So some people will have an opinion out immediately to catch the 'wave', whilst I'll come in like the tortoise.
Which then leads to this rant...
I never studied Marketing or Advertising as stand alone subjects at university, nor have I taken particular interest in them since. I used to put it down to necessity. Its never been beneficial for me to be proficient in either study, although I do appreciate that knowledge, no matter how under used, is not useless.
I know Marketing and Advertising are different subjects, but I consider the underlying principles to be the same, or at least remarkably similar. That principle is isolating a target audience and inveigling them into buying 'something'.
I've specifically used the word inveigle with regard to this subject, because I'm of the opinion that the moment 'something' has to be advertised it is beyond necessity. As part of our natural survival technique there are 'needed' things that we have no choice but to seek if we wish to survive/live, with that said everything else is advertising.
So now that we've established that marketing and advertising in fundamental real life terms are superfluous, lets take a look into the technique and examples of how these two methods of creating awareness are utilised.
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.[1] It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.[1] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.
In short, that basically means "Let's find inventive ways to raise awareness about the 'something' we wish to push this season"
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common.
So again, that basically means "Let's raise awareness about the 'something' we wish to push this season"
So now we've gotten over the drug dealer parallels...O_o
Let's get to the adverts themselves, I do not for a moment buy into the idea that 'Sex sells'.
Now before you start rolling your eyes, I'm a member of the target audience that is supposed to be most susceptible to this 'Sex sells' idea and mantra and I'm telling you right now, that a semi-clad or naked woman won't make me anymore likely to buy, or want to buy a product. In fact I'll go as far as to say that, said women in advertising campaigns actually draw your attention away from the product.
Let me give you an example: -
Now in this video, I saw, women, rubbing themselves provocatively, bending over and removing their bra's to expose breasts (that I didn't get to see) to the world. I have no idea what was on sale, because I was waaaay to busy hoping I'd see a nipple or areola. This advert thus becomes self defeating...
As if that wasn't bad enough, take a look at this: -
Now, allow me to be COMPLETELY honest with you, this advert, just made me want to copulate with my significant other. I think there were about 4 different women in this advert, but I can only be sure of seeing one....she was wet and showing me how pleasured she was for being wet...
Now this time around, I think it had something to do with a hair care product, possibly a shampoo, but that is purely because of the soap suds. Aside from that, it just made me want to have sex...notice how I have absolutely NO desire to buy anything?
The idea that 'Sex sells' is a complete FAIL!
Let us move away from lustful endeavors and consider the idea that comedy can sell a product, surely if an advert is funny and has a catchy song attached people will automatically want to buy the product being sold right?
I'm sorry but WHO APPROVES these adverts?!??!
The tirade of "We buy any car" ads with their stupid dance routines and tacky, crappy music annoyed me beyond rational reason.
I literally had waves of violence flow over me, EVERYTIME I heard this excrement I just wanted to dropkick my TV. Seriously who comes up with this stuff?
And just when I didn't think it was possible for there to be a worst advert: -
Somebody pray for me.
People have no desire to buy insurance off its own merit, what made the advertising agency think this song and dance, would in any way, make it more attractive?
The interesting thing that I note about this trend of stupid and annoying adverts, is they all seem to have popped up around the same era. I'm not suggesting stupid adverts didn't exist before cos they did, but 'in the old days' adverts seemed to meet purpose, get the message across and invariably encourage you to buy the product.
Example: -
There is absolutely no doubt what was on sale here, but the song was fun/silly and this is/was an enjoyable advert...I want to drink R-Whites Lemonade this very moment based on watching this ad! I even named the product in full! No sex, but I WANT the product.
Another stupid advert, but for some reason I wanted to buy a can of Tango to see if an orange man would even dare to try it...so I could kic....erm
Look I don't know what I'm trying to say in full here, but I do sense in all our gains in technology and sophistication we've lost site of 'something'.
Creativity in certain areas has become a numb reproduction process, where inaccurate replicas are made in honour of greatness but don't do the originals any real justice, example: -
vs
I'm sorry but, even when a formula for a great ad has been copied, the result is still not as compelling as the original...*sigh* I really don't know what to say....
In truth, I dislike adverts, but if they are a bug that one has to bare, please please PLEASE TV people, make them concise, enjoyable, original and relative.
Thank you please about it...
iRant because this has been getting on my nerves for a while!
