A World of Advertising

dod

When I was a child, my family (before it substantially disintegrated under the weight of my mothers psychosis) used to dine in the local hotel every Sunday lunchtime. For me and for my sisters this was a great treat, and I still vividly recall the speed with which we would devour our childrens portions in order that we might hasten the arrival of the dessert trolley. After lunch we would sit in the lobby of the hotel and have our post-prandial drinks. I always ordered a Coke, not at the time realising that I was probably subliminally embracing the lifestyle espoused by the 'I want to teach the world to sing' Coke television adverts (remember them?). Beautiful, happy, smiling people, all enjoying each others company, and all because of Coca Cola.

I'm not quite sure at what age I became a target for the advertising executives. When, at the age of six, I was drinking the Coke in the hotel lobby, I would take a glass draining gulp, slap the glass down on the table and announce to anyone who would listen 'Aaah, thats Bass!'. I can't count the number of times I stuck my head in the bar door to see if Sally O'Brien was there, and wonder what way she might look at me. The mystery of the desert was made all the more awesome by the fact that they had rocks on which you could certainly fry an egg (if you had an egg). When pouring from the gravy-boat, I would raise my nose and nasally inhale, just like the Bisto-kids did.

And so down the years- when I started drinking, it was Carlsberg because it was 'probably the best lager in the world'. I even perfected the ridiculously deep voice in which the guy on the ad said 'Carlsberg' to assist in my ordering it. I wore Tommy Hilfiger chinos because of the awesomely good looking girls in their ads. I was drinking Guinness by the time the dancing-man Guinness ad came out, so my choice of beverage was cool and, by association, I was desirable. Some brilliant and innovative adverts came out, they would be the talk of coffee break at the office for a fortnight, until the next brilliant advert came out for something else. Now I can't really remember any of them, at least not consciously, though I'm sure that they're playing over and over in some personal-cinema part of my brain where I suppress everything that I would like to forget.

I've decided that, except in the market for tampons, the 20-40 hetrosexual male is the target market for advertising absolutely anything. Gorgeous, fit, semiclad girls advertise everything from mens clothes to chocolates for men to cereals that make you masculine, fit, and attractive to women. The guy who advertises the razor blade has a gorgeous blonde model come in and confirm the smoothness of his shave. The guy who uses Lynx deodorant has an impossibly good looking girlfriend who was obviously seduced by his refreshing odour. Buy a new camera phone, and meet stunning fun-loving girls who will want to have their photograph taken on a night out. Drink Gold Blend and and the sophisticated, Gucci clad girl next door will want to get your clothes off.

Is there is a limit to what goods you can use sexy women to advertise? Enough was enough for me when they got a suggestive girl in a tiny top and petite knickers to explain why Sensodyne was the best toothpaste, tracing with her finger an illustration of a tooth in the steamed up bathroom mirror. Next thing you know the Gold Blend girl will be having an affair with the weedy Mr.Muscle man and she'll get a divorce from Gold Blend man using the services of a no-win no-fee lawyer. Mr.Muscle man will have filled out nicely from eating Alpen and high-in-omega-three Flora and they'll have Bisto kids who will be happy and well adjusted because they drink Sunny-D. The family will own a Renault people carrier equipped with the latest Sony flatscreen TVs and they will holiday each year in Disneyland, travelling using Ryanair and insured by American Express travel insurance.

Ah yes, at least those cynical advertising executives can't get to me with their cheap messaging.

ferdi

too much text

adjodlo

Originally posted by ferdi
too much text

Bleh, I thought it was refreshing :cool:

Dustaz

Dude, get a blog.

AdMMM

Originally posted by ferdi
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Yup...

Stephen

Originally posted by ferdi
too much text

make your point with out the insult

That was a well written post.

Lump

I concur, well written post. Raises some issues and memories...... food for thought if you ask me. And poo to all you guys who wern't bothered to read it:P


John

oeNeo

Very nicely written tbh. The last paragraph is great.

rymus

very good.

as dustaz said, get a blog

Dr. Loon

Originally posted by ferdi
too much text

Can you only comprehend posts of three words or less? Ooops... I think I may have written too much text for your highly advanced brain! :rolleyes:

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

Manach

It was a refreshing post [BUT NOT AS REFRESHING AS ACME MINT - BUY MORE NOW]

trickster

did you know pepe make tommy hillfigure jeans and just put that hilfigure label on them. there is a good book called no logo by some canadian bird about how bad advertising is

but to be fair if i have a product im going to sell to men 20-40 what am i going to do say "yea this works honest" or get some good lookin half naked woman to imply shed sleep with you if you bought it?

Dr. Loon

Originally posted by Mercury_Tilt
as Im banned from PI you are now back as the new gheymaster.

Or old gheymaster.

Kind of confusing.. I know.

Thoroughly confusing. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? If it's a kind of promotion then I'm all for it.

Jimi-Spandex

Good post btw,

You're not the only one to be sick of having things sold to you with a wink and a smile preying on weakness you didn't know you had. Advertising is here and its here to stay, its proliferation will only continue until our very lives are "Brought to you in association with Domino's Pizza". You sound like you need to read No Logo by Naomi Klein. Its about exactly what you speak of.

Regardless of how underground or alternative you go, you are merely creating a new market ready for some MNC wanting to sell you their philosophy, their vision of your ideal lifestyle. Of course they'll dress it up so you can no longer tell what you think from what you're told.

I personally am sick of being sold lynx because the beautiful ladies will only go near the guy who smells of "Gravity", sick of being told that no woman will go near you unless you have colgate white teeth and FCUK clothes(Or whatever it is at the moment). Bull****.

The advice I give to you. A quote from fight club.

You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your ****ing khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

trickster

so has anyone got any solution to this?
a chance to advertising laws?
a complete ban on advertising?
ads with only unattractive women in them?

Sarky

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find a respectable difference between the smells of any two Lynx brands you could mention. Perhaps it's just a ploy to make me buy them all. In any case, according to a few reliable (and shamelessly honest) female acquaintances, Lynx is actually some form of woman-repellant...

You're right though, sex is shamelessly being used to advertise just about everything these days. From insurance to cheese to alcohol to AOL, suggestive females are bloody everywhere. Now I amn't usually one to complain about that in itself, but...

A useful trick is selfishness. I drink certain drinks only because their taste pleases me. I only get a deodorant that I think smells nice. I buy food I know is tasty.

I also have a girlfriend to remind me that those women in the ads will never, ever sleep with me. Ever.;)

But the best thing you can do is really think about what you buy, and the reasons behind the purchase. You may find there's no real reason. If you can get a comparable "lesser" brand name for less, go buy it instead, and so on.

Make an effort to be mature. Don't let the cheap marketing tricks work. You can still appreciate the female form without linking it to buying products, you know!:)

byte

Yup good post there! Worth the read tbh.

Ads suck!

"Let's go, Renault!"

Tha Gopher

Attractive women in ads are used for a number of reasons.One is that you might bother your arse lifting your head from the paper to see them.
As for Lynx Im not arsed with the stuff.
Then there is the other extreme which some channels,particularly MTV and E4 do,where advertising of a product inadvertandtly is barred.For example,they may blur the Nike or Reebok lettering on a jumper of somebody.But the fact that it is nearly always legible if you look hard throiugh the blur makes you wonder if it is being done so you will take notice of the product
Sarky-AOL?Not that annoying computer modelled one?Doesnt do anything for me(she is actually real I was suprised to learn)
Worst ads I have seen lately are the sunny delight ads with the wanker asking for spinach and sugar free candyfloss,and one for some Irish book where two girls are on the phone and one says some sh1te about reading one of the authors books.I saw it a few weeks ago and I cant remember the exact dialogue but it had more cheese than Mitchelstown.Toe curling stuff it is.

Blitzkrieger

You'd all love my nephew's primary school. They're selling ad space in next year's homework journals to local businesses. :rolleyes:



It's meant to be a quasi-charity thing to reduce the cost of the journals so all the drunks (aka parents) aren't over-burdened with purchases at the start of the school year. I'm thinking of sending it onto Coca Cola.......just for ****s and giggles.

Lord Nikon

Ah yes, now that's a post, nice work Dod. Bring on some more.

Kalina

I enjoyed reading that post, you make lots of good points. Of course, now it's the trend to use sex and fame together to advertise your products. Heineken have Jennifer Aniston, Coca Cola have Courtney Cox and David Arquette (and everyone remembers Cindy pushing the lawnmower a few years back!! ), Sketchers have Britney, Liz Hurley is the face of Estee Lauder, Kate Moss the face of Rimmel, Anna Kournikova models Omega wristwatches, Brad Pitt appears in some car company's ads in the states and China as does Leo, and Pepsi have Halle Berry. The advertsing companies pay these stars megabucks to just be photographed wearing/consuming/standing beside their product and it's worth it for them cos when the average consumer associates a product with someone famous and gorgeous the product is far more attractive to them. What suckers we are!!

catspring

that was a great post. very interesting and really enjoyable to read. a lot of good points too

MiCr0

can some one move this to humanities?