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Today we are having a look at our most favorite ads
At the start of the 20th century, mass produced prints and pictures made possible the increase and widespread of ads, especially since the circulation of newspapers accelerated. But it wasn't until the televised campaigns that ads gained a more seductive, luring format.
According to Marshall McLuhan: "Since the advent of TV, the exploitation of the unconscious by the advertiser has hit a snag. (...) The sensory tolerance of the audience has changed, and so have the methods of appeal by the advertisers. (...) Ads are not meant for conscious consumption. They are intended as subliminal pills for the subconscious in order to exercise an hypnotic spell, especially on sociologists." (1964, 228)
Before the internet era, producers were investing a lot of money into advertisements, which were made by highly skilled teams, whose expertise was centered around triggering the audience's desire to buy unnecessary goods.
In order to build the consumer's trust and encourage consumption, some companies advertised their obviously unhealthy products as nutritious, essential or unharmful (see for example, cereal and cigarettes ads).
YUMMMY IN MY TUMMY: "It is true, of course, that ads use the most basic and teste human experience of a community in GrOt3sQue ways." (McLuhan, 1964, 229)
| DID YOU KNOW THAT... to find out more about the glorious era of televised advertising you could watch some fun great shows such as Mad Men or if you don't like fun and want to be a bit more depressed you could see Adam Curtis' The century of the self [yes, yes, I know, the heavy theory academics will eye roll]. |
BUT ENOUGH WITH THE PAST!
Today ads have penetrated through the layers of all media, from billboards, to the internet where they have colonized all platforms.
ADS ARE THE INTERNET
a scheme of the age of Surveillance Capitalism (in Shoshana Zuboff's terms)
BEING SOLD BEING STORED
YOUR DATA -------------------------------> Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc. -------------------------> From your likes and preferences, to how much time you stop looking at something when you scroll and what you types in the messages -------------------------------> through ads that based on your personal data, will encourage you to buy certain things SOLD BACK TO YOU
Have you ever googled let's say the word CHEESE and then you got ads everywhere about this amazing cheese that comes from the Alps and you have never seen anything like it before?
Isn't it that every major site/platform you open is filled with narcotic, hallucinogenic ads?
!!!!FUN FACT!!!!
The Pokemon Go game was a great advertising campaign as it placed its pokemons next to or in certain stores to determine people to enter and buy. How cool is that?
Marshall McLuhan, in regards to the newspaper and television ads, said that "the product matters less as the audience participation increases". By this he meant that the focus of the ad is not the product itself but the buyer, who while watching or reading is questioning their needs, status, emotions, etc., as the voice behind the commercial is addressing the target directly. In the TV format ads are usually being designated a specific time slot between the program, while in the newspaper ads can be through or next to the text or at the back of the paper. In this sense, the commercials on the websites resemble the ones on the newspaper. Facebook for example has many similarities with the newspaper style of advertising, as ads appear both on the sides of the pages but also through the content as one keeps scrolling. However, through the internet advertising has become even more aggressive, to the point that they might be the first thing welcoming you as you enter a website. Commercials have reached a climatic point in their thirst for grabbing attention through a total use of different media: sound, moving-image, hypertext, 3D animation. They are almost inescapable in their combination of media and predictability of one's desires. The same ads will follow you through different platforms until you give up and click on it and you buy. Through the centralized platforms of today the audience participation has increased even more as one has to directly engage with the ad (for example, when an ad pops up on you screen you have to press the X button to get rit of it).
You might think: "Yes I heard this before. I am not letting myself fooled by corporations, I won't buy all that crap". But you are already giving your money to corporations through you data, through the information they are storing about you.
BUT DO NOT WORRY! I KNOW THE WORLD IS A PRETTY DARK PLACE SO I GOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED! HAVE YOU BEEN FEELING STRESSED? TIRED? ARE YOU READING AND FOCUSING TOO MUCH? DO NOT FORGET TO BUY MY ANTI-WRINKLE CREAM FOR NERDS AND ACADEMICS! YOU WON'T REGRET IT. WHEN YOU GET OLD YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT AGEISM.
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WOW SHOCKING NEWS:
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