In the hour-long documentary, Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse, Sut Jhally explains the social message of consumer advertising and how it affects us as a society. Since the rise of industrial capitalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, advertising has been used as a means of getting consumers to buy products that they didn't necessarily need. This means evolved over time, using research to focus people's individual desires into their ever-expanding advertisements, effectively linking the consumption of things to happiness and satisfaction. This created the message that buying things, and more specifically, more and more things, will make us happier and more satisfied. Subsequently, a plethora of ill butterfly effects have been caused by this message.

The first step in this downward spiral of effects is that consumerism, in reality, does not make people happier and actually makes them less satisfied with life. Jahlley states that "...the more [people] identify themselves through the things they own or want to own, the more miserable, the more depressed and the more ill they tend to be." This is backed by longitudinal surveys studying the happiness levels of people in society since 1945 which state that over the years, average rates of happiness have not increased despite the increasing number of commodities. It is also backed by the effects of what Raymond Williams calls the "Magic System:" a structure that connects our deepest desires, like friendship or sensuality, to menial things like cheeseburgers or perfume. This system, ironically, pushes us away from the things that actually make us happy, like family or love, and pushes us toward more commodities and the cycle continues. It makes us out to be addicts to the dopamine our system releases during shopping, making us come back over and over; advertisers are like your local drug dealer. This, furthermore, leads to people continuing to buy things despite having no money which leads to rising levels of credit card debt and loans.

The next thing to happen is caused by the increasing demand from consumers. As more and more people want more and more things, more resources are needed. Whether it's food on a plate, gas in a car, or wood for building, resources are used at a pace much too quick for what we're offered planetarily. Most of the fish will possibly be gone by the midcentury due to trolling practices in the oceans. Oil is already having to be gouged out of the Earth and flooded by mass amounts of water to obtain it, which not only signifies that we're running out, but also "uses up enormous amounts of energy and creates tremendous amounts of toxic waste that leaks into the ground and into the river, and poisons people living downstream." Acres and acres of forest are being cut down, scarring the landscape and critically hurting the ecosystem. Jahlley brings up that "Since 1950, the world's population has used up more of the Earth's [non-renewable] resources than all previous generations combined, consuming more raw materials in just 50 years than humans did in the previous 3,000 years." This ultimately leads to the next part of the problem.

Not even mentioning dark political ties and war, fossil fuels are used to allow for more industrial production which releases CO2 into the atmosphere, highly contributing to climate change. "Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the average temperature of the Earth's surface has been steadily climbing." This is what Jahlley says, mentioning that the top ten hottest years in history have occurred since 1998. This rise in greenhouse gas emissions which raises temperatures also melts ice, dramatically raising sea levels which makes the coastal regions vulnerable to storm surges (along with further weather extremities elsewhere). These changes subsequently lead to rising stressors abroad – such as poverty and political instability - which lead to terrorist activity and violence. This could all lead to another mass extinction or war and people are so disconnected from one another and focusing on the here and now, due to consumerism, that they are doing next to nothing to stop this.

Overall, Jhalley was trying to get people to shake themselves from the blanket they've fallen under to realize the state of our society and how it affects everyone, not just ourselves. Our need for things, which don't even improve our levels of happiness, could be the cause of our downfall. His message was to those of us living in a consumer-based society. He showed us examples of people just like us trying to make a difference in the way things are going. He showed us that we can change and that we just have to try. He showed us that the blanket pulled over our heads are not made of bricks. I believe that he made his point as much as he's able to. He showed just about every aspect of this problem and the way it effects things in the long run and the bigger picture. Now, it's just up to the consumers to decide whether they are going to change or stay under the weight of a blanket that is made of nothing but corporate chains.