Advertise, responsibly!
Advertising has evolved. From the very word, to the industry as a whole. It’s meaning, how it is used and how it is being leveraged has evolved entirely.
Advertising, the archaic roots of this word mean “to give notice, advice, or inform.” If you ever pull down your sun visor in the car. You’ll see a bold ‘Advertencia’ plastered over yellow to draw your attention. It warns you of certain use case scenarios while driving a car that can be harmful or fatal. While the archaic meaning of the word advertising has become obsolete. Its purpose has completely evolved into something else. As of today, the dictionary-based meaning of ‘advertising’ is to draw attention to or draw towards. Today, when someone says advertising, the mind is drawn towards Hollywood standard commercials that solely exist to sell you a product or service. Advertising as of today is a 600 billion Dollar industry. And by 2025 it is expected to cross the 1 trillion Dollar mark.
So, the idea of advertising was to make people aware of certain ‘warnings’ or ‘safe-way-to-use’ scenarios. That idea has totally dissolved. The sole purpose of advertising is to sell. Either a product or a service or anything really. What is the problem here, you may ask? Before we get to the issue, let’s look at the traditional ways of advertising.
Traditionally, advertising was done through print media. Meaning newspapers, magazines and other printed material. Then came the radio, so via audio messages and then came the television set. Now this visual medium was leveraged to the greatest extent to advertise products. For many years and decades, advertising was restricted to these mediums. The influence of a radio set, a tv or a newspaper in one’s life was limited to a few minutes to an hour or two per day. Newspapers, radios or tv sets had a committed viewership or listeners or readers. ‘Ads’ were meticulously interjected into their favorite shows or articles. In the world of marketing psychology, it is a well-known fact that if you show someone a product for seven times. The 8th time they’ll be tempted to buy it. Which means that we are slowly luring them into accepting the product.
Now, we discuss the problems and the quicksand that advertising is becoming. As of today, people are staring at their screens at an average of 7–8 hrs/ day. This includes staring at their work screens, phones, tablets, laptops, Tv screens and other numerous other screens around them. Now all the companies that have something to sell to you are pitched in a race to grab your attention. Which means the company that pays the most will get to flash their advertisement in front of your eyes. So, they have a window of 8 hrs. to grab your attention. This window has grown significantly. Traditionally, they had a maximum of an hour a day, today that number has grown to eight hours a day.
Today, we see ‘content creators’ all around us. People making videos, making short clips for social media, clicking pictures for posting on social media etc. are all creating content. This content, inherently should be an expression of what they want to say or deliver to the viewers. That is the true way of artistic expression. To express what they truly feel but in a unique way. For example, a very bold and realistic film about a social problem is important in a society. But people understand that it is a form of art that is highlighting a particular problem. And they also understand that certain aspects are dramatized for greater impact. While the truth might be preserved, the exaggerations are put in place for impact. Compare this to a teenager who is spending time on social media and is being fed bite sized visuals on social media apps. Placed in the background, of these influencers there is a product. This kid is going to keep following this person and every day they see the product, they will be subconsciously pushed towards buying that product.
More and more people are becoming ‘content creators’ in the hope to get their point across but mainly, to earn money. How will they earn money? By positioning products in their video/ audio or written content. Sometimes clearly stating that it is a paid placement but most times it is placed ‘secretly.’ So, for a viewer who spends over 8 hrs. per day staring at a screen. Almost each and every thing they watch wants to sell them something.
I call advertising a quicksand because now it is being so widely used that almost nothing you watch on a screen is made without the intent to sell. Gone are the days when art was created just for the sake of art. Look at the avenues of advertising today, social media, games, tv shows, streaming platforms, audiobooks, podcasts, apps, articles, blogs, YouTube channels, devices in the house that listen and talk to you, the list is endless. Very few choices you will make in the shopping process are truly yours. You will be gently nudged into buying things that you think you chose, but the fact is, you were nudged! And you don’t even know it.
Content is good as far as it is informative and correct. There was a time when a family would go into a movie theatre, enjoy the movie and come out laughing and in awe of the drama or the visuals. Today, movies are politically colored. They are either selling you a product, a viewpoint or they are leveraging the current social trends to sell their movies to you. Many a times this is done even when the makers of that movie or show don’t even believe in it. This is where it gets dangerous.
So, are we doomed? Is the advertising quicksand that powerful? Education is important. People and most importantly the newer generation needs to be educated about these issues. If people knew that not all their choices are made consciously, they will be more mindful. Take what you need, that’s it. Don’t over consume and then want to ‘give back!’ Not every new product that is flashed across your screen needs your attention. Reducing or managing screen time is also one more way to effectively curb this. And most importantly we need a complete rehaul in the corporate advertising culture. Be mindful about advertising, about the products and about the consumers. Yes, sell your product but don’t overdose viewers with it. Respect their ‘digital space’ and time. Content, art and advertising are evolving at a very rapid pace. With AI leaking into our everyday lives the boundaries between reality and ‘screality’ (screen + reality) are being blurred. AI in advertising is a whole different topic that I will cover in later articles.
Content needs to be responsible, art needs to remain free from the shackles of capitalism and advertising needs to respect! If the content creators, the companies that pay them and people in the creative advertising industry are mindful, this can become a force for good. We can become a more conscious society that takes what it needs, not what it thinks it wants. Advertise, responsibly!
