Most Americans, when asked if they are affected by advertising, will say “not really.” They say they skip the print ads in magazine, ignore the ones on the street, mute TV commercials, and are generally too savvy to be swayed by their messages.
Here’s some data illustrating the not-me phenomenon. The Kaiser Family Foundation asked 15- to 17-year-olds whether they and their friends were influenced by sexual content on TV.
Seventy-two percent of teens say that sexual content on TV affects their friends “a lot” or “somewhat”:
But only 22 percent say that sexual content on TV affects them “a lot” or “somewhat”:
Advertisers know that most Americans are wrong about whether advertising affects them. That’s why they spent $117 billion in 2009 trying to convince you to buy their product. It works. So it must be affecting somebody, right?
Images borrowed from Strasburger’s Children, Adolescents, and the Media.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 12
Umlud — January 26, 2011
While growing up, my parents encouraged me and my brother to think critically about ads. (It helps to be critical when you turn off the sound.) To me, this practice has turned in to analyzing the ad for the typical things that you might expect from advertising; once I understand how the thing works, it becomes less influential (much like having to plainly explain why a joke is funny makes it lose its humor).
Having lived and visited many different countries, it is clear that (to me at least) images alone are unlikely to move me. (Think about the TV ads that you might have watched while in a country where you didn't speak the language. The ads weren't really that powerful, right?)
However, I still realize that I AM affected by advertising, as much as I would like to think that I am an independent thinker.
George — January 26, 2011
While it's certainly possible that people are deluded about how influenced they are by television and advertising, there is also a reasonable possibility that both polls are accurate. There are positive feedback effects that can amplify the marginal effect of television and advertising. We know that people's behaviour is strongly influenced by their peers. So if a few people are influenced by television they could in turn influence a large number of their friends.
Susan — January 26, 2011
I wonder if these effects are partly due to the ubiquitous conversation (not to say hysteria) that swirls around teens regarding sex and violence in our society. It would be interesting to see how much of teens' perceptions that sexuality in media influences their friends comes from said sexuality in media, and how much from the fact that our society seems constantly to be worrying about the effects of sex in media on teens.
Steve — January 26, 2011
I would be interested in how the respondents interpreted the questions.
It seems that "How much, if at all, do you think the sexual behaviors on TV influence your own sexual behavior?" is an extremely vague question.
Syd — January 26, 2011
Two possibilities, as far as I see:
1- 15-17 year olds in general believe they are smarter than their friends. I don't think this has anything to do with the 'not-me' phenomenon or this generation in particular, but more the way that teens think. If you ask them at random, probably 80% of teenagers will say that they are mature for their age, or more intelligent than most of their classmates, even if there is no actual evidence supporting these beliefs outside of their own brains (in fact, I find that any teenager who will identify themselves as mature for their age is almost certainly IMmature for their age).
2- The teens who volunteered or reacted favorably to random surveys are indeed less impressionable and more intelligent than the average teenager. This isn't necessarily probably, but it's quite possible; surveys like this are very unscientific and misrepresent populations. Basically, in the same way you should take MOST studies claiming to have a random sample with a grain of salt unless they go into a lot of detail about their sampling procedure. If they don't give details, you can guess that the sample was predominantly female, predominantly between the ages of 18 and 24, predominantly white, predominantly middle class or higher, and predominantly with a certain level of education. If this study was done like many similar studies are, aside from age, those demographics are probably similar (though you could also start making guesses at the types of parents they have).
Either way, without sampling a wider variety of people than '15-17 year olds who'd react favorably to telephone surveys about sex,' this graph doesn't really say anything about a 'not-me' phenomenon in general.
K. E. — January 26, 2011
One also has to realise that the sexual behaviours on the TV aren't necessarily used to sell sex. Sex is used to sell the show or a product or whatever. So while commercials are created to get the viewer to buy the product, television shows aren't created to get the viewer to emulate the show, just watch it.
Meera — January 26, 2011
Every so often I realize how lucky I am to not be able to be much 'influenced' by most of the ads I see. I'm much too fat to wear almost all of the clothing advertised; I'm vegan and so any product with anything animal derived is out, as is any animal-tested item (cosmetics, cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, etc); I'm a teetotaler, so no alcohol; I don't have enough money to buy big-ticket items (cars, financial services, etc); and I don't own the necessary technology to use many other things (cell-phone plans, tv shows).
What's left? The occasional movie ad, perhaps. Maybe a soft-drink spot. Not much else. Advertisements seem to inhabit a whole 'nother universe from the one in which I live.
ReasonableStranger — January 28, 2011
This type of personal 'exceptionalism' applies to many age groups in relation to advertising. I'm really enjoying this blog (?) webpage (?) thing. Keep up the interesting content. Thanks.