Masters of Desire

   Signs of life in the USA, (542) Masters of Desire: The culture of American Advertising. 

         

          Author Jack Solomon describes a contradiction in American society, he writes "The American dream, in other words, has two faces: the one communally egalitarian and the other competitively elitist." I agree with Solomon, people desire to be superior to others and simultaneously desire social equality. He calls the American Dream a "myth" and describes it as having a dual nature. Solomon reads the signs that are in the ads that the advertising industry in America publishes, he analyzes it and how it plays both sides of the field, how it manipulates people, and how it changes the way people behave. It feeds on society's desires of wealth, wildest fantasies, and deepest fears. Advertisers use status symbol and well known personalities to create illusions of happiness or pleasure and society is mesmerized, they can make a poor man feel like a rich man if a certain product is purchased, or fool a woman into believing she can acquire instant beauty when she purchases a product. Americans as consumers are getting what they want, but the results are unequal social rewards. In Solomon’s last paragraph, he states “The success of modern advertising, it penetration into every corner of American life, reflects a culture that has itself, chosen illusion over reality.” For this reason, I do not watch television; I gave it away many years ago. I was sick and tired of seeing fake people and their lame stories and ads interrupted a program every minute or two. The programs that are broadcast on television are illusions that advertisers want society to see. What if society turned its attention away from the television and the broadcasting?