Not everyone is as smart as you are.
Look around you, at your classmates. Unfortunately, there are a lot of "slow learners" and people who are (and will be) barely literate; but, they also will become adults, will also become consumers, will also become citizens. Some people learn more slowly than others, some people never at all. Fortunately, ignorance can be cured by knowledge.
Very young kids don't know the difference between fantasy and reality. They begin by accepting the talking animals and computer graphic tricks they see on TV as real.
Even as kids grow up, many of them live in a world of illusion: movie stars -- and even fictional characters from TV sit-coms -- receive thousands of letters from young fans (and not-so-young ones). TV and movies create the illusion of our being in very close contact with these, our virtual friends. Many, many adults also live vicariously in such an idealized dream world: witness the popularity of magazines and TV programs about celebrities.
Even well-meaning "nature" programs on TV distort reality simply due to their time limits and the editing process.. On such TV programs, we see more animals, more quickly and more frequently, and close-up than we do in reality. In the wild, we can search for hours and seldom see more than a fleeting glance of an animal, at a long distance.
Most ads create an illusion of "happy days." We see more happy smiles, more pretty girls, more handsome guys, more cheerful beer drinkers, more empty roads, more natural beauty in two minutes of ads than we do in two years of reality.
No wonder why some people are dissatisfied with their own reality as being dull and boring, because they have been fed so many illusions and have such unrealistic expectations.
Pre-Schoolers
Pre-schoolers can't even distinguish programs from commercials.
After Jakob Nielsen published his extensive survey "Usability of
Websites for Children, Ages 5-11," he was interviewed in a feature
article in Newsweek (4/22/02) asking what was his most surprising result
about this age group:
"The response to advertisements. Children don't distinguish between ads
and content. To them, it's all information. A grown-up user clicks on an ad
banner maybe once a year, but children do it all the time. They see a banner
with a Pokemon character and they think it's a game. They don't realize it takes
them to a different site.... My main advice for parents is to sit down with
their kids at the computer, teach them to recognize ads. A Disney character
in an ad doesn't mean that you'll get a game or a cartoon - it just means that
someone has rented the character to sell a product."
Elementary school kids think they know a lot about ads because they can recall so many surface details: the presenters, the visuals, the words -- basically, those things the advertisers want us to recall.
But, most people, either young or old, don't think
about ads, systematically or coherently.
Most people really know very little about the underlying structure and strategy
of ads as "units of persuasion."
Roy Fox's research interviews of elementary and middle school students
(in Harvesting Minds) confirmed that:
"... students seemed oblivious to the likelihood that any external people were
involved in making or telling this story. Kids saw no human being behind the
message, no mediator calling the shots from the outside. Kids were very aware
of the commercial's internal narrative, but they seemed oblivious about its
external story -- the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the ad's construction."
Older Kids
What are some things of which older kids are unaware?
Economics, financial issues.
Kids often unaware of the pressure and family stress that they help create by constantly asking for more. Most kids do not know their family's income and basic expenses. For many good reasons, parents shelter kids from these realities, or, after being pestered long enough, simply shout "WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!"
There are a lot of young people who not exactly Wizards of Wall Street.
Few high school students can keep a budget or balance a checkbook.
And, alas, most college students who have credit cards do not
even know what interest rate they pay!
College graduates often find themselves so overburdened with debts (from student loans and consumer credit cards) that it will take years to get out of debt, just at the time they want to start their own family.
Peer Pressure
Such pressure usually isn't obvious and coercive, like a dictator
forcing someone to do things.
Peer pressure is usually indirect and subtle, often as a slight or put-down
from a classmate who laughs at your clothes ("Are you going to wear
that dress?"), or an older kid who mocks you ("That
looks so stupid.")
Most students will say that they are not influenced by advertising,
nor by their peers.
But, fewer than 10% of high schools teach anything at
all about advertising; many of those who do, use ads for an imitative creative
writing exercise ("Let's write an ad!") without much
attention to underlying principles.
If you've simply read the "ABCs of TV Ads" on this website,
you know more of the "basics" than most people.
Every year, a nationwide survey asks adults in America if they, personally, are influenced by advertising. Nearly everyone says that ads affect other people. But, every year the results are almost the same (in the 75%-80% range) with respondents saying; "Advertising doesn't affect me."