Sunday, July 08, 2018

Heart vs. Head


Call me hard hearted, but I am increasingly annoyed by those using emotional images and sounds to get me to do or not do something. Many, many years ago when I was riding the New York  subway, we riders were confronted by a crying baby. I saw myself and others getting increasingly agitated and tried to understand why. I concluded that this angst has been built into our genes from a long time past. When humans were clans living in caves, children were the future of the clan .... meaning it was to every one's long-term survival interest to be concerned if a child was distressed ... so the whole clan responded.

This tropism is clearly used by opinion shapers in our current media. Today I saw a political ad against Trump's immigration policies which included message text and no sound but a crying baby. In the above context, this sappy appeal didn't get my sympathy, it only pissed me off. Just as other heart-strung strumming ads that show shivering (in the winter) or sweltering (in the summer) dogs ... asking for ASPCA donations ... or "starving" holocaust survivors ...  or crippled children ... or etc. piss me off  ... not that these sufferings don't exist ... . but that they are being exploited for gain to others than these sufferers. (The ASPCA had to put that dog out in the freezing cold in order to get it to shiver.)

I guess Democrats really are a party of the heart and Republicans, of the head. All I ask from the phony lefties  and charities is to stop using emotional images and sounds to  get what they want. Appeal to my logic for a change. It is clearly less exploitative.

18 comments:

ChillFin said...

Agreed. And advertisers do not have to show me their psoriasis or hemerhoids or whatever. There are only two countries in the world that allow TV ads for meds: US and NZ.

In exchange, tell your team to stop giving pet names to their non-friends as schoolchildren do, and to not make just plain lies esp. about easily verified historical facts. Turns me off in a big way. DJT's gibberish in Montana to his fans about Elton John and records and guitars and organs was so bizarro that commentators are at a loss as to how this guy is going present the US position to NATO. To Putin, it'll be easier: he'll just curtsey and say "Sir! Yes, Sir!"

ChillFin said...

BTW, dogs that are emotionally starved and victims of thrashings often react with shivers as you approach them. Not just dogs either: often children and women who are survivors have that emotional reaction. Doesn't mean that it is any more compelling way to gain donations than showing baby seals getting clubbed or dogs fighting to the death.

ChillFin said...

If you watched any network except FOX you would get assaulted much less by the ASPCA, St. Jude, PoliDent, AARP and BathFitters.

USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union piss me off in a big way. Fifty years ago I was told that I was and am forever 4F. Not suspicious bone spurs but a very real congenital absence of my left forearm and hand. Now these adverstisers show happy people who insure and give credit to people qualified only by a career choice open to them.

Who else does this? I guess teachers and pols do but they seem to get the message on the job and do not need to scrape up more customers while pissing me off with their exlusionary basis.

ChillFin said...

In closing. There are very few ads tugging at hearts or minds that influence what i buy or do. Advertisers coukd save a LOT of money with better targeting but the TV shows really crave the revenue streams.

George W. Potts said...

You don't like what Trump says because you don' like Trump. I find him usually repititious and boring. But you cannot deny he gets his message across to his base.

George W. Potts said...

Whenever an ad comes on a channel I am warching I flip to another. Ergo I see lots of different channels.

DEN said...

You are onto some tribal truth when it comes to children. I find myself elated to learn the 4 of the Thai kids got out of the cave OK . Now I wait with bated breath to hear about the fates of the rest. Very touching and heroic on the parts of rescuers.

George W. Potts said...

Agreed. So I must have a hheart too ... tinny though it is.

ChillFin said...

I never said that i do not like DJT. As a blustery blowhard NYC guy into construction and real estate and reality TV, he is, by jove, a character. But not as POTUS. And what emerges from him indicates that he watches Fox and Friends, and talks at length with Hannity and Bannon daily.

As to getting his message across to his base, it is weird; why isn’t he reaching out to expand his base?

And what exactly was he trying to say to his base in Montana?

George W. Potts said...

Elect a Republican Senator.

ChillFin said...

“I have broken more Elton John records, he seems to have a lot of records. And I, by the way, I don’t have a musical instrument. I don’t have a guitar or an organ. No organ. Elton has an organ. And lots of other people helping. No we’ve broken a lot of records. We’ve broken virtually every record. Because you know, look I only need this space. They need much more room. For basketball, for hockey and all of the sports, they need a lot of room. We don’t need it. We have people in that space. So we break all of these records. Really we do it without like, the musical instruments. This is the only musical: the mouth. And hopefully the brain attached to the mouth. Right? The brain, more important than the mouth, is the brain. The brain is much more important.”

George W. Potts said...

??

ChillFin said...

That’s a direct transcription of an excerpt of DJT’s address at his Montana rally. I can give you a link to the video if you prefer that medium .

ChillFin said...

is that “tinny” or “tiny”?

George W. Potts said...

Both ...

George W. Potts said...

Clearly then communication involves a lot more than the mere words.

ChillFin said...

I see. Voice modulation, pace, gesticulations, facial/eye movements... Would a person then that knows no English whatsoever get the message to elect a Republican senator?

George W. Potts said...

And what is not said ...