CHAPTER 1
AMERICA'S FALSE REALITY
America and Americans live under an illusion of greatness,invincibility, and splendor. Every broadcaster, politician, andaverage American expounds the notion of American wealth,greatness, and strength. It is all about America above all others.
While there are many things America is and should rightlybe proud of, there are many areas where the country no longerleads or rules supreme. While encouraging national pride is good,false assumptions and overstating reality can become a dangerousdelusion because it encourages people to lull into over confidenceand lack of real effort.
This I am afraid has been happening to America and, as a result,we have lost much of our manufacturing and other productiveactivities. Yet we continue this self-illusion of quality, greatness,efficiency, and general superiority, even though many of us whotravel know this to be false and illusionary.
It also affects our own lifestyle, work, output, and ultimatelyquality of living and life. Much of it is part and parcel ofuncontrolled aggressive marketing which uses any means to makeits point and get sales. Our exaggerated illusions also have theeffect of reducing the quality and focus of our training, education,and self-improvements. We spend less on training and retrainingof skilled workers than most developed countries and yet claimthat Americans are more productive, skilled, and disciplined whilereality often disproves these assumptions. It is time for us to acceptreality and do what we must to regain properly earned superiorabilities and performance.
There is an urgent need for Americans to look into themirror and recognize themselves. The American dream and ourperception of greatness and superiority, often unjustified, do us alot of harm and are largely to blame for our lack of performanceand achievement. This will not change unless we finally come togrips with reality and see ourselves for what and who we really areand what we are or are not achieving.
We did have a glorious past but lost our way in recent years,largely as a result of unrealistic and often untruthful self-delusion.It is time that we openly admit to ourselves and to the world thatwe are but a shadow of our past. We still have isolated achievementslargely advanced by a shrinking handful of visionaries andtechnological leaders such as Steve Jobs. But, as a nation misled bya largely dysfunctional political and social system, we no longerperform as envisioned by our founders and past generations.
We have lost our way and need a radical change in the waywe run our country and economy. We need more honesty, publicspirituality, and selflessness and not just greed and thievery. Time isrunning out for us to rebuild America, and hard decisions will haveto be made quickly and enforced if we want to save this country andwhat it stands for. Unless this is done, it will continue to sink intothe morass and will ultimately become ungovernable because therewill be nothing left to govern.
The new information and communication age has opened aPandora's Box, and everyone knows the culprits who must be madeaccountable. Illusions and delusions no longer work because we allrecognize them in real time, and more and more Americans aredemanding improvements in governance and social justice.
Reality is catching up with us, and we better confront it so wecan work on making our country into the kind of America wedream about and want our children to inherit. This may requireradical changes and a more cooperative and focused approachto government and decision making which will then attract ourbest minds to public service for the sake of the country as wholeand not just special interests. We may have to reinvent democracyfor the 21st century. The old Greek model is a sound foundation,but changing lifestyles, technology, and socio-political andreligious interests have largely undermined the historic concept ofdemocracy.
Our political system was established when the country wassettled by pioneers who had often escaped unjust societies inEurope and elsewhere with the aim of forming a union of largelylike-minded people to build a just, responsible, and compassionatesociety.
CHAPTER 2
AMERICA—WHERE NEARLY EVERYTHINGAND EVERYBODY IS FOR SALE
As noted, America has truly become a sales nation where mosteverything is for sale. This includes not just merchandise but allkinds of services as well as many politicians at local, state, andfederal levels. The only true exception is the judiciary and publicservices such as police and homeland security.
The most disturbing issue is the ease with which private andcommercial interests can influence politicians, the political process,and ultimately lawmaking in the U.S. Few Western democraciesallow or experience the kind of influence special interests exert onboth lawmakers and political processes as well as ultimately theactual enforcement of the law or regulation as in America.
In most other Western-style democracies, lobbying, influencepeddling, and using money to affect law or policy making andenforcement is discouraged, outlawed, or strictly controlled.While there are no reliable figures on the amount of moneyspent by special interests and business on lobbying and relatedactivities, conservative estimates are that billions are spent everyyear in Washington. And even larger sums are spent on publicity,marketing, and advertising aimed at influencing lawmakers andgovernment.
The large use of money to influence lawmakers and governmenttruly undermines our democratic process, system, and even ourconstitutional rights. Lawmaking is not responsive to the electorateanymore and increasingly does not reflect the voiced opinions orpreferences of the majority. The lack of timely gun control andother political actions is a typical example of this. Here a verysmall minority organization such as the NRA with just 4 millionmembers, a small percentage of U.S. gun owners, was able to stymieintroduction of meaningful gun control legislation supported by theoverwhelming majority of Americans and gun owners.
Sales and marketing should remain commercial activities, andlawmakers should only be influenced by the electorate who sendthem to Washington. In fact, they should be kept accountable andtruly represent the desires, opinions, and objectives of the peoplewho elected them and sent them to Washington.
We urgently need a representative Congress and a responsibleadministration which recognizes and acts as true representativesof the people without bending or acting for special interests, unlessthese are specifically asked for by their constituents. Unless wereverse course and rebuild our democracy, our economy and ourgovernment will be a true sales nation instead of a representativedemocracy.
Sales and marketing dominate the American economy, settrends, and establish customs and behavior. While marketing andsales are global activities, they are more intense and pervasive inAmerica than most other countries.
It is also a much broader activity than in most countries where,unlike America, certain types of marketing are not acceptable.Nowhere else are drugs and pharmaceuticals, including prescriptiondrugs, marketed as aggressively as in America. In fact, there aremany countries that discourage advertising of prescription drugs.Similarly, professional services in medicine and law are marketedaggressively in America, a practice less common and evendiscouraged in many other Western countries. In this book wewill present and discuss marketing and advertising in America, itsstructure, effects, and influences.
CHAPTER 3
AMERICAN ADVERTISING
The quality and standards of American advertising—commercial,political, or institutional—usually plays to the lowest level ofinstincts and intelligence. The basic assumption seems to be thatpeople in general are stupid, easily taken in, and unable to judgefraud. This is amusing and outright insulting because these ads aimat the lowest common human denominators—greed, stinginess,pride, and jealousy.
Additionally, many advertising schemes have hidden agendasthat play on human weaknesses such as obesity, old age, ailments,poverty, race, and ethnicity. There is also the problem of omissionand secrecy when ads give incomplete or misleading informationand claims that are not and cannot be verified.
These practices are used not only for merchandise but alsofinancial, medical, educational, and other services. In fact, little ifanything can ever be verified. The word guaranteed is a particularculprit as viewers are never informed what is guaranteed or whatthe guarantee means. Guarantees, instead of being a buyer's safetyor security offer, have become a sales gimmick.
Similarly, offers of "Buy One Get 1 Free" are usually just acome-on sales gimmick where the first purchase is vastly overpricedand buyers are lulled into believing they're getting something forfree. They simply pay double or triple the real cost for the first itemand fall into the trap of believing they are getting a bargain.
Advertising and marketing have become increasingly sneaky,obtuse, and in many ways corrupt with many claims that cannotbe verified. Firms try to cover themselves by speed reading lengthydisclaimers and informing a potential buyer of all the side effects orpossible damages. They advise checking with one's doctor or expertknowing full well that few will or can do so.
As noted later in this book, such practices are particularlycommon in the pharmaceutical industry. This kind of sales strategyis barred in many other Western countries.
The United States, as well as most individual states, has somesort of regulation for advertising designed to assure a degree ofhonesty or truth in advertising. Advertisers often go to great lengthsto circumvent such regulations.
Advertisers try to satisfy taste as well as lead taste and desiresinto their area of commercial interest and capability. They will usepopular preferences and try to mold or direct public interests andpreferences towards their most profitable products or services. Amost popular approach is to convince buyers not only that they aregetting bargains but also that the product or service is prestigiousand popular. They will receive savings, enjoyment, "and" status.
It is common practice to hide costs in extra charges such asspecial fees for handling, shipping, and packaging. The idea is tomake the actual product or service appear cheap or inexpensiveand blame other charges for the high costs. Similarly, sellers oftenintroduce extra or punitive charges for repacking, special deliveries,colors, and more.
Sellers want buyers to feel they are successful bargainers andpeople with good taste and prestige. Even mass-produced items orservices are packaged or disguised to look special and unique oreasily personalized.
Sellers always want to distinguish themselves from theircompetitors and will go out of their way to make their goods orservices look, smell, function, and operate somewhat differentlythan the others. They can and will then point out the distinct,unique, and superior features so they can claim it to be a moredesirable, better, and more beneficial purchase than those offeredby the competition.
Advertising can be false, unfair, misleading or exaggerated. Anyof these are designed to deceive and may even endanger buyers orother users of the product or service.
One increasingly popular advertising gimmick is the use ofthe word guaranteed or money back offers, yet few advertisersexplain what is guaranteed or how buyers can get their money back.These are merely sales come-ons and tricks that sellers use whenthey seldom intend to return money or repair/replace goods andservices.
Most states have unfair advertising and sales laws and agenciesdesigned to protect citizens from unfair advertising and salespractices. While these work reasonably well in the appliance, tool,vehicle, and similar markets, they are much harder to control inservices, food, and clothing.
The most difficult issue is the discovery and separation ofdeception and outright falsehood or lie. Uses of language andclaims are difficult to police because many concepts have differentmeanings and interpretations may vary. Advertisers will usemany linguistic gimmicks to give misleading or simply untrueperceptions.
The law is usually trying to protect the public from falseadvertising, but unfortunately there are many ways to misleadthe public without outright cheating, lying or exaggeration. As aresult, it is difficult to actually police advertising and marketing ina free market democratic society. Therefore an educated, informedsociety is required to counter false advertising and marketing. Thisis becoming even more difficult now with the increasing influenceof electronic advertising and sales.
