Back to behavior modification. The word "Shaping" means to slowly and patiently change behavior much like turning a supertanker. It can't be done quickly. Too many Americans are "I WANT IT AND I WANT IT NOW!!!" and don't have the education and self-discipline to work steadily and persistently toward a goal.
Of course, like pushing a car up a hill, if it turns out you are pushing it up the wrong hill, that really, really sucks. Best to be smart about the long term goals and not try to jam it with fast, but flawed solutions.
The goal of the commercials is primarily to sell widgets, not cause social change even though those may be the results. I think it's more a reflection of social changes already in place than of the Corporate Overlords treating people like lab rats to sell Cheerios, insurance or Sonic burgers. The commercials are seeking to touch upon something that already exists rather than to induce that change itself.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/shaping.html
Shaping is the process of reinforcing successively closer and closer approximations to a desired terminal behavior. The shaping of behavior starts at an early age. For example, a child learns to pull itself up, to stand, to walk and to finally move about through reinforcement of slightly exceptional instances of behaviors. Walking doesn't necessarily come naturally to a child, but through subtle reinforcements of being able to reach a toy or move more independently, the child's behavior is shaped.
The behaviorist B. F. Skinner was an important researcher for the behavior analyst model of discipline and shaping student behavior through reinforcement. Skinner first researched the behavioral processes of shaping by trying to teach a pigeon to bowl. The desired outcome was that of a swiping of a wooden ball by the beak of the bird so the ball was sent down a miniature alley toward a set of toy pins. That process involved carefully designed series of discriminative stimuli and reinforcements for subtle changes in response referred to as a program. In order for shaping to be successful, it is important to clearly define the behavioral objective and target behavior, and to know when to deliver or withhold reinforcement.
