It's all Just One Big Add

From my perspective it seems as though advertisement is a part of nearly all forms of media. Television seems to be nothing but advertisements half the time, and I'm not even talking about commercials. In all movies and shows there are blatant advertisements for everything from cars to coffee makers, even guns. Todays magazines are the same way, half of the pages are full advertisements for various companies and most of the actual articles are also promoting some type of product. On the internet its almost impossible to find a web page with out at least one advertisement link or banner. Even video games have promotions for cloths, food stores, and hair products. However it would seem as though most of society has accepted this, if not relies on it. I think its hard for any one to think of how they would know about most products with out seeing them in a commercial first. I don't think that there is anything wrong with most advertising, so long as it it not for overly obnoxious or for too long a period of time.

One thing I find very interesting is the cyclical nature of advertising in todays media. A company that is trying to sell a product might take out an add in a magazine. To do this it has to pay the magazine, obviously. The magazine relies on these funds from advertisers in order to keep making profit, but at the same time they also need to advertise their own product. So this magazine's marketing department might ask the producers of a new movie to have a scene where the main character is reading and issue of this magazine over a cup of coffee. Of course the movie producers will undoubtedly buy an advertising space in the magazine, or possibly even have the magazine write a favorable review of this movie. The review, of course, will totally unbiased.

The power of the media to mold our minds making us think that we should use or even need certain product is truly amazing. If you made someone pick between Ford or Dodge I bet they would give you an answer with very thought. I personally would pick a Ford, and to tell the truth, I don't really know why. It's probably because of an old Steve McQueen movie, where the hero drove a Mustang and the bad guy a Charger. I'm sure I'm not the only person that does these sorts of things when they see a product in the media. At times the media will even tell us that certain product will bring our biggest dream into reality, and at a very reasonable price. TAG body spray is an excellent example of this. In the commercials (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hc2vA_1NCcE) they show teenaged boys using the spray on themselves and shortly after being quite literally trampled by by girls. It is then assumed that the boy was attacked for sexual reasons, some times it's actually bluntly implied. In other words they are saying that if you, a teenaged high school boy, wear this body spray then hundreds of attractive girls with want to have sex with you. I have used this product myself and can tell you that my results were not the same as in the commercials. However to a teenaged boy I'm sure it is worth the $4.50 to buy a can and try it.

Jason Lears tells an excellent story about media advertising in which a simple store display of small hunting axes made a large number of business men buy up the axes. What would a business man in a city do with a hunting axe? probably nothing other than store it some where, never putting it to any use. However the idea of an outdoors-men is very appealing to most guys, especially those stuck inside of offices all day long. It feeds into a primal hunter/gatherer nature that many men have, to chop wood and make things with there hands. Although I'm sure that most men would actually want to buy a house that was already made for them instead of chopping down a small forrest and doing it themselves, it is an attractive motif to many people.