Media and marketing affect our perceptions in a big way

I think I'm becoming more in tune with how the media and marketing affect the public perception. The examples I'll present today include how crime reporting affects police budgets, how home builders' marketing campaigns affect the types of homes families want to buy and the media's effect on women's body image.

Let's start with the police. If you paid attention to the news, you'd think Calgary was besieged by gangs at such a significant level that it's unsafe to go outside. You hear about gang activity or shootings in the news on a regular basis. Lately, they even remarked about a known gang member being removed from the Stampede grounds, even though he wasn't committing any crime. I guess the rule with gang members is, if we catch you in a public place, we can ask you to leave - just because. Here's the thing. Calgary doesn't even break the top 10 crime cities in Canada. In fact, it was 27th on the list. Apparently, our homicide rate is 4th in the country (or 6th, depending on what you read) at 3.14 per 100,000 people. That sounds pretty scary. Until you look at other cities around the world. Detroit is 47.3 per 100,000. Atlanta is 34. Chicago is 22. New York is 6.9. So to paint Calgary as this crime-riddled city is not showing the big picture. But because that's the image we seem to have adopted, police in this city have no trouble getting public support for bigger budgets.

Then we have the home industry. We are bombarded with advertising that paints the perfect home in Calgary as similar to the one pictured in this post. It has 4100sqft of space and lists at a cool million dollars. Another slightly less spacious home boasts 3400sqft for around $620,000. Very recently, a plan was put forth to city council that would see us try to get away from the steady sprawl of the likes of our latest neighbourhoods and begin adding density to maximize the efficiency of infrastructure. Home builders came to council and screamed "social engineering!" at the thought of trying to persuade families to look at more sustainable housing. They claimed that the market should decide what kinds of neighbourhoods need to be built and that based on the way large homes in sprawling neighbourhoods were selling, these new plans were nothing more than social interference by city hall and tree huggers. But to look at the ads put out by most home builders, you'd think the best kind of home to buy were the kinds I've mentioned above. Aren't the builders the ones 'engineering' consumers? If you look at areas like Garrison Woods, the former site of the Army base in Calgary that has been converted into a medium density neighbourhood, the higher density layout wasn't the result of home builders' plans, it was the concept of Canada Lands Corporation, who received the property from the federal government and who designed the new neighbourhood to maximize efficiency. Left to the builders' own devices, I don't imagine Garrison Woods would look anything like it does today.

Then there's my biggest pet peeve - the media's representation of women. I have been frankly disgusted by the female body image portrayed in magazines, in advertising, on television etc. The body image being flaunted is nothing short of suicidal, as it is unrealistic and requires death-defying lifestyles to maintain. It actually amazes me that people whose family members have suffered from anorexia haven't launched class action lawsuits against the distributors of 'skinny chic' media, as I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to argue the effect they have on society. I mean if Canada can outlaw tobacco advertising in public because of its effect on society, why do we tolerate the promotion of unhealthy lifestyle via malnourished role models.

Anyway, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but an introduction that might promote awareness of how much our attitudes about they way we live is molded by what we see in the media and in marketing.