Mind-less Inc

Photo-credit Andrew Kerr Photography (me)

As a both a photographer and a writer I am acutely aware of the commercial nature of deception. I am also aware of the deceptive tendency of commercial entities.

For example : An ice cream advert that shows a beautiful lady in a gold dress walking elegantly toward a well dressed man and at the last moment she grabs an ice cream which would be totally misplaced in the setting in reality. She bites the chocolate covering perfectly in a seductive and sultry manner and the the advert ends showing the logo of the ice cream.

This is done over and over. Up until the 80's adverts were text heavy but through experimentation it was ascertained that people purchased based on emotion and that factual representation had nothing to do with purchasing decisions.

In a test study they found that there were two major factors that motivated purchasing decisions.

1. How the advert made us feel

2. How popular the product was with people around us

Now that is quite a well known fact and will probably not surprise anyone...

However inside my education as a writer I came across a more sinister plot, not only in adverting but also within movies and even books.

It is so subtle that most will not even perceive it, it's not so much in what you see as in how it is designed...

The part you don't see.

In writer speak I would say that I start with a premise. Now a premise, simply put, is a problem that needs to be solved. Something that you are unsure about that needs to be clarified. It is said that a good premise contains the theme, the protagonist, the mission, and the conflict. Each one of these on their own is not much but well crafted writing is the stuff that dreams are made of.

A well written piece will draw you in and make you lose track of time and even your sense of reality.

During my education we did a case study on a play called "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes in 411 BCE and how it influenced a real life war. This was the recorded "beginning of influence through theater."

Today we still have influence through theater, except now they are known as movies. Some people will have you believe in embedded messages such as the ones tried by James Vicary in 1957 with the words "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" in a movie. The results of that experiment were debunked. Reality is far less Sci-Fi and actually quite mundane but truly effective.

How it really works is that as a writer I pick a lesson that I want the audience to learn. I write the main character - with whom you will eventually identify - as having the lesson as a flaw or lack in his/her life. When I have built enough audience empathy I give the character and "AHA!" or "Eureka!" moment. This moment is when I teach my empathizing audience the same lesson. The audience internalizes the lesson because they have begun to identify with the character that is learning the lesson and so they learn the same lesson.

Simple yet effective.

It's the same with catchy tunes that seem to linger in your thoughts... Have you ever thought why they get stuck in your mind? Have you ever taken note of what you are repeating to yourself? Have you ever wondered if that repetition - which by the way is how to master any task - may be reprogramming your thoughts to learn what the commercial giants want you to learn?

We seem to be enchanted so easily by the smoke and mirrors, the glitz and glamour. We are slowly minding less and less as we are led down the garden path. That is precisely what they want... Us to mind less.

None of us are immune to the power of our own minds.

Don't take my word for it though.

The next time you find yourself empathizing with a character in a book or movie, or repeating the lines in a song over and over, why not take note of the script that you are programming yourself with. I am not what I consider a fan of conspiracies, but this was so blatant in my writing education that I thought it share worthy.

You may be thinking "But what does the bride on the pew have to do with all this?"

She isn't a bride, and that isn't a pew... She is a model on a wooden chair in a themed bar. Appearances are deceiving and if you aren't careful you will be misled by the ones who would prefer to keep you mindless.