The Tru(e)man Show

The use of advertising, in a first-glance sense to sell more products and services, is questionable. There are many different sides as to whether or not it works, but on the surface level it seems that it does work. This then leads into the question: if people notice these advertisements they can potentially be persuaded by them. The notion that someone could be persuaded by an advertisement would imply that they have certain biases or predispositions already present within their psyche. If this is true then why do we need such things? Why do we need something that will sway others' opinions towards our own?

I think the answer to this lies within what is known as 'The Truman Show'. A film about a man who was unknowingly living in an artificial reality, where he believed that his life was real. The main theme of the movie being how it's impossible for someone to be truly happy without knowing and understanding their true reality. He longs for more, and eventually finds out that everything around him up until then had been fake.

We live in an artificial reality, where we are not aware of the true world. We have biases that are unknown to us and we believe everything around us is real when it's not.

Advertising allows us to create a reality of our own, where we believe in the products and services we are selling. This creates an artificial happiness that is ultimately not fulfilling because it does not come from knowing your true self.

This is what advertising does: it allows us to create a reality that is not real, where we can be satisfied with our own views and beliefs. This in turn gives us happiness, but this happiness will ultimately be fleeting because it cannot last forever.

Happiness is found in the real world and not within our own made-up reality. In order to truly be happy, you need to understand your true self, how others see you, what they think of you.