pages

    You go pick one either because the picture is better or you saw the commercial the other day and you want it. During the length of this paper we will talk about two important writers, Kalle Lasn the writer of “The Cult You’re in” and Benoit Denizet-Lewis the writer of “ The Man Behind Abercrombie & Fitch”. They both talk about similar topics that go hand and hand with each other, they talk about the consumers “Dream”, how companies recruit the consumers, who cult members really are, how people are forced to wear something they don’t want, and about slackers. What is the dream we all have? Think about the main things that you strive for in life.

    Read More

  • Cults and Their Leaders

    4160 Words  | 9 Pages

    For many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling God's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.

    Read More

  • Jonestown

    2195 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cults have existed throughout history since the beginning of time. A cult is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a “system of religious worship with a devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc.” Over the past thirty years numerous religious cults have caused “ tens of thousands to abandon their families, friends, education’s, and careers to follow the teaching of a leader they will never meet”(Beck 78).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jack Solomon's Masters Of Desire: The Culture Of American Advertising

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    Americans have long since depended on a falsified ideology of idealized life referred to as the American dream. The construct of this dream has become more elusive with the emergence of popular cultural advertisements that sell items promoting a highly gendered goal of achieving perfection. In “Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon states that ads are creating a “symbolic association between their products and what is most coveted by the consumer” to draw on the consumer’s desire to outwardly express high social standing (544). The American dream has sold the idea of equality between genders, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds, but advertisements have manipulated this concept entirely through representations

    Read More

  • What We Are To Advertising James Twitchell Analysis

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    “What We are to Advertisers” by James B. Twitchell is a short article that emphasize how advertisement attracts audience magically. From the quote, “ Mass production means mass marketing, and mass marketing means the creation of mass stereotypes” James points out of how the world appear to be. The advertisers seems to be psychologically abuse to the public for them to be successful in their industry. Base on the way the society act, dress and thinks, we fantasize something ridiculous and only our imagination can only make it close to a reality. With that in mind, the industry of advertisements will immediately think of a way to try and sell their product to us.

    Read More

  • Nike's Individuality

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Solomon’s words, “American dream encourages the desire to ‘arrive,’ to vault above the mass, it also fosters a desire to be popular, to ‘belong’.” (169) Advertiser whose “ads are aimed at a broader market” (169) are utilizing such kind of human mentality. For instance, Nike is a famous clothes brand to almost everybody. In its advertisement, there are always people in different genders, races and ages wearing Nike’s products running on streets, on riversides or in parks. Through its advertisement, Nike is trying to convey consumers that everyone is using Nike’s products, and you should be one of them. People want to fit in as part of most people, so they buy Nike’s products. Nike’s advertised products make people belong to it. If I were going to buy a new pair of shorts for running, I would consider of buying a pair of Nike shorts because it seems that so many people wear Nike shorts and I want to keep the same with them. People buy those advertised products to increase their senses of belonging, but they are losing their individuality at the same time. Despite many advertised products could decrease the individuality, some of them indeed make people more of

    Read More

  • Consumerism and Faith

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    Consumerism is the idea that influences people to purchase items in great amounts. Consumerism makes trying to live the life of a “perfect American” rather difficult. It interferes with society by replacing the normal necessities for life with the desire for things with not much concern for the true value of the desired object. Children are always easily influenced by what they watch on television. Swimme suggests in his work “How Do Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism” that although an advertiser’s objective is to make money, the younger generation is being manipulated when seeing these advertisements. Before getting a good understanding of a religion, a child will have seen and absorbed at least 30,000 advertisements. The amount of time teenagers spend in high school is lesser than the amount of advertisement that they have seen (155). The huge amount of advertisements exposed to the younger generation is becomi...

    Read More

  • Slavery: The Role Of Cultural Resistance In America

    2491 Words  | 5 Pages

    This article focuses on the idea of cultural sabotage.” Cultural sabotage is used to describe any form of guerilla communication that confuses and/or distorts the message transmitted by the mass media. The central idea is that advertising has taken popular culture to remold it and give it back to society as packaging for one central idea: the answer to consume.” (Clavell 1) The article quotes the book Publicité et Societé by publicist Bernard Cathelat and states “Advertising is not only a commercial word, but also a political word, a social word, a moral word and an ideological discourse. It is the dominant language of the culture, and without doubt, the most important information system in

    Read More

  • Cults Can Be Very Bad and Dangerous

    547 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cults can be bad influences in several different ways. This article is about real facts of why cults make society a much worse place. Cults can result in crimes, torture, and forbidden worship.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of A Commercial

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    The video describes how our society may not even care about the product being advertised, but we still read the billboard or watch the commercial. Also mentioned was the use of colors in a commercial, the marketing effects in politics, and even market research obtained by studying different cults. Frontline takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar “persuasion industries” of advertising and how this rhetoric affects everyone. So whether this is in the form of a television commercial or a billboard, pathos, logos, and ethos can be found in all advertisements.

    Read More

  • Sociological Perspectives on Cult Leaders

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society strives to feel a sense of belonging. We want to be a part of something that shares the same beliefs as us. We spend our time trying to place ourselves in a group to satisfy these needs, whether it is in a hobby club, a group of friends, or religion. Some people go to more extreme measures and find this in what we call a cult. According to Henslin, a cult is a new or different religion whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion. (2013:405) Cults are often identified with the ideas of mass murder, deviant behaviors, unusual beliefs, and extremely devoted members. Cults are also highly known for their leaders. The leaders of cults usually are the ones that portray the image for the entire group. Successful cults take a strong-minded and, according to Max Weber, charismatic leader.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of John Fiske Popular Culture

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The average family is bombarded with 1,100 advertisements per day … people only remembered three or four of them”. Fiske’s uses an example of kids singing Razzmatazz a jingle for brand of tights at a woman in a mini skirt. This displayed to the reader that people are not mindless consumers; they modify the commodity for their use. He rejects that the audiences are helpless subjects of unconscious consumerism. In contrast to McDonald’s, Fiske’s quoted “they were using the ads for their own cheeky resistive subculture” he added. He believed that instead of being submissive they twisted the ad into their own take on popular culture (Fiske, 1989, p. 31)

    Read More

More about Analysis Of The Cult You Re In

Open Document