Advertisements are the weapons of
consumerism. Today, you see
ads everywhere urging you to buy any one of the gazillion products out there. A good
ad is a cool thing to see, unfortunately, most
ads are dirt-poor in quality and tend to dissuade a potential
customer from purchasing a
product instead of buying it. A good
ad depicts the genius of the
marketing team of that product. Bad
ads are all too common, unfortunately, most people are more
gullible than I am and get hooked. Their own faults, everyone's got to make
money somehow. If you're
smart enough to convince someone to buy a product without lying,
kudos to you.
Business is
business.
Ads aim at the minds of the consumer. Ever flip through Maxim or Playboy and see those alcohol ads? What do they have? Two choices here.
A semi-nubile woman.
A pack of young, well-groomed, nicely dressed guys hanging out having a drink.
It's infallible. The audience here is male, aged 18-49, and this is exactly what they want. Beautiful isn't it? I'm not surprised corporations spend billions on ads, because it takes research into psychology, the subconscious and conscious thought process, sampling of the population, and God knows how many other things before they can conclude at just what the customer wants exactly, then put it in an appealing way to convince the sucker to buy your stuff.
Here's another one. Watch any ad aimed at teens. Flip through Y&M or Seventeen, or watch MTV. What do you see?
Beautiful young vapid people. It's a must. I love those clearasil ads, how the people didn't even have pimples in the ads. I love it.
Anti-authority, be it parents or teachers, doesn't matter. Here's an example. There was a series of tampon ads I saw on MTV a while back that declared "Would you rather stay home with your parents or go out in a swimsuit wearing a tampon instead of a pad?" These ads appeal to frustrated adolescents who think they're mature but aren't. Really, as if wearing that brand of tampon will give them freedom from their parents, but oh well, it worked on gullible 13 year-old teeny boppers, so who cares?
They must be doing something cool. I don't know, like hanging out, or dancing, or something. Ever see the "Mellow Yellow" Gap ad? They're all stoned out of their heads (or they look to be), and that appeals to high schoolers
Ka-ching! Cash registers go crazy. The Gap corporation has probably exploited the MTV generation with ads the most successfully out of all the companies out there, and made crazy profits doing it. Their marketing people know their stuff and execute beautifully.
Ah, the joys of capitalism. If you're smart, you make a killing. Wonderful, isn't it?