Web Assignment 5:
Challenges to Faith
Fr. Kavanaugh is a Jesuit priest that believes that the media and especially the advertising industry is shaping the minds of viewers especially teenagers and children. Fr. Kavanaugh gives a startling statistic that young toddlers will watch more TV than they will be instructed by a teacher. This means that the media is "informing and forming" the children. This continues to happen throughout our development into adults. The companies even admit that "we have little need of more products, especially clothes, scents, cigarettes, and food." In order to make money the companies package attitudes and values with their product that attract the consumer. As Fr. Kavanaugh said, "we may not need the shirt but we hunger for the prestige associated with it." Fr. Kavanaugh's message expresses worry in that he feels if we only buy these products to make us happy or feel cool, then we will soon become so attached to them that they will become "our primary means of self-expression and self-acceptance." He believes that once the advertisments hook us, that they begin to decide what we need and what we want. When this happens they can begin to implant images and values upon us that we normally would view as unacceptable. For instance, Calvin Klein underwear became popular because it sold the idea that if you wore their underwear you would have topless girls crawling all over you. Men bought on to this and have purchased Calvin Klein underwear not because of the quality but because they want the attention from women. Fr. Kavanaugh expresses his worry about this situation and how the values of these men are being corrupted by advertisment. Perfume and liquor companies try to sell us happiness in a bottle. Fr. Kavanaugh warns us about this and discusses how we don't need corporate America to decide what makes us happy.He recognizes the strategies in ads and is trying to display them to us so that we see the lies beneath and can shun the encroaching values of wild sex, drug use, instant gratification, and the objectifying of women.
In another contemporary example, the movie "The Merchants of Cool," the dehumanization process and forming efforts by the media are examined. In this movie, an analysis of MTV and the efforts of marketing companies shows that they are all searching for the same thing, an idea or a style that can appeal to all teenagers, the increasing population of spenders, and can create a yearning for their product. In this movie we saw how marketers went to kids' houses who they felt were cool or were "leaders" and all the kids would foolow. They did this in order to learn what kids want or what trends are going to be popular in the future. The companies then package the individuality of these kids as a style and sell it to the teens of America. As the documentary continues it asks the question, "who shapes who," the consumer or the market? After exploring this question and the many possible answers, the movie arrives at this conclusion, the small amount of unique individuals or "trend-setters" come up with the trendy ideas. The companies then package these styles as being cool and when the average American teenager sees his friends wearing these outfits, they jump on the band-wagon in order to fit in. Eventually the original "trend-setters" get bored of the style and graduate onto a newer "cooler" style. Although these styles become obsolete, the values and ideas that the media has implanted in the minds of these children remain and they often become attached to the crazy, funny, obsene male who always gets the hot, tanned, promiscuous female. These values and ideas that remain contribute to the declining value that people have for each other's uniqueness and sexuality.
Fr. Kavanaugh and "The Merchants of Cool" both express the same idea: that the media and advertising companies are imposing the values and ideas that we want to hear in order to make a quick buck. Both recognize that these messages pry at the deepest feelings in our hearts to be cool, have lots of friends, be wealthy, and be happy. Although these values aren't bad, the process that the media uses in order to to lure us affects our minds and we buy their products in order to avoid being dehumanized and ultimately be happy.