The negative impact of advertising, or is it?
This article was on the Guardian website entitled Advertising is a poison that demeans even love - and we're hooked on it. It's hardly a new argument that the power of advertising can have commercial gains that could have a negative emotional impact on the consumer. Hasn't advertising always been focused on the aspirational and the need for self improvement? I don't find that point revelatory nor the point that advertising operates subliminally. We are undoubtedly influenced by advertising more than we realise.
The writer of this article highlights the aspirational lifestyle espoused by advertisers that means the reality is often a let down and causes people to feel inadequate and dissatisfied. You could certainly argue that it's not just down to advertising that has created a society that works in this way. And the question is: what would our society be like without commercial advertising? Without advertising would we be more rational and pragmatic in our approach to spending? Would we just be satisfied with our lives, without jealousy and less image conscious? Were we all of these things before the advent of advertising?
Aside from dictatorships that block commercial advertising and rule through political propaganda what are the alternatives to a society and economy fuelled by commercial advertising? It’s virtually inconceivable to imagine as advertising is everywhere you look, virtually very website you look at, mobile app you use, paper you read, TV programme you watch. It's ubiquitous, sometimes subtle, sometimes sophisticated, sometimes blatant but always omnipresent.
An interesting point this article in the Guardian does raise, is our increasing reliance on advertising for our own businesses: newspapers lean even more heavily on advertising whilst circulation drops, people and businesses monetize websites with online advertising. Advertising is a revenue generator. New businesses and new business models have developed through the multifarious ways to advertise and reach a local and global market.
For anyone who has watched the film “Pom Wonderful Presents: the Greatest Movie Ever Sold”, the point is well made of the omniscience of product placement in films as well as the necessity of product placement in order to fund films – completely in this instance. The film highlights just what this industry is worth, the money that is spent, and the power sponsors have over a film’s direction for the money they spend.
Morgan Spurlock touches on the subliminal impact product placement has through one of his interviews with an expert in this area but, he doesn’t go out to show the negative effect on the artistic integrity of the film industry or the viewer as he could have done by taking a different slant. But after all, he produces the film he wants to produce and gets it paid for by his sponsors. The sponsors get the exposure and brand alignment they are looking for which we assume will bring the desired return on their investment and watching the process was entertaining but certainly not earth shattering for the viewer. And that would seem to be because we’re not talking about anything new here nor anything that people feel to be detrimental to them, often quite the opposite.
