Western lifestyle in national ads and commercials

Rereading the status of "propaganda" in the denial of “national beliefs.”
We face a large number of commercials these days. From the walls of the city to the media and even the roads, the subway and buses, and all the corners are covered by the various forms of advertising such as different kinds of goods and services, each of which claims being the "best" and are trying to send this message by repetition and indoctrination that they are being the best in inspiring the audience.
The purpose of this kind of advertising is stripping rationality to achieve huge profits. The "truth" is a missing item that cannot be found in many of these ads and, on the other hand, the law has also left the owners of the goods and service free in any way that they want to commercialize. Superficiality and exaggeration, being contrary to the beliefs and the lifestyle of Iranians and producing non-essential needs are of the most important commercial challenges in the country. The branding situation in Iran, its challenges and its pathology are a subject, which to be reviewed, we visited Dr. Shahram Vaziri who is a research assistant at "the Azad University of Roodehen”. We sat down with him to discuss the issue.
Doctor, it appears that when we view the current situation, there are chaotic conditions in the area of advertising so much that the commercials are all just superficially popular and have often superficial structures, and they have managed to affect the lifestyle of our people and make them advance towards consumerism. What are the most important challenges of advertising in our country in your opinion?
Advertisements are trying to attract more buyers for properties advertised but the problems in this regard are the disorderliness of commercials in our country in this category. The most important challenge of advertising in Iran is that they are empty and devoid of truth. Advertising is done in principle to create the market and win customers. Everywhere in the world, advertising is for taking away the chance of your competitors and raising oneself further in the supply of goods. Advertising is defined as affecting and influencing others, but the pathology of this issue can be addressed in several aspects and can cause several challenges for the society.
Doctor, if it is possible, please, speak about this subject a little more relevantly.
To review advertising, it is necessary to review the ads by considering the examples of exaggerating and deceiving in them. For example, there are some educational ads the foundations of which are excluded from the perspective of science. Advertisements such as "learn English while sleeping", or "with us, you will no longer need to read books" or commercials about divination and astrology which are generally incompatible with the Iranian and Islamic culture and show us that some people try to move the society away from the culture of hard work and effort and try to indoctrinate these beliefs by using advertising techniques, Internet sites and even SMSs in the society. The effect of such beliefs may lead to such divination by which the young people might imagine that the fate of our young is fixed and this may make their condition supposedly irreversible.
However, in our traditional and religious teachings, the pursuit of everything is possible through hard work and the circumstances can be changed or some psychological trainings that are advertised are in practice unscientific and none of the scientific authorities confirm them. For example, ads like: "Education on how to treat a spouse in three session" is an impossible kind of training and is unscientific. Of course, an important part of the prevalence of these problems can be traced to the media commercials. Since their systems have been built based on the advertising revenue, the media just consider the revenues from their commercials regardless of the content of the ads.
In fact, in your opinion, advertising in our country does not follow any laws and is uncontrollable. That is why the media pay attention merely to the money they receive to cover the commercials regardless of their contents.
That is precisely so. When such a process becomes dominant in the field of notifications, those who pursue only their own financial interests, consider it their right to reverse the realities to achieve their financial benefits or make use of any situation to their own advantage. For example, when the occasion of Nowruz approaches during a year and it is time to clean the houses, we see occasional commercials. For example, steam and detergent ads that claim to wash everything clean once they are bought and when the audience sees them on television ads, on websites and newspapers propagating this belief, they buy the device, unaware that any purchase involves buying something else to supplement it and this eventually makes a person look at the appearances or, as another example, advertising a set of knives consisting of 28 knives while a housewife in her kitchen needs just a few of them.
So we can say that commercials somehow produce needs; needs that do not exist in reality and are false and only guarantee the investor’s market.
Yes, ads produce needs. In addition, commercial advertising often replaces a wise alternative with its message for the audience and ultimately allows people to use their eyes instead of their rationality.
From your perspective, as a psychologist, how does the process of putting aside the wisdom in the shadow of advertising takes place and according to which part of the human spirit needs?
We people all love to be more beautiful, more successful and experience a more prosperous life. In fact, we all love perfection, but some people are abusing the human need to move towards perfection and indoctrinate the audience using what is not perfection and has no a priority in our lives as a fake model of perfection. As many commercial goods advertised in the media have capacities which are mentioned for them but may not be used even once in a person’s lifetime, this being said, by advertising a product we turn it into a value and, however, not having it thus becomes the counter-value. Something like the value of the brand-name goods; many people in the community pay high costs with the view to obtaining the product of the famous brands. Is it true?
It is. Many people are influenced by commercials to buy branded goods while each product must be efficient and durable. Nevertheless, in many cases, we spend money just for the logo of the products and for the brands with the notion that it is a sign of nobility.
Doctor, does it mean that you disagree with a comfortable and stylish life and the use of good devices for a more peaceful life?
No, I do not say that we should not use great tools in our life but I always wish we would have the best equipment and car models. It should be noted, however, that sometimes we have to be grateful for our possessions and be careful not to have a long and futile search for more possessions and should be careful not to lose more.
Some of the ads bring a culture with them; in other words, today's ads are not just for providing goods and services, rather, they offer a culture and a way of life within themselves. What are your views on this subject?
It is natural that any product brings with it a culture. In the past, we got a carriage ride and it was a cultural fit. When the automobiles came, they brought their culture and gradually formed the parking-lots. Similar trends are also observed in other new products and services. This is not a problem in itself because it has caused culture to be equipped with a new tool and, in fact, we have not done anything that can be viewed as counterculture. For example, if furniture found its way into our homes, this cannot be a problem, because despite the adoption of new instruments or culture, traditional and religious beliefs are related to the purity and impurity and we are still required in this way not to go with shoes on the carpet.
However, sometimes a tool or some cultures that are not consistent with the beliefs, values and our way of life may find a way into our lives and may even have no use in our lives. So far, there is no significant problem here, but the challenge is in cases where some of the ads create dangerous cultures. For example, a hairstyle brings a culture. Accepting a hairstyle and using it may gradually demand a certain culture associated with it, which no longer belongs to our country and is even contradictory with regard to our own values and beliefs. This problem sometimes creates significant challenges in our lives.
Doctor, do you also think that these devices and the furniture used for a more comfortable life are also sometimes used due to the indoctrination of advertising tools to encourage showing off and causing rivalry?
Such a rivalry lacks wisdom and is based on emotion rather than wisdom. We must learn to enjoy our own possessions while in a rivalry we are not satisfied with our things and look at the possessions of others and this problem undermines the joy and peace of our life.
What role does advertising play in modeling?
There is a market here and the productions must be consumed in this market and if fashions do not come into shape, things will be in practice very difficult for manufacturers. However, I wish advertisements genuinely showed the product quality so that people could consider the advantages and features to make a good choice. In fact, in most of our advertising, we do not have any choices and our rationality is not respected. Commercials can be good if they can force us to think and ponder. In that case, ads can even be productive and form competitions among the manufacturers to produce better goods.
If you want to have a summary of your statements, how do you present the status and consequences of the ads in our life today?
In sum, advertising is always arrayed against our wisdom and rationality and few commercials can be found that truly challenge our rationality and wisdom. Superficiality, deceiving the public and gullible individuals are of the things that some of the owners of industries and goods use as their top priority in legal vacuums. As a result, most of these ads move us away from our ego. Being alienated from the culture of religion and the progressive simplicity with which we advance are the final product of these advertisements.