by Ethan Johnson
September 10, 2006
I was working on the first of a series of articles, when I lost myself in thoughts about the brute force nature of advertising. Simply put, advertising, especially in the realm of the Fortune 500 company, is intended to decimate your imagination, and therefore increase the likelihood exponentially that you will pay for their product or service.
Here's how: Suppose you're in the mood to read a new book. But which one? Walk into any given bookstore, and chances are there are many, many books to choose from. But there is a huge display plugging the new release by Joe Author. You've heard of Joe Author, because you heard several radio ads for his new book. You've also seen in plugged in a few magazines. Plus, Joe Author was just on TV, plugging his book on an afternoon talk show. You plunk down the money for Joe Author's book.
Thirsty? Drink Beige Cola. Beige Cola sponsored every sporting event you watched this month. Beige Cola also sponsored nearly every TV show you watched over the last 90 days. At the movie theatre, ads for Beige Cola ran onscreen before the movie started, either as part of the pre-show slide deck, a separate ad reel, or the actual coming attractions reel. The movie you watched may have cleverly used product placement to portray the characters interacting with Beige Cola in some way, or as a prominent, yet passive, prop. You decide to "kill your thirst" with Beige Cola.
Hungry? Eat at Squid Queen. It's all goin' down at the SQ this month! It's fun to eat at SQ, why, just ask [celebrity]. [Major sports star] loves Squid Queen. In fact, Squid Queen is the official restaurant of [sports team]. Want good food fast, cheap? Squid Queen has over 1500 area locations! You're never more than 10 feet away from the nearest Squid Queen. Remember to "upsize" your SquidPak for just 30 cents more! That's 64 more ounces of Beige Cola for just 30 cents! Wow!
The above may seem like straw-man city, but taking a step back from our logoed landscape may provide some perspective. Eating fast food is easy, whereas eating healthy is either viewed as "hard" or time-comsuming. Drinking something healthy or interesting requires walking past rows and rows of "the usual" in search of something else. And that presumes that the store bothers to carry something lesser-known with the intent of providing "variety". There are indeed plenty of books to read, however some titles can last on the NYT bestseller list for months. Straw-men? Perhaps, but not without germs of truth.
The internet was thought to be a new frontier, and perhaps even a refuge from the daily barrage of advertising messages. Instead, this new frontier lowered the costs associated with launching such assaults. Banner ads became more and more ubiquitous, then animated, then flash-enabled, then DHTML-enhanced (complete with complex pop-over animation without obvious opt-out methods). The intent is to batter the viewer into submission. And in submission, imagination and curiosity are eroded and neutralized, unless "safe" and "trusted" purveyors of advertising messages give the green light to limited amounts of this curiosity.
Heck, even the Discovery Channel has an interest in its viewers making regular visits back to the TV from whatever adventure they were encouraged to undertake. I'm old enough to remember Captain Kangaroo ending each show with a reminder of some of the things that kids could be doing instead of watching TV. But ultimately, the Captain would be waiting for everyone tomorrow, same time, same channel.
Advertising takes on other insidious forms, and can become an arbiter for "trust" in the mind of the consumer. For example, home decorating TV shows are loaded with product placement, intentional or otherwise. We see the remodeling project on TV. We see that it is completed successfully. It may be something that we have been thinking about doing in our own homes. We want the reassurance of knowing that BeefyTools will get the job done right, and WetBlanket Paints will provide one-coat coverage with minimal fuss. That pays greater dividends to the featured companies, I dare say, than conventional TV advertising. Talking about a product is one thing. Leveraging the brand equity of [network] and/or [celebrity] in a way to cement trust in the mind of the consumer is pure gold.
And when this bond is formed, we can't imagine doing anything any other way.
And thus, our imagination withers.
In this respect, visibility isn't half the battle, it's the war. If in doubt, turn on the TV. Or go to the movies. Or walk around downtown. Or go to the airport. Or pick up a newspaper. Or read a magazine. Or surf the internet.
Never mind being urged to "think differently"... the question is, how differently are you prepared to think? <EM>
