Psychology of Advertising

This week in my American Studies class we got our prompt for what we have to do for our junior themes. I was thinking that I wanted to do something with America and how Americans are so materialistic. Then I thought that with in that topic I could look at consumerism in America, and the psychology of advertising. I began to think about the psychology of advertising and how when I watch TV and I see all these infomercials, I always wonder if anyone actually buys the product that is being sold on the TV. I never have even considered calling in to the people on TV to ask for the product, because I feel like they are going to scam you. People must call in other wise it would be a waste of time and money to be having these infomercials. I think that it is amazing that when an American sees an ad they feel as if they need that product, but if they had not seen the ad they would have never thought about buying the product before. Advertising is basically a scam to try and make people buy a product that most people do not actually need in life. Advertising is an interest of mine because it shows how that mind works, if a famous person has a product, then you need the product too, if the product has a catchy song to it then everyone knows the product. Like McDonald's, everyone knows that their slogan is "I'm Lovin' it" and most people know the phone number to Empire or Luna the carpet places. This is all because of their advertising and how they market their product. I am excited to start my junior theme on this topic so that I can have further discoveries about the psychology of advertising.