{"id":10339,"date":"2014-01-23T19:59:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T19:59:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-01-23T19:59:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-23T19:59:23","slug":"advertising_reflects_the_state_of_the_culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/01\/23\/advertising_reflects_the_state_of_the_culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Advertising Reflects the State of the Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s Karen in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. I\u2019m glad you called. Great to have you with us. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It\u2019s such an honor to speak with you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you. Great to have you here.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You know, I was listening to you earlier when you were talking about CNN<\/a> and their advertising demographic and how they target. They can\u2019t change their target from young people because then they\u2019d have to admit that they\u2019ve been espousing the policies that have ruined their ability to have a disposable income.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, wait a minute. That sounds like it makes sense but I gotta hear that again.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Sure.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Run that by me again.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Sure. I think that the reason CNN and their advertisers keep saying that they\u2019re aiming for young people is that —<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, everybody does. It\u2019s not just CNN that shoots for 25. Everybody, except us. I mean, we target it, but 25-54 is not our number one demo. In terms of advertising here at the EIB Network, we push 55-plus just as hard as we do 25-54 because, dirty little secret, they\u2019re the ones that have the money. Anyway, everybody shoots for 25-54, except the teenage-oriented outlets.<\/p>\n

CALLER: But I think they can\u2019t aim for anyone else because they\u2019d have to admit that they\u2019ve truly destroyed the earning power of the young people with their policies and what they\u2019re putting on their channel.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, you\u2019re giving them credit for foresight that I don\u2019t think they have. You are assuming that they can\u2019t change their targeted advertising demographic because they know that the people that are in that group don\u2019t have any money because of the economic problems caused by Obama, right?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes. And just liberalism in general, they\u2019re always spouting. I\u2019m stuck in airports a lot, so I have to listen to CNN, and it makes me a little crazed.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, I know. That\u2019s why I can\u2019t even — like you\u2019re a captive audience. You can\u2019t do anything but watch CNN, right? You have to ask the bartender to change the channel. And the thing is, in the airports, there isn\u2019t any other news network on. It\u2019s CNN that got the contract.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You\u2019re trapped.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You are trapped. Exactly right. What is your theory, CNN knows they\u2019ve destroyed the economy for young people?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I think they would have to admit, you know, if they started targeting other demographics in order to bring money in, they would have to admit that the money\u2019s not there for the young people, and if they admitted that and they had to ask why, they might have to actually look at themselves and what they\u2019re putting on.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, I see. Well, perhaps, although the advertiser community as a whole has not given up on the financial health of the 25-54 demographic. I mean, if you want to see it in action, if you want to see advertising in action, if you want to learn everything about advertising you can, just watch the Super Bowl and just watch the commercials in the Super Bowl, and you will see. I\u2019ve often said, \u2019cause I know it to be true, and I believe it to be true, really competent advertisers have a better handle on the pulse of the culture than anybody else. It\u2019s their job. They have one job: Separate people from their money willingly. Their job is to convince John Q. Public to give up his money for whatever they convince John Q. Public he wants. In fact, socialists decry this and communists. <\/p>\n

John Kenneth Galbraith, who I must say was one of Mr. Buckley\u2019s closest friends, big-time leftist economist, hated consumerism, hated advertising, because he looked at it as a total — what\u2019s the word? — it was an insult to him. He thought it was dehumanizing. He thought the whole idea of convincing people that they needed or wanted things that they didn\u2019t need or want, was an abomination. As far as he was concerned, it was exactly what\u2019s wrong with capitalism. His theory was that capitalism couldn\u2019t survive unless you made average people want things they didn\u2019t have, and he didn\u2019t think that was healthy. <\/p>\n

Now, that\u2019s sophistry, as far as I\u2019m concerned. That\u2019s absolutely silly, because he was denying that people have aspirations. He was offended that people wanted to improve their standard of living. He was offended that of people wanted to acquire new thugs as part of their pursuant of happiness. He thought the acquisition of material things — and he\u2019s not the only one, by the way. Every communist, socialist economist in the world thinks this, that the artificial way of selling a product, and selling a product is artificial, by definition, he thinks there shouldn\u2019t be any advertising and whatever you want should be there because you want it, not because somebody has invented it to try to sell it to you. <\/line><\/p>\n

I kid you not. I mean, he wrote books about this, this Galbraith, John Kenneth Galbraith did. He was known as John Kenneth Galbraith to the media. He was known as Ken to his friends. Advertising and consumerism, I mean, it was like showing Dracula the cross. You shouldn\u2019t want anything other than the basics — and if you did, it was because some advertiser came along and showed it to you.<\/p>\n

That was artificial, and it was mean, because it was showing a lot of people things they couldn\u2019t have. I mean, the way that would manifest itself is if Lamborghini advertised, that would be horrible, that would be mean, because 999 people out of a thousand would never be able to afford one. “So to show them what they can\u2019t have, that\u2019s mean, and that\u2019s what capitalism is! It\u2019s mean, and it breeds resentment and jealousy.”<\/p>\n

So he didn\u2019t like advertising at all. He didn\u2019t like consumerism, and he\u2019s not the only one. He was just the most eloquent at expressing it. On the other hand, I\u2019ve always believed that if a company hires an agency to sell its product — to market and sell its product — that agency has to know the culture. That agency has to know cool, it has to know hip, and it has to be able to predict it, and it has to be able to personify it.<\/p>\n

It has to be able to hire people who are it, or who recognize it, who can write it, who can produce it in TV commercials. There\u2019s all kinds of different advertising. There\u2019s cost per thousand, there\u2019s results oriented, there\u2019s impressions, any number of ways of going about it. Television advertising in the Super Bowl is a combination of cost per thousand reaching eyeballs, but also results oriented and branding.<\/p>\n

If you watch the advertising — actually, in anything, in any prime time show. For example, prime time, you watch any show that\u2019s targeting the 25-54 demographic, and you will learn what those people think is cool, hip, and where our culture is. So if you watch the Super Bowl and really take time to watch the commercials and study \u2019em rather than be entertained by \u2019em, you will find out you\u2019ll have a pretty good bead on where the country is culturally. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always believed this. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always believed that good advertising is a great window on where we are. Again, the reason: Even though it\u2019s established that people older than 55 have all the money, they also have everything they want, or most of it, and they\u2019ve already established their brand loyalty. It would simply cost too much to get them to change their minds. That\u2019s why you start studying this and you\u2019ll see that most commercials are done and aimed at people in their teens and twenties.<\/line>