The evolution of advertising (long)

So I feel like venting.

Historically, companies who wanted to advertise relied on a few basic principles to help them. The first is that no advertising is as good as word-of-mouth. The second is that children often adopt the brand preferences of their parents. Others include such ideas as brand-recognition through catchy jingles, unique images such as designs or color patters, etc.

As we move to more recent times advertising has held on to the very same principles of times gone by, but have added new ideas to help pump their brands. Familiar faces such as movie starts, sports stars, or other well-known figures have been used to advertise brands. A simple yet effective approach to capitalize on peoples' respect for famous people or their desire to be able to relate to or be like someone famous.

Then comedy was added to advertising. Everybody likes to laugh, so why not make them laugh while trying to sell them something? This has been another very effective way of getting brand-recognition. There's 2 things people remember well. What made them laugh and what pissed them off. Not that Budweiser has a problem with brand-recognition, but everybody knows "Whazzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaap!" and "Wasaaaaaaaaaaabi," not to mention the trio of beer-bellied frogs. I'm not sure if it's helped Bud get more drinkers, but it certainly has put their brand at the forefront of pop-culture and the younger less-Nascar generation.

All throughout this "Golden Age of Advertising" (TM) the companies have been pretty good about keeping you well aware of their brand names without alienating too many customers. Then came Al Gore and his invention of the millenium.

Al's wonderful invention has revolutionized the advertising industry much the same as TV and radio did in their respective times. However advertisers on the web have taken a much more in-your-face approach to advertising. Rather than well-structured corporations with business savy, the web started with many average Joes trying to make a buck in the digital goldrush, people who relied solely on advertising and had no other source of income to assist their "business" ventures.

Advertisers have switched to approaches that force their brands down your throat much like the mean mother with the proverbial peas that kids never like to eat. Popups, fast flashing brightly colored ads, wiggly ads, and more recently ads that look like little games have all been used to get your attention and try to make you click. And of course the most annoying of all, the perpetually spawning popup has been used to force you to see every single ad.

While advertising has played an undeniable role in the proliferation of new communication mediums such as print, radio, tv, and the Alnet, if the advertising companies do not wisen their ways a large backlash may be surfacing. Consumers have stated over and over again that they do not wish to be bombarded with ads, especially in any way that can be considered an inconvenience to them. The most recent example is the strong popularity of the national Do-Not-Call registry.

People will remember the popup that never went away or was hard to close, the company who called them mid-bite of their dinner, or the advertising text message or phone call that went to their cellular/pcs phone for which they paid airtime or a message fee. The advertisers are alienating their customers or potential customers by causing them an inconvenience. If this trend continues it's only a matter of time before the consumer simply says "screw you" and vows to never buy that brand again or visit that website again.

Advertisers who use the postal service are another source of problems. So much bulk mail is sent every day to consumers who simply don't want it. These often get transfered immediately into the trash bin. They clog up the mail box causing more trouble to find the mail you want (with a higher risk of accidentally throwing out important mail), they cost the company more money (if they didn't keep mailing me this crap maybe they could offer me 0% instead of 5% on a credit card), and they serve to increase the accelerating problem of landfills turning into landfulls. Irresponsible advertising is not only a nuissance to the consumer, it also is a wasteful problem for all of us.

I, for one, am a man of principle and I do not shop places or use a company's services if they annoy me, piss me off, or cause me an inconvenience in any other way. Stop sending me spam email, stop sending me spam snail mail, don't call me.

I've gotta get back to work so I'll shut up now.

b

good point