The Trap of Advertising

That thing you felt you “wanted” today—was that truly your own will?

Open your smartphone in the morning, and ads jump out at you. Hanging posters on the commuter train, digital signage in the city, the 15 seconds sandwiched before and during YouTube videos. “Recommendations” that blend naturally into SNS feeds, “Sponsored” links appearing at the top of search results. It is said that modern people are exposed to an estimated 4,000 to 10,000 advertising messages a day. Yet, we are barely even aware that we have “seen” most of them.

That is the most terrifying aspect of advertising. Ads do not function on the level of “watching or not watching.” By unconsciously bathing in them continuously, they function as a device that rewrites the very standard of what is “normal.” “Newer cars are better,” “bigger houses are better,” “looking younger is better”—do you remember how these pieces of “common sense” were installed in you?

In the article on the “Trap of Capitalism,” we positioned advertising as a “desire manufacturing machine.” In this article, we will dissect the entirety of that manufacturing process. The history of advertising, the techniques of psychological manipulation, and how far advertising is evolving in the AI era. Knowing is the most powerful defense.

Key Points of This Article

• Advertising is not “Information” but “Trading in Emotions”: It doesn’t convey product performance; it sells the emotional experience of “the self who owns this product.” You aren’t buying a product; you are buying an emotion prescribed by the ad.
• Desire does not “arise naturally,” it is “designed”: The “subconscious advertising methods” developed 100 years ago by Freud’s nephew form the foundation of modern digital ads. Your “want” is a highly calculated manufactured product.
• Those who think “I’m not influenced by ads” are in the most danger: Advertising’s greatest victory is making you think it isn’t working. Subconscious imprinting cannot be prevented by conscious criticism.
• AI is destroying the “Last Sanctuary” of advertising: The introduction of ads in ChatGPT and the expansion of Apple’s ad business are signs that the final defensive walls of “trust” and “privacy” have begun to crumble.

1. The True Nature of Ads: Not “Information” but “Trading in Emotions”

Many people perceive advertising as something that “conveys information about a product.” However, this is the most fundamental misunderstanding about advertising.

Recall a car commercial. What information is conveyed there? Fuel efficiency? Safety performance? Price? No. What appears on the screen is a car sprinting across vast lands, a driver smiling in the wind, a coastline dyed by the setting sun. What is being conveyed is not “performance,” but emotions of “freedom,” “adventure,” and “a successful life.”

Beer commercials are the same. The liquid’s ingredients or brewing process are almost never depicted. What is there is a toast with colleagues after work, smiles, and a sense of solidarity in “a job well done.” What they are selling is not beer, but the emotional experience of “daily achievement” and “bonding.”

Do cosmetics commercials explain the effects of the chemical substances applied to the skin? No. What is projected is a person with a confident expression in beautiful lighting. What they are selling is not cream, but “confidence” and “a self that gathers envious gazes.”

In other words, the essence of advertising is not information provision. Advertising is a business that sells an emotional future image of “you after obtaining the product.” You are not buying the product; you are buying the “emotional prescription” presented by the ad. And the emotion promised by that prescription evaporates the moment you obtain the product. That is why the next ad works. That repetition creates the endless loop called consumption.

2. The Architects of Desire: Bernays and the Origins of “Human Remodeling”

When did advertising become a “trade in emotions”? Actually, there is a clear starting point. One man redesigned human desire itself.

Pandora’s Box Opened by Freud’s Nephew

Edward Bernays (1891-1995). The nephew of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and a man called the “Father of PR.” Bernays read his uncle Freud’s theory—that human behavior is driven not by reason, but by unconscious desires and impulses—and had an idea.

“If you manipulate the unconscious, you can control human behavior at will.”

Freud aimed to “understand” the human unconscious. But Bernays chose to “utilize” it. This shift would determine the direction of the advertising industry—and consumer society itself—from the 20th century onward.

Advertising before Bernays conveyed product functions, like “This soap cleans well” or “This Ford is durable.” People bought things because they were “necessary.” However, 1920s America, as a result of the Industrial Revolution and mass production, had entered an era where supply significantly exceeded demand. Factories could make massive amounts of things. But people already had what they needed.

Bernays’ answer to this crisis faced by capitalism was revolutionary. “Don’t appeal to necessity. Appeal to desire.” Make people buy not because they “need it,” but because they “want it.” To do that, link products not to function, but to emotion and identity. This is the starting point of modern advertising.

The “Torches of Freedom” Incident

The “Torches of Freedom” campaign of 1929 most vividly demonstrates Bernays’ method.

At the time, it was a social taboo for women to smoke in public. The American Tobacco Company, eyeing the huge untapped territory of the female market, hired Bernays. What did he do? He didn’t say “cigarettes taste good” or “cigarettes make you thin.”

Bernays had young women smoke cigarettes at the Easter Parade in New York and had the press photograph it as “Torches of Freedom”—a symbol of women’s liberation. The next day’s newspapers featured headlines like “Women March Holding Torches of Freedom.”

What was genius was that this didn’t look like an “advertisement.” It was reported as news. It was received as a social movement. Women believed they hadn’t been “made to buy cigarettes,” but had “chosen freedom.” But in reality, the tobacco company hired Bernays, Bernays arranged the female models, leaked information to the press beforehand, and designed everything.

The essence of advertising is condensed here. Link the product not to “function” but to “identity.” Cigarettes transformed from “the act of inhaling smoke” to a “symbol of the free woman.” The “sense of self” you feel when holding an iPhone today, the “sense of belonging” when wearing clothes of a specific brand—their origin lies in this campaign from 100 years ago.

The Art of “Making You Replace It Even Though It’s Not Broken”

Around the time of Bernays, another revolutionary invention was linked to advertising. Planned Obsolescence.

In the 1920s, Ford continued to make one model, the Model T, for years. Ford’s philosophy was to provide a “good car that can be used until it breaks” cheaply. However, GM’s Alfred Sloan took a completely different approach. Change the design every year. Release new colors. Make people feel “last year’s model is already old.”

The car itself functions perfectly. There are no defects. But when the message “A new design is out. Your car is the old type” is repeated by ads, you begin to feel it is “lacking,” even though there are no functional problems. GM overtook Ford, and this strategy became the standard for the auto industry.

The annual update cycle of modern smartphones is the perfected form of this “Planned Obsolescence.” Even though last year’s model works without issues, watching the new model launch event makes you feel uncomfortable with “the self using the old device.” This sensation did not arise naturally. A mechanism designed 100 years ago has been implemented in modern technology and is acting on your brain.

Designing Even Democracy

Bernays’ influence didn’t stop at commercial advertising. He was deeply involved in government propaganda as well. During World War I, as a member of President Woodrow Wilson’s Committee on Public Information, he handled campaigns to manufacture American public support for entering the war.

At the beginning of his book Propaganda (1928), Bernays writes:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”

In other words, for Bernays, mass manipulation was not “evil,” but a necessary condition for democracy to function. Since the masses cannot make correct judgments on their own, “invisible governors” need to guide them in the appropriate direction—this was his belief.

This ideology has been passed down continuously to the modern advertising industry. The techniques of advertising and political propaganda are fundamentally the same. “Make people take a specific action without them realizing they are being manipulated”—in this goal, a Coca-Cola commercial and an election campaign use the exact same tools.

3. 5 Tactics to Conquer Your Brain

The “appeal to the unconscious” pioneered by Bernays has been highly systematized over 100 years. The psychological techniques used by modern ads are designed to precisely strike your brain’s weak points. Knowing these is defense in itself.

1. Manufacturing “The Lacking Self”

The most basic structure of advertising is Before/After. Contrast “the current unsatisfactory state” with “the ideal state after obtaining the product.” Diet product commercials lining up “fat self (gloomy expression) → thin self (shining smile)” are the most blatant example.

However, what is truly clever is that this structure artificially creates a sense of “lack.” You might not have been particularly dissatisfied with your body shape before seeing the ad. But by being repeatedly shown the “ideal body shape,” the sensation that “my current self is insufficient” is imprinted on your subconscious.

Neuroscientifically speaking, this “sense of lack” activates dopamine circuits. The impulse of “lacking → want to obtain → buy” is processed by the brain as “relief from pain.” The momentary pleasure felt after impulse buying is merely the temporary resolution of the artificial “pain” created by the ad. And that pleasure fades quickly, and the next “lack” is manufactured by an ad. This cycle spins forever, just as designed.

2. The Spell of “Everyone Has It”

“#1 in Sales,” “Chosen by X million people,” “98% Customer Satisfaction.” These phrases utilize a mechanism called Social Proof in psychology. When placed in uncertain situations, humans tend to mimic the behavior of others instead of judging for themselves. This is a remnant of the savanna era where not separating from the herd was advantageous for survival.

Information that “everyone is using it” triggers a shortcut judgment in the brain. “If this many people are choosing it, it must be good”—this reasoning looks rational at first glance, but in reality, the fact that “many people bought it” proves nothing about the quality of the product. Just as the best-selling book is not necessarily the most excellent book.

Even more powerful is the Bandwagon Effect. The psychology of “I don’t want to miss the bus (be left behind by the majority)” functions powerfully, especially in societies that value conformity. The situation where “everyone around me has it but only I don’t” threatens the desire for belonging and creates discomfort. Ads intentionally manufacture this discomfort and have you resolve it through purchasing behavior.

3. Repeat It and It Becomes “Truth”

Why is the same commercial played dozens, hundreds of times? “So you remember it”? That is only half correct. The true purpose is to “make you believe.”

There is a phenomenon in psychology called the “Mere Exposure Effect (Zajonc Effect).” Humans come to harbor positive feelings toward things they encounter repeatedly. There is no reason. Simply because it is “familiar,” the brain judges it as “favorable.” Even if a song doesn’t leave an impression the first time, as you hear it over and over, you start to feel “this might be a good song”—this is the Zajonc effect.

Even more dangerous is the “Illusion of Truth Effect.” Humans come to feel that repeatedly heard information is “truth.” The truth or falsehood of the content doesn’t matter. The brain confuses “ease of processing (fluency)” with “probability of being true.” Claims heard many times are processed smoothly, and that smoothness is converted into the sensation that “it’s the truth.”

The reason commercials repeat the same phrase hundreds of times lies here. “Price and quality, [Brand Name],” “Can’t stop, won’t stop”—these are initially just copy, but through repetition, they are incorporated into a part of consciousness and eventually cease to be objects of doubt. Incidentally, this is the exact same principle as political propaganda. Hitler’s propaganda minister Goebbels is said to have stated, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” but the mechanism used by ads is exactly identical to this.

4. Stopping Thought with “Right Now”

“Limited Time,” “Only 3 Left,” “Until Midnight Tonight,” “X People Viewing Now.”

When you encounter these phrases, a specific circuit activates in your brain. The combination of Scarcity Bias—the instinct to feel “hard to get = high value”—and Time Limits bypasses the prefrontal cortex (the part responsible for logical thinking) and directly accesses the amygdala (the part responsible for impulsive reactions).

Put simply, it is designed to “make you act before you think.” Before rational thoughts like “Is this really necessary?”, “Aren’t there better options?”, or “Wouldn’t next month be fine?” can begin, the fear that “I’ll lose out if I don’t buy now” short-circuits the judgment. The display “X people viewing now” on e-commerce sites is a triple combo of psychological manipulation invoking scarcity, social proof, and urgency simultaneously.

If you think calmly, “Limited Time” products will return next month under a different name. “Only 3 Left” will be restocked. But not giving you the gap to “think calmly” is the very essence of this method.

5. Selling “The Self You Want to Be,” Not the Product

The “coupling of product and identity” invented by Bernays 100 years ago has reached its ultimate form in the modern age.

Apple’s “Think Different.” Nike’s “Just Do It.” These ads say nothing about the product’s function. What they talk about is “what kind of human owns this product.” A person who owns Apple is “creative and unconventional.” A person who wears Nike is “someone who doesn’t fear challenges.” You are not buying a computer or sneakers; you are buying fragments of “the self you want to become.”

What makes this method terrifying is that when a brand becomes part of your identity, criticism of that brand is processed as an “attack on yourself.” iPhone users reacting emotionally to criticism of Android. Believers of a specific brand fighting with fans of other brands. This is not “wanting to defend a good product,” but the psychology of “wanting to defend my identity” activating. The ad didn’t just sell a product. It hijacked a part of your self-perception.

4. The Biggest Trap: “I’m Not Fooled by Ads”

Reading this far, some might think, “I see, ads have these mechanisms. But now that I know, I can prevent it.” Unfortunately, the story isn’t that simple.

Advertising’s Greatest Victory: Making You Think It “Isn’t Working”

When consumer surveys are conducted, the vast majority of people answer, “I am hardly influenced by ads.” However, if ads truly didn’t work, why would global companies continue to spend about 1 trillion dollars (approx. 150 trillion yen) annually on advertising? Would corporate entities that pursue the most rational judgments in the world continue to throw 150 trillion yen every year at something ineffective?

The answer is obvious. Ads are working. However, they aren’t working in a way you can recognize as “working.”

There is a concept in psychology that explains this phenomenon: the “Third-person Effect.” Humans tend to believe that “mass media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves.” “Those who dance to commercials have low literacy, but I’m different”—this conviction creates the most defenseless state against advertising.

Unable to Notice the Rising Water Level of “Normal”

Ads don’t work the “moment you see them.” They work by quietly rewriting the standard of what is “normal” as a result of bathing in them thousands and tens of thousands of times.

For example, the perception that “cars are things you replace every few years.” 50 years ago, it was normal to drive a car as long as it ran. But the accumulation of decades of car ads embedded the standard “driving an old car = shabby” into society. “One should wear clean clothes,” “teeth should be white,” “rooms need stylish furniture”—these “normals” did not arise naturally; they were constructed as society’s “standard” through decades of advertising repetition.

You feel you “aren’t being fooled by ads” not because ads aren’t manipulating each individual purchasing decision, but because they have spent years designing the very foundation of your “want.” The person standing on the foundation cannot notice that the foundation has been rewritten. It is the same as a person in water not noticing that the water level is slowly rising.

Why Conscious Defense Is Not Enough

As this site has repeatedly covered, over 95% of human behavior is driven by the subconscious. Ads target exactly this 95%. Even if you brace yourself with 5% of your consciousness saying, “I won’t be fooled by ads,” the program imprinted by thousands of ads is continuing to run in the remaining 95% of your unconscious.

The brand you pick up “for some reason” in front of a supermarket shelf, the product you are “for some reason” drawn to on an EC site, the design you feel is “for some reason” nice—behind these “for some reasons” lies the accumulation of decades of ad exposure. At the very moment you feel “I am judging rationally,” the ad’s program is operating at the subconscious level.

That is why “the power to see through ads” alone is insufficient. What is important is to reduce the volume of ad exposure itself through environmental design. I will propose concrete ways to do this in the second half.

5. Children: The Most Vulnerable Target

If psychological manipulation by ads is this powerful for adults, how much influence does it hold over children?

Bathing Developing Brains in Ads

The human prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for logical thinking, impulse control, and critical judgment—is considered to not complete development until around age 25. In other words, the neural circuits in children and teenagers that critically analyze ad messages as “this is trying to manipulate my behavior” are physically not yet complete.

Studies have shown that the majority of children under 8 cannot distinguish between advertisements and regular content. In the case of television, there is some distinction due to the “commercial” label, but in the era of digital media, even that boundary has vanished.

YouTube Kids and Influencers: Invisible Ads

“Toy unboxing videos” and “playing with X” videos on children’s YouTube channels are formats that intentionally blur the boundary between content and advertising. For children, it is a “video of a favorite big brother/sister playing happily,” but many are promotions produced after receiving products or compensation from companies.

Influencer marketing has further strengthened this structure. Products introduced by creators whom children trust and admire saying “This is awesome!” are received by children not as “ads” but as “recommendations from a trusted person.” Even adults find this distinction difficult. For children with undeveloped prefrontal cortices, it can be said to be nearly impossible.

Absence of Regulation: Responsibility of Adults

Sweden and Norway legally prohibit advertising aimed at children under 12. Canada’s Quebec province also regulates advertising to those under 13. These countries have clearly judged that “exercising psychological manipulation of advertising on humans with immature judgment capabilities is ethically unacceptable.”

On the other hand, in Japan and the US, legal regulations on children’s ad exposure are extremely limited. The desire engineering developed by Bernays 100 years ago is being executed almost without limit on humans whose brains are still in the process of forming—this is not an individual problem, but a structural problem of society.

“Consumers” are not created after becoming adults. From childhood, they are shipped out as “humans who want” by ads disguised as content. If the trap of education manufactures “obedient workers,” advertising manufactures “insatiable consumers.” And the system called capitalism requires both.

6. The Last Sanctuary Falls: The Fusion of AI and Advertising

The mechanisms of advertising we have seen so far stood upon at least one premise. Ads have “slots.” TV has commercial slots. Websites have banner ad slots. YouTube has a “Skip Ad” button. No matter how clever, there existed a boundary where you could recognize “this is an ad.”

But now, that final boundary is beginning to dissolve.

The Meaning of ChatGPT Introducing Ads

OpenAI is proceeding with the introduction of ads to ChatGPT. At first glance, it might seem like “just one more ad channel added.” However, this is a qualitatively completely different change.

When you ask ChatGPT “What is a recommended camera?”, can you distinguish whether the returned answer is a pure AI analysis result or reflects the intentions of a company that paid ad fees? Traditional ads had labels like “PR,” “Ad,” or “Sponsored,” however insufficient. But when ads blend into the answers of conversational AI, the boundary between “neutral information provision” and “sales pitches” vanishes.

This is far more serious than search engine ads. In Google search, ads are displayed as “Sponsored” and distinguished from organic search results (albeit insufficiently). But in AI conversation formats, everything is integrated into a single sentence as “AI’s answer.” This means the very structure of trust is being diverted into advertising infrastructure.

What Apple’s Pivot Means

There is another movement worth noting. Apple is rapidly expanding its advertising business. Apple once declared “Privacy is a fundamental human right” and introduced ATT (App Tracking Transparency) in iOS 14.5. This significantly restricted tracking of users by ad platforms like Meta and Google. It was highly praised as a decision on the side of the user.

But at the same time, Apple is steadily expanding its own advertising platform. Search ads in the App Store, ads in Apple News, ad slots on Apple TV. Restricting competitors’ data collection to weaken them while strengthening their own ad infrastructure. The strategy to secure their own dominance in advertising behind the banner of privacy protection is brilliantly rational.

The irony for users is that the very trust in “the company that protects privacy” is being diverted into resources for the ad business. The sense of trust that “it’s safe because it’s Apple” has the effect of lowering resistance to ads displayed via Apple. Build trust, then divert that trust to advertising—the structure is the same as Bernays’ “Torches of Freedom.”

A Future with No Escape from Ads

The fusion of AI and advertising looks even further ahead. By combining behavioral data, emotion recognition technology, and biometric data from wearable devices, research is progressing on technology to identify “the moment you are psychologically most vulnerable” and deliver the optimal ad at that timing.

When you are tired, lonely, or losing confidence—technology accurately grasps the timing when humans are most prone to impulsive purchasing decisions and sends ads there. Will the evolution of technology be used for “human liberation” or “improving ad precision”? At present, the reality is that it is overwhelmingly being used for the latter.

7. How to Live, Knowing About Ads

We have looked at the structure of advertising. So, knowing this structure, what should we do?

1. Ask Before You “Want”: “Who Created This Desire?”

The moment you feel you “want” something, stop for just 3 seconds. And ask: “Did this desire naturally well up from inside me? Or was it manufactured by someone?”

You want a new smartphone. You want new clothes. When and where was this “want” born? After seeing someone’s post on SNS? After seeing an ad? After watching TV? Just having the habit of tracing the “manufacturer” of desire creates distance between the impulse and yourself.

This question won’t prevent all ad influence. However, by driving a wedge of “observation” between stimulus and response, you can make the unconscious automatic reaction conscious, even for a moment. That moment makes the question “Is this really necessary?” possible instead of impulse buying.

2. Intentionally Create Ad-Free Time

As mentioned in Section 4, the influence of ads cannot be prevented by “the power to see through them” alone. This is because imprinting on the subconscious begins the moment of contact. Therefore, the most effective measure is to design an environment that reduces the volume of ad contact itself.

Installing ad blockers. Securing time not to turn on the TV. Limiting SNS usage time. Choosing paid news services without ads. These are approaches not of “ignoring ads with willpower,” but of “creating an environment where ads do not reach.” This is the advertising version of “designing habits through systems” that this site has repeatedly proposed.

Not “watching ads,” but “designing an environment where you don’t watch ads.” This difference is decisive. Willpower eventually runs out, but environmental design continues to function 24 hours a day.

3. Define “Enough” Yourself

Advertising only functions when there is a sense of “lack” within you. Conversely, the magic of advertising is significantly weakened against a human who has clearly defined “enough” for themselves.

Naval Ravikant says: “Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” Ads have been saying “Get what you desire” for 100 years. But when you realize that desire itself is a manufactured product, the option to “let go” appears.

This is not asceticism or the virtue of honorable poverty. It is the power to distinguish between “what I truly value” and “false desires imprinted by ads.” When you become able to make that distinction, your consumption changes from a “manipulated reaction” to a “conscious choice.”

8. Conclusion: Is Your Desire Yours?

100 years ago, Edward Bernays turned human desire into something “designable.” He developed techniques to link products not to function but to identity, making people buy not because they “need” but because they “want.” That technique was mass-produced in the TV era, personalized in the digital era, and is losing even the boundary with “information” in the AI era.

The essence of the message ads continue to broadcast hasn’t changed in 100 years. “You are insufficient as you are. Buy this.” By continuing to bathe in this message thousands of times a day, our standard of “normal” is quietly rewritten, the feeling of “lacking” becomes chronic, and we gain momentary relief through purchasing behavior only to return to “lacking”—this cycle drives the engine of consumer society.

However, a human who knows the mechanism is no longer a slave to that mechanism. It may be impossible to completely eliminate the existence of ads in modern society. But we can ask, “Is this my desire, or a manufactured desire?” We can reduce ad contact volume through environmental design. We can define “enough” for ourselves.

That thing you thought you “wanted” today—did you choose it? Or were you made to choose it?

Continuing to hold that question is itself the quietest, most fundamental resistance against the automatic program of advertising.