|
|
|
It is estimated that the average American child views 40,000 TV commercials a year.
And by the time Americans reach the age of 65, we will have seen over 2 million commercials. This exposure to advertising alone is astounding. However, when you add magazines, bulletin boards, sports and concert sponsorships, school curriculums, logos on clothing, junk mail, ads on buses and trucks, and product placement in movies and video games (the list goes on), we are being inundated by ads in just about every space we inhabit.
Many of us do not believe we are influenced by advertising. In fact, we often make fun of commercials and the simplistic messages they seem to convey. This is actually an important aspect of the power behind advertising. We don’t take it very seriously. On the contrary, it is a VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS. Serious money that is –
Advertising Industry = Big Bucks!
Adjusting for inflation to 1994 U.S. dollars, U.S. media advertising expenditures totaled $19 billion in 1935. What were U.S. media advertising expenditures in 1998? According to the Direct Marketing Association, U.S. media advertising expenditures reached $285.2 Billion in 1998.
Source: Center for a New American Dream, www.newdream.org
Junk Mail on the Rise
In 1990, Americans sifted through 3.8 million tons of advertising mail, which amounted to 2% of U.S. municipal solid waste. With the advent of e-mail in the 1990s, what happened to the volume of paper ad mail between 1990 and 1998?
The volume of ad mail increased dramatically -- by 37% -- between 1990 and 1998. In 1998 we were buried under 5.2 million tons of bulk mail. To put this in perspective, consider that first class mail amounted to less than 2.1 million tons in 1998. Or picture each of the U.S. Postal Service's 293,000 letter carriers delivering an average of 17.8 tons of junk mail -- the equivalent of four male elephants! (sources- 1998 US Postal Service Annual Report, E Magazine Nov/Dec 1993, Advertising Mail Marketing Association). Click on www.newdream.org/junkmail/ for tips on reducing junk mail.
During this time of increased advertising, it seems Americans have responded.
Over the last decade in particular, savings rates have plummeted, and at one point actually dipped to a negative number. Credit card debt continues to increase to record highs, with 75% of credit card holders maxing out at least one credit card in the last year. In 2003 personal bankruptcy filings hit a record of nearly 1.7 million, or an average of nearly one in every seven households over the past decade. The fastest growing group declaring bankruptcy is young adults age 20 to 24.
Can you identify the product associated with each letter?
Following is the “American Alphabet” with each letter representing a popular US product. After looking over these letters, it is hard to deny the power of advertising.
www.stayfreemagazine.org
back to top
|
|
 |
 |
What does advertising have to do with managing my MONEY?
Television, Commercialism, and Consumption
A recent study has shown that each hour per week in front of the tube corresponds with an average consumption increase of $208 per year. So, statistically, the Superbowl costs you sixteen bucks (and maybe more because of the hype).
Source - The Overspent American by Juliet Schor - Basic Books, 1998.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
