I have essentially had it with today’s modern advertising techniques. Recently the idea for people who want to market products is to reveal as little information about what is being sold as possible. This is a concept that doesn’t make any sense, and is not very effective, at least not on people who put at least a scintilla of thought into how they spend their hard-earned money. This past summer Honda wanted to sell me a car by informing that it was, in fact, “go.” This ad campaign had no effect on me for three reasons – I don’t need a car, I sure as hell don’t need a Japanese car, and I sure as all God don’t need to wade through cryptic messages in order to achieve a clear idea of what it is companies want me to want.
Yesterday I passed by a business that had advertisements informing passers-by that they would soon be opening. However, notable information was lacking from their sign, including what it is the store will sell, and why anyone should give a damn. What was even more confusing is that the store’s name is something like “History” and beneath that was written, “coming soon.” I don’t know if this is somebody’s idea of a silly joke, but I’m fairly confident in the fact that history has been around for quite some time - at least since European people started writing things down. This “History” store has already lost a customer before they even had the opportunity to gain one, I can tell you that much.
What’s even more frustrating is when this kind of bullshit advertising shows up on my favorite place: the Internet. Honestly, if Sprite wanted me to drink their lousy product they should try making it taste less terrible as opposed burning my retinas. Honestly, things like this almost make me miss the good old days of pop-up advertising, before those socialist geeks with degrees in computer science decided to start coding solutions to what so many viewed as a “problem.” At least pop-up advertising is straightforward. Please don’t think I’m arguing against subtlety or nuance in the realm of advertising (or any realm for that matter), but it is just plain retarded (that’s right, I used that word) to try to market a product without actually marketing a product.
Yesterday I passed by a business that had advertisements informing passers-by that they would soon be opening. However, notable information was lacking from their sign, including what it is the store will sell, and why anyone should give a damn. What was even more confusing is that the store’s name is something like “History” and beneath that was written, “coming soon.” I don’t know if this is somebody’s idea of a silly joke, but I’m fairly confident in the fact that history has been around for quite some time - at least since European people started writing things down. This “History” store has already lost a customer before they even had the opportunity to gain one, I can tell you that much.
What’s even more frustrating is when this kind of bullshit advertising shows up on my favorite place: the Internet. Honestly, if Sprite wanted me to drink their lousy product they should try making it taste less terrible as opposed burning my retinas. Honestly, things like this almost make me miss the good old days of pop-up advertising, before those socialist geeks with degrees in computer science decided to start coding solutions to what so many viewed as a “problem.” At least pop-up advertising is straightforward. Please don’t think I’m arguing against subtlety or nuance in the realm of advertising (or any realm for that matter), but it is just plain retarded (that’s right, I used that word) to try to market a product without actually marketing a product.
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