MIND MANAGERS AT WORK: HOW MOTIVATIONAL RESEARCHERS ADVERTISE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

After the 1750 Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America, the increased output of factories led to a heightened competitiveness. The newly invented machines led to a mass production that required a mass consumption and a mass market. Through the years, advertising has evolved as an indispensable means of reaching mass audiences through the media of mass communication. In this connection, mental-depth advertisers have been mining the seven propaganda techniques identified in 1937 by the US-based Institute for Propaganda Analysis. They have been manipulating and engineering the consent of adults and children. In this endeavour, the depth persuaders employ the insights of psychiatry and the social sciences to influence people's choices and behaviours. This paper explores the devices, exemplifies them and discusses them. It concludes that advertising, as a mediator between the producer and the consumer, is paradoxically desirable and detestable.