Big Secret Unlocked- Do you Remember that One time The Media...

originally posted by: Chadwickus
a reply to: SoulSurfer

I never denied that advertising uses such tactics.

Just pointing out that your pet rock idea here is way off the mark.

It is probably actually the worst example you could have given to be honest.

It was a gag and a fad.

You want an example of something a lot more cerebal? How about the Ouija board, what started out as a kids board game is now a means to communicate with ghosts..now that's some manipulative psychological genius right there.

what started out as a ROCK is now a means to make gags and fun... right??, now that is some manupulative psychological genius right there

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask

Besides that, of course they are meant to manipulate, that's the whole point of advertising, kind of over stating the obvious aren't we?

Well to be fair, we know marketing over exaggerates, that is obvious, but what I mostly intended with this thread was to get to the actual techniques and break them down through a psychological approach. Even though it is obvious, it is still a good idea to become aware of the techniques used in order to counter them.


The problem is, people are subconsciously (or consciously) using these very techniques to manipulate the public. So, in order to counter said manipulation, awareness of it can get people to think for themselves.

It is still frightening what people fall for when these techniques are used.

a reply to: SoulSurfer

To update this thread to make it extra informational, I believe the video below sums up one of the many points I like to make on the true intentions behind the mainstream medias manipulation. Straight from the horses mouth:

MSNBC Mika Brzezinski It's Our Job to Control What People Think


And that sums up mainstreams Media's intentions which is Mind Control.

I will also add that Mika Brzezinski is daughter of Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski a man who personally trained Osama Bin Laden and gave him weaponry back when Osama was "allied" to the U.S as a CIA operative trainee. He was also top foreign advisor to Obama.



It all connects to one another. But these are the facts, to which you can fact check.

My sister had a pet rock.
One day when she wasn't home I snuck into her room to play with it. As I was picking it up it slipped out of my hand and hit the floor with a loud THUD! As I looked down in fear I noticed it wasn't moving. I reached down to pick it up and and felt the cold motionless pet rock in my hand and knew something was very wrong. I tried CPR for a few minutes, nothing! I tried mouth to mouth but apparently the fall had completely collapsed all of the pet rocks external orifices. Standing there in utter shock and fear, I realized I had only one option left, electric shock! In a moment of pure clarity I realized what I must do. I ran down stairs and placed the rock in the microwave and set it to the Popcorn setting. As I waited for a miracle to happen I just kept praying, "God please don't let my sisters pet rock die! Please God, Please!"
Then, DING. I hesitantly opened up the microwave, still hopeful that my plan had worked, but my hopes waned as I saw no sign of movement. So I slowly reached for the pet rock and firmly grasped it in my hand, and at that moment something happened!
I screamed HOLY SH*T! That once docile and cute pet rock had been transformed into an evil agent of Satan himself! As the searing pain in my hand grew and the smell of burning flesh filled the air I knew I had only one option. I must destroy this evil Satan rock before its wicked powers brought forth the ruination of all of mankind!
So I threw it in the toilet and flushed.
I came up with a cover story and told my sister that I had taken her pet rock out for a walk but it got off the leash and ran away.
She was mad at first but after three months of canvassing the neighborhood and dozens of missing signs posted, she gave up and finally forgave me when I bought her some goldfish, but that's a whole nother story.

The neighbors never looked at our family the same way after that.



Sorry, my wife is out of town and I'm bored.

ats is finnaly coming back
go away trump-ists we want cool stuff here

a reply to: tvtexan

Well the topic is generalized on Media manipulation to the human brain.
Here are a few more examples:
Top 10 Misleading Marketing Tactics

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: SoulSurfer

The pet rock reminds me of bottled water and tooth whitening. Two things no one needs to pay for, but they all of a sudden created a market for something you never needed. I think it is called halitosis marketing (thanks to Listerine which was originally floor cleaner)...create a problem that doesn't exist and then wait for the lemmings to start giving you cash.

Lord Lister, surgeon and president of the Royal Society is accredited with the invention of antiseptics as a means of reducing post surgery mortality.

Listerine was invented by Joseph Lawrence, a Missouri based chemist, as a surgical antiseptic that did not burn the skin like Lister's carbolic acid and was named in honor of Lister.

As a surgical antiseptic it had limited sales so it was then marketed in a concentrated form as a dilutable household antiseptic. Good at disinfecting floors toilets and food preparation areas and as a cure for fungal infections (and even Gonorrhea).

It was later marketed to dentists as an antiseptic mouthwash and then to the general public as mouthwash, where it became a popularly known product as a cure for bad breath.

a reply to: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk Mr Grass Head Chia Pet, Beanie Babies There is a herd mentality that is difficult to explain followed by a "shortage" and people want it even more(Cabbage Patch Dolls) I think people can be controlled as easily as lab rats and soon the drones will be sending out their electronic orders. BTW anyone like to buy some Beanie Babies? they still have their tags on!

originally posted by: PsychicCroMag
a reply to: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk Mr Grass Head Chia Pet, Beanie Babies There is a herd mentality that is difficult to explain followed by a "shortage" and people want it even more(Cabbage Patch Dolls) I think people can be controlled as easily as lab rats and soon the drones will be sending out their electronic orders. BTW anyone like to buy some Beanie Babies? they still have their tags on!

You're giving me bad flashbacks! I waited in line for hours to get my sister a Cabbage Path doll for Christmas when they hit big. My mother threatened to break my plate if I tried to come home without one!

Thanks for this thread.

Sends the mind spinning, doesn't it? Just the prospect that the pet-rocks, and things like getting people to smoke cigarettes, were master-coups in population manipulation.

So which one, if any, is playing-out right-now? One that we might only see, with the vision of the future, looking back.

originally posted by: SoulSurfer
Do you Remember that one time the media...made Millions of people buy a "special rock" ,which was a simple ordinary rock..you could find...literally walking out of your own house, in a park or anywhere near nature. I am sure some of you remember ... the pet rock.

I wonder if this was a US thing? It happened in 1975, so I would have been -2 at the time ha ha. We (in the UK at least) had something similar in the 90's, only these ones had faces in them and were more like pebble sized things (though there were other sizes iirc). I've actually been trying to find them again for something I want to do for my kids but having no luck.

It may interest you all to know that Gary Dahl that invented the pet rock died at the end of March 2 years ago...

For years now we have been getting hit from all angles with wall to wall advertisisng, luckily there aren't a huge amount of things as daft as a pet rock being mzrketed to us anymore (though a company called JML here in the UK sell some things that people really don't need)

Why is gold valuable? Because someone says it is. Same for anything really.

But yes humans are easily manipulated, just watch any Derren Brown video, or if you want advertising specifically, something like Australias TV show The Gruen Transfer, which is basically an entire TV show featuring ad men discussing how manipulation and marketing works.

Heck if it aint Pet Rocks, it's being sold on Patriotism and huge entertainment extravaganzas like the U.S elections are.

Humans have been manipulating each other since the dawn of time. The problem is it's just preaching to the choir the ones who care already are aware.
The majority though want to be lead, told what to buy, think and do. The scope of planet let alone the universe os too much for the average person to take in and wrap their brain around. They WANT to be on autopilot, they do not want to think. They want life to be easy, they want to be distracted from things that will make them uncomfortable or make them question their reality.

It's not we on ATS you need to convince, to give a massive shift in mindset, the people you want to preach to are the ones sharing commercial posts on facebook and following branded models on tumblr.
(Well the people on ATS who aren't here just to Black and White U.S politics that is.)
And very good luck with that. You have more chance of convincing these people Unicorns are real. (Mostly because they already want to believe they are real so half the works already done.)

People won't thank you for educating them though, be more likely to want to lynch you for breaking their reality.

The image is more important than the substance.

Thats why America falls. They will staple a price tag to a condom, because the label is more important than what it labels.


Guarantee the Pet Rock had its promotionals before the rocks were ever harvested. Somone won the bid on some landscaping cleanup more than likely.