[deleted]
I work at an interactive agency and none of your experiences hold true for me. It might be time to upgrade your employer.
Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
31–40 of 63 posts
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#32Interesting. But I disagree with a number of them. > I love the copy, but it feels off brand ... I remember the first time I saw a McPizza ad. It talked about how if you didn't like one kind, then you could get a different one. And it felt really strange. Later I figured it out. Until then, McDonald's ads had always maintained the premise that everyone likes everything they sell. > If only this solution was more scal…
> Isn't this a huge reason for people going to blogging platforms?
Yes, but that's not what it's lampooning. TONS of ads and websites invite people to "share their story" or try to take advantage of user generated content. It's a cheesy cop out. No one wants to share their Doritos story on the Doritos website.
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#33If anyone wants to see an incredible look into how Sigmund Freud's research was turned around to manipulate people into consuming more, then Adam Curtis' excellent The Century of The Self is available to watch here: http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-century-of-the-self If you've never seen an Adam Curtis documentary before, this is a good one to start with. His style and delivery is unique among documentary filmmaker…
You can also buy Edward Bernays books Propaganda and Crystallizing Public Opinion for a very fair price on Amazon, though Propaganda at least isn't so great.
Also, a book written by Vance Packard at the height of 1950s advertising called "The Hidden Persuaders", if you can find a copy. All about 'motivational research' and how subconscious cues can be used to sell and persuade. Very interesting -- for example, how some customers liked extremely-strong-smelling soap because it provided them with the same type of 'defense' in a socially-accepted way that B.O. did.
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#34In a similar vein:
http://businessguysonbusinesstrips.com/
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#35I don't think that advertisers want consumers to consciously think these things. Relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYEf8XZKlUU
That was a clever vid...
"You CANT HANDLE a bigger logo!" excellent :)
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#36This is a mix of half-amusing misconceptions -- "Of course I'll spend eight minutes of my life watching your branded content" -- and details that advertisers should care about -- "I love the copy, but it feels off brand". Most of the pictures fall into the latter, and are very "inside baseball". Why would you expect "real people" to talk like that, or chastise advertisers for doing so? People who buy from Amazon don'…
Mockery, perhaps, but not entirely useless, since it helps prick the myopia that's a persistent danger in any business which uses lots of jargon to discuss the ideal forms of execution.
Believe it or not, there are a number of exceedingly self-absorbed people in advertising. These are folks who actually do assume that clients and audiences take advertising's technical aspects as seriously as they do, and start thinking that they can use their client's money to communicate on this level when, in fact, they can't. What's worse is that they can get heated in meetings when more grounded people try to tell them otherwise. Circulating stuff like this is a fine way to rein them in gently.
I'm sure variations on this send-up are possible in any business that evaluates its own work according to generally obscure measures. It's just especially funny here, since it also uses stock-photography so well, which is a product of the same business, and a separate source of endless eye-rolling from people who have to work with it.
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#37Let's just go ahead and coin the term "lol ads".
Ad fail.
In all seriousness though, humor used well for the right type of product is extremely effective. I can no longer find the source, but I read somewhere that the Old Spice Body Wash sales went up close to 100% when the Old Spice Guy commercials were running. My wife even bought some for me the next she went shopping after she saw the ad. She said it was just to reward them for the ad itself, then she decided she liked how it smelled and kept buying it for me, all because the ad was funny.
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#38Interesting. But I disagree with a number of them. > I love the copy, but it feels off brand ... I remember the first time I saw a McPizza ad. It talked about how if you didn't like one kind, then you could get a different one. And it felt really strange. Later I figured it out. Until then, McDonald's ads had always maintained the premise that everyone likes everything they sell. > If only this solution was more scal…
Agreed with the last point.
MySpace learned this the hard way.
Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#39Re: Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising
#40The address http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/ makes me think the blog was originally missing the baiting 'Real' adjective.