I picture advertisers as people who seek some mad power, who enjoy finding new ways to control humans by getting into there heads, go beyond internet boundaries to persuade, and are constantly feeding us subliminal messages to pursuade us to buy their product. Advertisers will doing anything to make sure their product comes out on top, including feeding us these fake, mythical, fantasies that steer us away from reality. It causes us to blur the line between a want and a need. "Do I want that perfume? Do I need that perfume? Well that woman looks real desired from that man, he can't keep his hands off of her. I need that, I need love." This could be an example of how advertisers will sell a product to us. It's tied in with an intense emotion, thus triggering our emotions. In the Gucci Guilty image I'm looking at (link provided), it's selling you this intense idea of pleasure. Even the name of the perfume is a tool, think of a "guilty pleasure". She's daring, desired, and the ad is bold, isn't that as humans what we want most of the time? We don't want to be boring, or predictable, but we want to be adventurous, we want to live, and we most certainly want to be desired.
Another interesting approach I've seen advertisers use to sell their product is the use of real consumers showing their feelings on their product explaining to viewers how much they love a product, and how much great it has done in their life. The proactive commercial is a good example.
All these stories that ads tell us can most certainly be harmful if it alters someone's sense of reality. At the same time it might be beneficial, by helping give a dull person a sense of life again, it's hard to say. This ties into the trend, though, of a lack of control in consumer privacy. Advertisers are on a constant hunt for our loyalty to a product, and they will do anything to seek it. So what is the cost here? Our privacy for sure! There are no boundaries with advertisements. I've noticed lately, for example, how much more risky commercials are, pushing limits on T.V. Some ads definitely have the power the make us question our lifestyle and the things that we should find important in our life. We are being feed so much different things, and I think because of this it's easy for Americans to become glutinous in more aspects than one. We're never completely satisfied. We always want more, and "need" more. So this raises the question of how much of this is actually true?
http://irenasg.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/evan-rachel-wood-gucci-guilty-perfume-ad-campaign.jpg
Again, it's good to hear that someone has the UNDYING HATRED for marketing and advertising people that I have. And I must say that, I don't think any ads outside a rare few are actually "entertaining," but they're not really meant to be. They're meant to stick in your craw, gnawing away like hate-termites until they .
ReplyDeleteI personally think that targeted advertising can be dangerous and manipulative in this way, but I think it does have a build-in self-defeating factor: the stupidity of advertizers, who conventional wisdom suggests are mostly white dudebros. For example, look at how Axe due to its highly sexualized commercials, has become the eau-du-douche of choice. And that creates a signal to women to avoid thsoe sorts due to how excessively they apply it.
So, while advertizers are getting more invasive, they're also just as dumb as before. So things even out.
Perspectively speaking (no harm intended), what type of image were you going for when you posted the image of yourself drinking a Blowjob shot? (I know it's not a blowjob shot... It looks like a hot chocolate with whipped cream, but your image could be misconstrued as you drinking one) If image is everything, what did you want this image portray? Businesses have recently teemed up with Google to capitalize on endorsements made by the consumers using Google+. If you +1'd the drink or the company who made it, people could imagine the image saying "blowjobs, drinking, party, sweet stuff, sex, dirty girl .... a company could easily hash tag the hell out of your image to bring more clicks to their products. I believe we give them too much. Even innocent moments, like the one captured in your profile image, can be blown out of proportion. Why give them ammo?
ReplyDeleteAiza, thank you so much for this interesting post! I agree with you in many points of commercial advertising. They sell ideas of pleasure. There is a very good example with Gucci Guilty image.
ReplyDeleteI saw and advertisement on YouTube about the proactive commercial. I agree with you that it is very good example. When real consumers are showing their good feelings, the customers usually believe them and then they will buy it. They are paying in this moment for their positive emotions and for their love. Because consumers usually show how they love this product. Good feelings and positive emotions are very good for customers, they need them and they are ready to pay for them.