Do you notice this, they have multiple luxury car commercials,high end booze commercials,expensive foods,and high dollar restaurants advertised like steak houses.And many other examples
And when they do advertise the lesser priced items, it's always the high end version of them.

I find this really strange because personally I think there is more economically challenged of us watching TV, than a rich well to do person,anyone notice this also?

I don't know Rick...I doubt rich people even watch the tv

I think they advertise what they want to sell, that's the simple answer. I think the price of things is perfect for a kind of slavery based, consumerist society. Things are expensive enough to get us to strive to own them, to keep us going to work, to keep us saving up, to keep us taking out loans, to make us work harder to get the things they've made us believe we want. But not so expensive as to make us think we'll never be able to ever own them.
Sort of the carrot in front of the donkey's nose.
Once we've finally got the thing we want after much hard work and patience and saving, etc. We're after the next thing then, and on and on it goes.

That's how I see it. Keeping things expensive enough to be just out of our reach, at least for a while, but cheap enough to keep us chasing the dream, or rather living the nightmare

It's a stitch up.

Personal point of view, or aren't most TV commercials aimed at grabbing our money?*

Without doubt certain ads are aimed at certain demographics - there are many.



*(No sarcasm intended)

To add. They know the majority of us can't just fork out £9,000 for a new car, so we take out loans and thus get into debt, and to pay the debt we have to keep working and making money. Keeping the wheels of consumersim and debt turning.

irrepressible wrote:
Irrie said it better.

Surely America must be starting to get a few adverts selling rich folks to poor folks around now with the elections warming up.

To me the weird thing is they actually don't seem tuned into the majority of people or they don't care,cause they won't buy anyway and it's like they are in a separate world for the haves or people with spendable free cash,and the poor or struggling aren't even taken into consideration, except for your fast food type of commercials or some other instant gratification type of advertisement.

Being in debt is definitely a trap,having a don't give a shit mentality, and a hobo heart is the cure,if you let possessions rule you or determine your worth you are a slave to the material and stress and worry is your only idol. imo

A large number of the smaller budget/product advertisers will have abandoned expensive tv ads for cheaper web based /google adword/ facebook style promotions.

More people in the west probably view the web more than their tv sets now anyway.

It may depend on which state you live in, but when I lived in home state of Florida (I now reside in Texas), I approached an attorney about bankruptcy in '06.

In Florida, you routinely receive an Amazon forests' worth of junk mail each day, but after I approached the attorney - before I officially filed - it increased dramatically.

After I officially filed, I received so many offers of loans for cars mostly, but also loans for 'whatever'.....credit card offers, too.

After all the extremely detailed financial examinations, the free and mandatory budgeting course, the meetings and the hearings, I was declared bankrupt in January '07.

I must emphasize this is not a shame. I was so worried for almost a year over this whole thing that I became ill for a bit. Many have done this due to medical bills, losing their job - innocent reasons. I cannot say the same; I was trying to support a two person house on my income, while my ex's income went to his food and coke (damn buying groceries and paying for routine, household things). Yes, I was an enabler.

Anyway, after I was declared free and clear in January '07, junk mail for all sorts of fabulous offers and loans poured in more than ever before.

In contrast, I receive very little junk mail in Texas. I can only guess that laws about this sort of thing differ state to state? *rhetorical*

Let's not forget about all the pawn shops practically shouting in your face about loaning money for junk - er, I mean stuff: Back to school loans, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, any damn 'Day' you can think of and all those in between.

Many a folk buy cars they cannot afford and quickly become 'upside down' in them - they cannot make the payments. These folks know this full well ahead of time and don't care as long as they get to drive a cool car for a while before repo or return. These folks know there is always going to be an 'out for forgiveness' - a second, third, umpteenth chance offered - so they don't care. There are no consequences for irresponsibility.

And the debt monster continues.

As one attorney put it to me, "Good for the economy, bad for them".

Coco wrote:
Does Florida law allow a persons income to be garnished for medical bills ,or just a bad mark against your credit?

I don't even think it's that they are aimed at rich people. I do think they create desire to buy into a particular kind of lifestyle though. Companies spend untold amounts of money and time building their brands, with the aim of tapping into people's visceral emotions.

Consumerism is a fascinating subject, and people really do define their identity through what they buy to a lesser or greater extent. If people manage to buy these things, they are buying into that rich, affluent, aspirant lifestyle thingie, because that is the way the products are advertised and marketed. The message is that once you buy these, you have 'arrived' at some kind of mythical middle destination. Or at least that's how I see it.The stuff for rich people isn't even advertised on TV!

Rick wrote:
I do not know the answer to that legal question because I've not had any experience in that personally......but.....thinking about it, an unpaid bill is an unpaid bill, and while the law says that interest may not be applied to certain types of medical bills, people routinely have yard sales such as cancer benefit sales, medical bill yard sales, etc. all the time. There are benefit dinners at churches and other places to help a person pay for medical bills. People have lost their cars, houses, pawned things to help for medical bills, declared bankruptcy. They get letters and calls from collection agencies.

In respect to wage garnishment for this, I do not know. I'm sorry.

Advertising is a science. They market toys to children and they do research on what they call the 'nag factor", in other words the kids see the ad and then pester their parents for the toy or the restaurant.

They sell lifestyle in many cases. Sure you can not afford the top of the line car and you probably don`t drive your car around beautiful mountains but you wish you had that car and you wish you had that view and that freedom.

Poor people have to spend most of their income on shopping and bills. When you go to the store you are meant to buy the brands you trust and know. The soap you think will get you cleaner etc.

Rich people watch t.v. just look at some of the kit you can get nowadays for your viewing pleasure. Besides that people without t.v. must find them hard to avoid sometimes. You go to a bar they have a t.v. or an airport etc.

The big brands would probably survive, at least for a while, without adverts because they have been raising people on their product image and name. The whole misconception that people have about various brands has cost a fortune over the years but it has certainly paid off.

Rich people spend less of their income as they do things like invest and they can afford to do this thing I heard about once called "save". They can afford the new Mercedes but do they really need a third car? The real money is made on the mid range cars anyway because although cheaper they sell a lot more. The top of the range cars are there for good reason though. When people think of a car they need to think about the best car that company makes. So when you go shopping for a car or whatever it might be you go out to buy that amazing fully loaded beauty and come home with the best car your credit allows.

I doubt Florida garnishes wages for medical bills. Georgia doesn`t know that much.

The summer holidays are drawing here, so they'll start bombarding the screens with shoddily-made, expensive crap for the kids now for Xmas.

As has already been said, it's all about 'aspirational' living. They know full well that most people don't actually live like the folks they put in these commercials, but that doesn't matter. They decide what we should drive, wear and eat. Much as you may think you know your own mind, chances are, you have been brought up to guzzle this crap down, even if not on a conscious level.

Don't even get me started on subliminals!!!

Alas, the only way to avoid it is to turn off the idiot box completely. But they'll still try and get you on YT.

I find adverts on the internet are now more annoying and intrusive than adverts on the tv.

If you use the intenet you may be subjected to targetted advertising (unless you have ad blocker)

The site that shall not be mentioned introduced advetising .......looks extremely stupid in my opinion but makes money for both the host and the parasite .

On topic though .......lots of poor people adverts here, have you been misold ppi, had an accident at work having problems with debt?

To run one advert at 7.30pm on a Thursday night on ITV/STV costs £5,000 for 1 min. The ad itself ill have cost in the region of £20,000 to make ............it's a pricey business , but it does work which is why companies still advertise

Gilly wrote:
Lordy, you are not wrong Gilly. Having just had the expense of the school hols and back to school stuff, I am now bracing myself for Xmas. Then the lad's b/day is at the end of January, which coincides with all the insurance, MOT and all the fun expenses etc. I couldn't afford another child even if Mr Pumpshaft did want one.

I am already getting requests for Xmas and birthday shizzle. My son wants a new laptop and a My Little Pony mural in his bedroom.

Aspirational, hmm, I am aspiring own an Illuminati kettle like yours one day.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:

It isn't just the adults, look at the youth of today, some of them own more stuff than their parents and more expense or on a par with.

It's like the kids are living like celebs with clothes, phones, jewellery and all.

Impressionism.

Some kids have always had lots of stuff. I remember people I went to school with who had all the latest gear.