March assignment week 1 post 2

Central argument: Advertising is not meant to get you to act right away, but instead it is more of a long term motivator.

Many people including my self believed that adverts do not have an effect on me. I like many others thought this because there has never been an ad that got to act right after viewing it. Nigel Hollis however claims that just because an ad did not get me to act right away does not mean that it is not a good advert, but rather that a good advertisement is defined by what it can get you to do in the long run. This should be a valid point as if it wasn’t the advertisement business would not be a $70 billion market. Adverts are supposed to create “positive memories and feelings that influence our behavior over time” specially since “no one likes to think that they are easily influenced.”

It is extremely important for adverts to create pleasant memories over a duration of time, specially since the majority of the people watching TV are remarkably frustrated when the adverts actually come on as it interrupts them during their shows. This therefore makes it impossibly hard for the viewer to be impressed with the advert at the time, and so the memories are only pleasant after a duration of time when its memory is triggered by something else that is hopefully pleasant. The fact that the ad will only become a fond memory in the long run the company broadcasting the ad need to make sure that it is their company that the viewer remembers when that so important trigger happens. When these triggers do happen a person is never aware of the fact that it is actually an advert they saw that is causing this to happen, and so they continue to say things like “I am not influenced by advertising.” 

This statement however is definitely not true as, if it were companies would not be collectively shelling out over $70 billion on something that does not have an effect on their sales numbers. This is a major counter point against those people who walk around thinking that they are not being pulled into the consumerism market that the world has become. This is specially true as there have been studies to show the effects advertising has on people and the people who conducted these studies/experiments do have numbers to prove their findings. 

If you still think that you are one of those who is not effected by advertising, let me ask you this; if you wear to buy a pair of jeans right now, which company would you go to? The answer you gave for that question is probably the name of some high selling brand that advertises a pretty good deal. Now let me ask you why is it that you chose that company over a small one that sells basically the same thing as the big shots but does not advertise at such a large scale. Am sorry to have burst your little bubble there but you are definitely affected by advertisement.