the Art of Perception - evolution through education - by greg Adams

Home
About AoP
Writings  
Manifesto  
Technology  
Advertising & Politics  
Mastering the AoP  
Original Graphics  
Optical Illusions  
Conspiracy Theories  

Links  
Contact  

Top U.S. Advertisers - 2003

Top 100                                       $Millions

  1. General Motors..................... 3652.2
  2. AOL Time Warner.................... 2922.8
  3. Procter & Gamble Co................ 2673.4
  4. Pfizer............................. 2566.2
  5. Ford Motor Co...................... 2251.8
  6. Daimler Chrysler................... 2031.8
  7. Walt Disney Co..................... 1803.0
  8. Johnson & Johnson.................. 1799.0
  9. Sears, Roebuck & Co................ 1661.2
  10. Unilever........................... 1640.0
  11. Sony Corp.......................... 1621.1
  12. GlaxoSmithKline.................... 1554.0
  13. Toyota Motor Corp.................. 1552.7
  14. Verizon Communications............. 1527.5
  15. McDonald’s Corp.................... 1335.7
  16. Viacom............................. 1259.8
  17. Altria Group....................... 1206.0
  18. Honda Motor Co..................... 1192.8
  19. Merck & Co......................... 1158.4
  20. L’Oreal............................ 1117.7
  21. PepsiCo............................ 1113.9
  22. J.C. Penney Co..................... 1108.0
  23. SBC Communications................. 1091.6
  24. U.S. Government.................... 1082.8
  25. Nestle............................. 1073.2
  26. Nissan Motor Co....................  966.7
  27. Target Corp........................  960.0
  28. General Mills......................  954.1
  29. Microsoft Corp.....................  909.1
  30. Home Depot.........................  885.2
  31. AT&T Wireless......................  872.9
  32. Sprint Corp........................  863.0
  33. IBM Corp...........................  832.3
  34. Best Buy Co........................  818.7
  35. AT&T Corp..........................  815.1
  36. Estee Lauder Cos...................  805.3
  37. Diageo.............................  797.8
  38. Anheuser-Busch Cos.................  792.9
  39. Hewlett-Packard Co.................  736.1
  40. Yum Brands.........................  732.6
  41. Cendant Corp.......................  726.9
  42. Wyeth..............................  724.7
  43. News Corp..........................  715.9
  44. Federated Department Stores........  715.1
  45. ConAgra Foods......................  680.1
  46. May Department Stores Co...........  655.9
  47. Mars Inc...........................  653.1
  48. Burger King Corp...................  650.1
  49. Kmart Corp.........................  628.6
  50. Nike...............................  623.5
  51. Wal-Mart Stores....................  618.1
  52. Sara Lee Corp......................  604.7
  53. Volkswagen.........................  602.4
  54. Vivendi Universal..................  591.4
  55. General Electric Co................  579.0
  56. Clorox Co..........................  572.3
  57. Novartis...........................  569.3
  58. Coca-Cola Co.......................  569.0
  59. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co............  563.5
  60. American Express Co................  542.1
  61. Albertson’s........................  524.9
  62. Dell Computer Co...................  510.6
  63. Deutsche Telekom...................  509.3
  64. Kroger Co..........................  508.9
  65. Schering-Plough Corp...............  507.6
  66. Gillette Co........................  495.0
  67. Aventis............................  486.0
  68. SABMiller..........................  458.5
  69. Campbell Soup Co...................  447.5
  70. Lowe’s Cos.........................  444.3
  71. Gap Inc............................  433.6
  72. Kellogg Co.........................  429.1
  73. Visa International.................  423.2
  74. Adolph Coors Co....................  420.3
  75. Limited Brands.....................  410.7
  76. Berkshire Hathaway.................  398.5
  77. Cadbury Schweppes..................  396.2
  78. Mitsubishi Motors Corp.............  392.1
  79. Mattel.............................  384.4
  80. MCI................................  371.2
  81. Bayer..............................  370.6
  82. Wendy’s International..............  359.5
  83. MasterCard International...........  358.0
  84. Safeway............................  356.2
  85. Doctor’s Associates................  352.7
  86. Kimberly-Clark Corp................  352.5
  87. Intel Corp.........................  345.2
  88. Morgan Stanley.....................  341.8
  89. Circuit City Stores................  340.7
  90. SC Johnson.........................  340.7
  91. Colgate-Palmolive..................  336.7
  92. United Parcel Service..............  331.4
  93. Hershey Foods Corp.................  330.8
  94. Nextel Communications..............  319.6
  95. Reckitt Benskiser..................  318.0
  96. Kia Motors Corp....................  316.3
  97. Kohl’s Corp........................  316.0
  98. Fortune Brands.....................  313.0
  99. Eastman Kodak Co...................  312.3
  100. Office Depot ......................  311.5

Below in an excerpt from FREE MARKET CONSPIRACY - a chapter from my upcoming release "Look how far our minds have gone"

Politics and advertising– what’s to say?  Just look at the numbers.  I mostly loathe politics and political discussions. In part mostly due to the ignorance or apathy the majority of people have over what they feel politics is. Politics in the ‘free-world’ is not about elections, foreign relations and democracy – it is simply about money.    Every single decision made is based on public opinion.  Public opinion is shaped by the representation given by the media.  Everything you see on TV is scrutinized by executives who’s goal it is to keep their ratings as high as possible so they get the most money for every thirty second time slot.  The executives cannot put something on the air that is going to hurt the pocket book of their advertisers. 

Lets take ENRON for example.  ENRON – a huge multinational corporation gets slammed repeatedly for illegal accounting practices.  Now if we actually looked closer, there were a large number of colluding companies who’s names were listed along with Enron’s in it’s false profit ventures.  Here in Canada, TELUS (a Verizon partner), Enron, and Blockbuster Video signed a deal to release video on demand services. The project required an investment of $115 million dollars and the project reported a profit of $110 million dollars despite only being released to 1000 homes in the US and collapsed less than a year after release.  Enron was the only company that saw big headlines because both TELUS and Blockbuster are huge advertisers and if their names were dragged through the ‘media mud’ it would hurt their share value, and thus reduce the amount of money they would spend on advertising.  

Since the media is censoring the news to keep themselves in the ‘green’ by keeping their advertisers happy, and therefore influencing public opinion  -- politicians (even ones not supported by oil, pharmaceutical, banking, and communication companies) are pawns to the large advertisers.   Most politicians however only made it to where they are by getting the support of many large companies.  If you don't believe me - look at who is on the board of directors of the top 10 advertisers above and trace where the companies, their CEO's and CFO's campaign contributions went to.  Or just look at the amount of dollars the US Government publicly disclosed spent on advertising.  According to the numbers - the US governement spent more money on advertising than the GAP and VISA combined. I don't know about you - but when I watched TV, there weren't near as many US Government commercials as there are GAP and VISA.  So where's the money going?  Maybe into preventing certain advertisers access to mainstream media channels?

Influences on big business:

·        Trade laws, tariffs, free trade, etc…
·        Market influences – Wars, stock market confidence, etc.
·        The dollar, exchange rates, etc…
·        Employees – wages, benefits, working conditions, trade unions, education, etc…
·        Competitor and partner relationships
·        Company ownership and future ownership

Big business will use ANY means necessary to make an extra dollar.  This means trying to do their best to control influences on the share value.  Since the stock market crash – business has had to crack down on any inefficiencies.  If a manufacturer has to move their factory from coastal China to inland China so they can pay 23 cents an hour instead of 40 cents an hour and where the workers are less likely to understand the concept of human rights – so be it.  If a company in North America needs to lay off thousands of people to improve efficiency after just expanding and hiring people to do the same job elsewhere and pay them half the wage – then that’s okay.  Its alright to exploit the human and natural resources of other countries where products can be manufactured, refined, or processed cheaper and not have to pay tariffs to equalize the socio-economic impact. Creating public fear by manipulating wars to raise the price of oil is acceptable as long as there is profit to be made.

The biggest downfall of capitalism is human nature. The same goes for communism for that matter.  As long as there is work to be done – there will be somebody to come along to exploit it for power.  In the market economy – power is expressed in dollars. The sad part is - the problem isn't that the majority of people are greedy - the problem is most people are very nice and live in their own ignorant worlds and there is a small number of people are greedy and they exploit the majority.  Most people would be content to live their lives as they are now if they didn't have to worry about putting food on the table, how they were going to pay for their childs education or find money for sports equipment, how to pay the next medical bill, etc...

What can we do?

Consumer Power - Awareness is the key. Support socially responsible manufacturers and retailers.  As businesses needs to make money to survive - and they make money from what we buy.  If there is a trend to only buy from socially responsible companies >> rest assured more companies will become more socially responsible.

Ban money creating banks - Interest from loans and credit cards devalues the dollar and creates inflation.  The more we put 'on credit' the more we are hurting our economy.  On an individual level we do what we need to get by but on a national or global level we are inflating prices exponentially.  If we put something on our credit cards and pay it off over a period of time - the interest we pay is an inflationary tool. The credit companies use the profits to finance other loans on a debt to cash ratio of about 10 to 1.  For every dollar they make in interest, they can lend out ten dollars more.  Having all this extra money being created from interest means somehow it needs to be paid back.  Companies who have borrowed money raise prices to cover their costs. Workers need higher salaries to pay their debts and therefore the companies again need to raise prices to cover the additional costs. The biggest issue is a compounding one. We're all aware of the amount of money we can make by putting money into an interest baring-investment. The same goes in reverse to the amount that we pay in interest but multiply the amount they indirectly make from you by ten times. Since banning money creating banks won't likely happen in the near future - become aware of the consequences for putting that next dollar on your credit card.

Protest - Become involved in, or support organizations that are trying to make the world a better place. There are ALWAYS local unions, charities, lobby groups, and activist organizations that can use the volunteer time or monetary contributions to help get their word out and do whatever that organization does.

Write - Write to your government representatives, media, and advertisers stating your beliefs and opinions.

© 2007 Art of Perception - greg adams