{"id":3970,"date":"2010-02-23T20:37:56","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T02:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=3970"},"modified":"2010-02-23T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T02:37:56","slug":"a-question-of-advertisinginfluence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/23\/a-question-of-advertisinginfluence\/","title":{"rendered":"A Question of Advertising\/Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

John writes: “Anyone who says that they aren’t effected by what they view in media, including gaming, is ignorant or fooling themselves. Advertisers know. They pay hundreds of billions of dollars a year to get your viewing time. The money devoted, year after year, to getting in front of your eyes is proof enough that what people see, hear and experience effects their behavior. Parents who buy this stuff for their kids are poor excuses for parents. They should be engaging them in activities that promote their development in a constructive way. They have no regrets though… they are too ignorant to recognize it and lack the morals to guide them”<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Seriously? \u00a0You think ads are designed to change our thinking and manipulate us?<\/p>\n

Anyone in advertising believes they can sell an unwanted or undesired product by spending billions of dollars a year to influence you in any meaningful life-changing way is going to be out of business — fast. \u00a0Advertising creates awareness, awareness of the product, the need for the product, why you should buy the product. \u00a0It has no effect – excuse me, affect on behavior. At least no provable affect. But no advertising forces you to buy the product. \u00a0In fact, it won’t influence you much at all if you’re not already in the market for that product. \u00a0Or do you buy a Big Mac every time a McDonalds commercial comes on? \u00a0I don’t. But next time I’m out for a burger I might think “Big Mac” first – and that’s what the commercials are for.<\/p>\n

Viewing\/playing a game is either entertaining or it isn’t. \u00a0This will cause you to like the game or not. It won’t make you imitate the game and it won’t change your brain or make you think differently. \u00a0Video games, unlike most media, are terrible at propaganda.<\/p>\n

Your final lines, the ones that attempt to insult parents who don’t agree with you about what “promotes development in constructive ways” is completely subjective and meaningless. What does “morality” have to do with gaming? Gaming harms no one any more than boating does, it’s all subjective. Some may think religious study is meaningful or constructive. Some may think it’s trolling websites to start arguments with hyperbole. It also shows a complete misunderstanding of this site and it’s purpose, because I don’t advocate gaming. I don’t encourage gaming. I encourage and advocate parents thinking about the games they expose their kids too.<\/p>\n

Closing your mind is where the true immorality and ignorance live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John writes: “Anyone who says that they aren’t effected by what they view in media, including gaming, is ignorant or fooling themselves. Advertisers know. They pay hundreds of billions of dollars a year to get your viewing time. The money devoted, year after year, to getting in front of your eyes is proof enough that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-askgamerdad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}