One day there will be an ad on the moon.

Scary!

I used to think that I knew a lot about advertising as of yesterday. I had a pretty good idea of how it worked, the purpose and the methods that advertisers used to get our attention. Then I saw this great PBS program called "The Persuaders" which explored even more in depth into the world that is advertising.

After finishing the videos, my attitude towards advertising changed in a way that I'm not sure I felt comfortable with. The film went in depth into the advertising mecca and talked to corporate ad marketers and asked them about ad campaigns, emotional branding, methods of selling, subconscious messaging, and what it took to win the loyalty of customers. The topics alone took me by surprise in terms of how much thought and money go into these campaigns. Even the quantity of ads shocked me as I had never really thought about how many ads we are exposed to each and every day. Needless to say this made me a bit, you could say paranoid, about being manipulated by these forces.

Hypocritical owl!

The thing I found the most interesting was the section on subconscious marketing and the relentless attitudes that advertising agencies exude when planing these campaigns. There was even a gentleman in the film who had a job as a Marketing Guru, and he used psychology to map out the alleged desires and thoughts of consumers. It almost seemed as if these companies were trying to turn humans into living math problems that when solved, hopefully yields a large sum of money. I do believe this is normal though and that as a society, we have developed to a point where if nothing happens for 2 seconds in any aspect of life, we freak out. We are so fast paced and so relaxed in our thinking that companies have to go through all this effort in order to get some elbow room in an attention span that is already to crowded as it is. That being said, I really can't completely blame consumers or producers for our country's economic, environmental, political, or moral problems, because both are trying to pursue a way to make their life "better."But I do know that because of our human desire for material possession, we are only going to make things even more crowded. This scene from Fight Club displays my feelings towards advertising just perfectly.

As far as Song's advertising strategy goes, I believe that it would fit quite nicely in today's culture instead of 2004's. The ad campaign was very creative and fresh, but it may have been ahead of it's time. The ideas Song had felt very new age to me, something our generation might be interested in instead of a generation that wasn't as individualistic as our generation, and thats the feel I get from their promotions. They have this charm about them that seems fun, lighthearted, relevant, hip, and modern. Their colors are wild compared to other flight companies and their food is supposedly organic, showing that they are supporters of healthy lifestyles. These are all cool features, but sometimes it feels like simplicity might be the better strategy.