How To Be Stupid Martin Miller Analysis

In Mark Crispin Miller’s essay How To Be Stupid: The Lessons of Channel One he discusses how television ads and commercials are detrimental and useless to it’s viewers. These viewers he speaks of are school aged youth, forced to watch Channel One everyday while attending school. The ad’s promoted on the channel demonstrate unhealthy habits, unintelligence, and unrealistic ideas. In the essay Miller discusses the way people think while after and while watching these advertisements, what the ads are really saying, and the messages being sent from the companies behind them. Advertisements shown on Channel One are not appropriate for school, they promote ideas the wrong ideas and are used to brainwash viewers into addiction since they first begin to watch television. Each section Miller’s essay had Subtitles like “Don’t Think”, “Let us fix it”, or “You’re Ugly”, which are some of the few ideas that he presented that are promoted by ads (148). Miller used these subheadings to blatantly reveal to the readers the subliminal messages that we are unknowingly receiving when we watch commercials. Watching television does not require much thought and watching the …show more content…
Brainwashed into thinking the ides shown on television could actually be you or become yours. It is easiest to target young people and younger adults because they seem to be more “thoughtless, easily distracted and obsessed”(Miller 146). The young people have grown up being brainwashed normally by the commercials that “work full-time to lure the children into absolute and permanent dependency” (Miller 149). An example Miller gives is an electronic commercial where “All the stuff your parents never dreamed of … AT&T is bringing it all within your reach!” (Miller 147). The brainwashed thoughts of the young generation in schools are that of the newest and shiniest technology is a necessity (Miller