Consumerism affects our media environment in negative way because it manipulates us and further exploits us emotionally and sets up unhealthy trends, this often bars the public’s ability to remain informed as they are being bombarded with distorted ideas. The corporations use consumerism to make us believe that they are helping us whereas it is quite the opposite. The level of damage caused to environment as well the people by the corporation has increased because of its greed to earn more and to increase its influence.
The first documentary ‘The Corporation’ talked about how the corporations have started exploiting their aim of “just” serving the people. It has now become a race for acquiring money at any cost. For example, the milk corporation started the factory system of farming where the corporations try to fit as many cows as possible on a plot of land. Then they are injected with hormones into the cow so that it produces as much as milk as possible. But this means that we are not getting a good quality of milk. Another example for greed of money is the Walt Disney Company. Disney is known for the clean and general content material it provides the children. Who could have guessed that the Disney also caters to a higher age group and under different names? Hollywood Records music label owns Miley Cyrus and various other artists. Touchstone Films produced the movie ‘The Pearl Harbor’. Yes, they are all Disney owned. In fact, Coca Cola was so eager to spread its drink in Germany during the holocaust that it changed its name to ‘Fanta’ to avoid any shame. Therefore, the corporations get so involved in their race for money that public healthcare and eco-friendliness loses meaning for them.
The documentary ‘The ad and the Ego’ shows us the effect of advertisements as well as how they function. Today, certain trends have been set up advertisements which are impossible to break. It is exactly what Neil Postman mentioned in his book ‘Amusing ourselves to death’, the media decides the culture. Over the past several years, advertisements have set up the idea of what an ideal woman should look like. She is someone who is blond or brunette and slim with perfect skin and hair. In India, there is a trend of having fair skin. The advertisement always starts of with a girl who doesn’t get a job or doesn’t get married because she has dark skin, but, after using the skin fairness cream she accomplishes her goal with pride and dignity. Ads are made to make the target audience feel incomplete or insecure unless they get that product. They target our acne, our non-silky hair etc. A visa card shows that all the money spent is priceless in comparison see our babies smile with cake on his face. And if we really think about it, it’s very unrealistic. Ads often just show what we want to see, and they are in no way related to the product. For example, what is the connection between family happiness and a car, or the connection between a pack of cigarettes and Cowboy riding horses? It does not only negatively affect us but also the environment because advertisements drive consumerism.
In conclusion, ‘The Corporation’ and ‘The Ad and the Ego’ show that today corporations have deviated from their original. We cannot live without some of the necessary products like milk, rice and vegetables. But, when corporations look over the public welfare start using us, then what do we do? They have no right to degrade us by defining imperfection let alone pointing at our imperfections. Therefore, documentaries such as these two help us to remain informed of the reality.
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