Pascal said somewhere:
If movies spent less millions on advertising, and reflected those cost savings by cutting in half the prices of movie tickets and DVDs (advertising is often half the expenses!), I bet the global sales would INCREASE, and pull the benefits up markedly.
Quality doesn't need mass-advertising, pleased people do all the promoting.
Advertising is one of those things I've always been uneasy about. But I can't really decide.
In the excellent SF novel Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling, it is very briefly mentioned that sometime in the 21st century, advertising was outlawed worldwide. And I think that's a very interesting idea.
Of course, it would find some way of happening anyway, human nature being what it is, just like violence and drugs. Product placements, etc etc.
But I think it just presents the idea for consideration that advertising is possibly an evil. We are so used to seeing it everywhere that this thought is quite revolutionary.
Update: I'm not sure it's "evil", but I think we'd be better off without it. I like media better without too much advertising. And part of the reason I don't watch TV anymore is the constant interruptions. Also, I don't have advertising on my own sites. The moment I were to put a banner at the top of my site, it would not feel like my own site anymore.
And if it were not for good anti-ad software, there would be many sites I could not use, like for example the otherwise excellent lovefilm.com, where I rent my movies. Their advertising on the site not only moves, it makes sounds too! Drives me nuts.
Well, I said "less", not "zero". Everything in moderation is the general idea. :-)
ReplyDeleteBut in advertisng, the prevailing childish mentality is usually "my steamroller campaign is bigger than yours".
Like, why the flark does the sound volume still always go up at the time of commercials? Aren't there lwas against that in civilized countries?
I think the best response would be to invent and sell some cheap device that mutes the sound every time this happens, and restores it afterwards. Automatic invasive commercials silencing! A noise thermostat, if you like. Should be darn simple to design.
Aw, who am I kidding? I don't want to go to jail the second they pass a speedy law against my invention. :-P
Interesting, yes! It would probably happen anyway... There's a very good short story by James Tiptree, Jr on this theme : The Girl Who Was Plugged In.
ReplyDeleteI click on ads on websites about twice a year, and have never actually spent a single penny on what they were peddling. I wonder how it works, and how long it'll keep working. Maybe we have all the ingredients for a splendid bubble here...
On the other hand thinks like amazon recommendations definitely work for me.
I'm fine with advertising as long as it's not invasive. Billboards don't bother me, nor do regular web banners. However, banners that decide to dump a forkload of cookies on my computer, do piss me off, and I will block them. Same with those annoying ads that decide to fill half my screen or simply won't go away.
ReplyDeleteAny kind of invasive advertising should be prohibited in my opinion. It's just rude. And the day billboards start talking to me, will be the day I set fire to them.
Advertising works and increases sales; there is no doubt about it. The question for the advertiser is always how much to spend in expectation of how much more profit. It is not an exact science, but there is a lot of statistical experience: e.g., X billions of "consumer impressions" will increase sales by Y amount.
ReplyDeleteAn example. When I owned a video store, I would often have the chance to bring in independent and "unknown" films, usually of the "family" variety. If there was no advertising, they would sit on the shelf, no matter how high quality. Advertising, especially national professional advertising, created the knowledge of and awareness of such films that people came in and asked for it.
If we imagined no advertising existed, people would either look around on the shelves, or ask their friends, or read reviews. Which is what I'm doing.
ReplyDeletePascal, you might be interested in the passing commentary about advertising that's included in Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point." I read that thing long before it became a "business guru" type of over-hyped phenomenon with legs of its own, when Gladwell was just starting to get known as the columnist of weird thoughts from the New Yorker. In it he references one advertising genius who eschewed all traditional assumptions, insisted on only working in a rather seedy medium, but using a direct-mail thing that included a sticker. The potential customer had to peel the sticker off of one page and stick it on to another page to send it back in. Somehow the sticker made all the difference. Gladwell makes it make sense.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of current advertising "technology" shows that Madison Avenue (the location in NYC where a lot of firms have their headquarters; hence, a general term for the industry, here in the USA) knows a lot about using effective persuasive techniques on the human psyche. But a lot of other advertising "technology" shows that they don't really give a darn whether they're very effective or not, as long as they're highly PRESENT and in your face.
I think the question of PRESENCE is something that becomes a problem because of the nature of the client-firm relationship. Bad customers come to Madison Avenue with a brand new toothpaste to sell. But rather than buying the tricky ad campaign that includes the sticker and the late-night TV ad, even though it might be shown to sell more toothpaste, the toothpaste manufacturer (more likely, his under-vice-president of marketing) insists on PRESENCE. So, the ad firm gives the client what he wants, regardless of whether it sells toothpaste.
Happens in the publicity business all the time, too. Bad customers. We take their money anyway. :)
Damien prophecised...
ReplyDelete"Maybe we have all the ingredients for a splendid bubble here..."
Can you spell "POP!"?
Me too. :-(
Anonymous apeased...
"Billboards don't bother me"
Clearly you don't live in Lebanon then.
At election time, the scenery literally changes colors when you're driving. You can't spot the green any more! Gets dizzying and nauseating pretty fast, too.
The rest of the time, the view is "just" saturated...
"And the day billboards start talking to me, will be the day I set fire to them."
So, read Philip K. Dick's The Simulacra, have you?
"Ads that enter your home and you have to gun them down"...
Small artificial talking insects, pretty damn relentless, coming at you like flies on a honey pot. But it's legal to squash them!
Bruce pitched in...
"Advertising works and increases sales; there is no doubt about it."
I've read studies on the subject. There is a "saturation threshold" where the excess advertising starts upsetting people, and makes sales drop. Or, in layman's terms, "too much is too much, already!".
I'm sure we understand each other.
..."or read reviews."
The best form of advertising! Provide one-time information to those actually asking for it.
Then everybody's happy. :-)
Every time I find more ads than reviews about a movie or videogame, I get suspicious.
Final Identity bluntly put it...
"But a lot of other advertising "technology" shows that they don't really give a darn whether they're very effective or not, as long as they're highly PRESENT and in your face."
Oy! You don't say. :,(
"Happens in the publicity business all the time, too. Bad customers. We take their money anyway. :)"
Smart man.
You should work for Lebanese politicians, then.
Oh, wait, they don't need you. Their volunteer squads stick posters, hang billboards by the gallowfuls, organize rallies, and they blow long-winded speeches on their own private radio and TV stations.
"You're best served by yourself", right?
There's no indication that it gets them elected, either. But hey, their PRESENCE is all over our poor peasant faces.
A more efficent campaign method, perhaps, is when they distribute cash "presence" for you to vote. Last time, they gave for every vote a sandwich, a bag of lentils, and the promise of a hunnert bucks. But the clan chiefs who were supposed to distribute the green pocketed the whole sums!
Now I'm eagerly awaiting the next campaign, to see how many morons will fall twice for the same scam.
):-D
I swear, this country DESERVES having a leadership that's rotten to the bone!
I'm not so sure there's a real equation between, on the one hand, PRODUCT advertising, and, on the other, POLITICAL advertising. I mean, they both obviously have a lot in common and could succeed or fail on the basis of similar techniques. But somewhere there's a moral side to politics -- having a "good" leader that does "right" things -- whereas the buy-sell of (for example) nicer packaged toothpaste is really not a moral issue at all. At least, not in so far as sales of one brand more or less than another, is concerned.
ReplyDeleteAdvertisers are basically a middleman between buyer and seller. Right now it seems like the middleman is in control, telling buyers what to buy and telling sellers what to make. For example most TV shows, including news shows, must leave the watcher in a state of wanting material things. The shows are basically set-ups for the ads, which pay for the production of the shows. Watching TV, at least in the USA, will never make you content.
ReplyDeleteMany businesses, particularly Internet businesses, have become successful by removing one or two layers of middlemen. I wonder how someone could start up a business that would cut out advertising expenses.
99% of the sales on my site are generated by word of mouth and such. I barely ever advertise.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of politics, I just read that Karl Rove now works for Barack Obama.
ReplyDeleteNot a smart move, IMHO. Now Hillary can rest easy.
I'm not so sure there's a real equation either, but local faces (or "heels", it depends!) generally feel otherwise. Verily.
And it's all just a modern-styled clanic mentality, really. With mass-advertising narcissism.
I wonder what's the cost for a bouquet of narcissuses these days?... (Narciscee? Narcissaes? Narcissums? Narcisse? Narcisemployments? Narniasisters? Ah, whatever!)
Eolake whispered...
"99% of the sales on my site are generated by word of mouth and such."
Ah, but Eolake, the lovely mouths on your site practically sell themselves! The product is its own advertising. :-)
Narcissi? Narci beaucoup? Narcimylord? Narcedes? Narcignatures? Narbracadabras? Narinaseptum? Narcimilarities? Narf-sissies?...
ReplyDelete:-?
You guys miss the point. And totally so, I might add. I can only urge you to read "The space merchants" by Frederik Pohl. You will learn, among other things in this hilarious book, that the ultimate goal of advertising is to make buyers crave for the most useless creation you can imagine. It is only once you have accomplished this that you may consider yourself like a true advertising person. Period.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, quality has nothing to do with advertising. In fact, the two concepts are almost antinomical, negating each other. If only quality products could be advertised, we would finally be rid of advertising!
The sad part of this is that advertising does work. I read just this week that this year alone, hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on virtual presents for the holidays. Yes virtual, as in cyber-space creations and the like (call me old-fashioned, but paying for a "paper-doll" to use as an avatar on the web, or even a ringtone for your mobile, is beyond my understanding). Anyway, if anyone can associate quality with any such creations, I'd love to hear about it...
Merry Xmas to all!
"The product is its own advertising."
ReplyDeleteWell, that's just the point, innit? This should be true for any product, in an ideal world.
(whispering softly): And this world is far from being ideal, not even a strip of "ideal" can be seen above the horizon - maybe I'm near-sighted.
ReplyDeleteMy first Domai encounter was initialized by a link, can't remember if it was at simple nudes or google.
Thus not by mouth, but by advertising.
I'm in support of the last Ano Nymos comment, 8:55 AM.
"The ultimate goal of advertising is to make buyers crave for the most useless creation you can imagine."
ReplyDeleteThank you for reminding us of the basic rules in this modern world.
:-)
Which is precisely why our politicians advertise themselves so eagerly.
:-P
"(call me old-fashioned, but paying for a "paper-doll" to use as an avatar on the web, or even a ringtone for your mobile, is beyond my understanding)."
Ah, don't feel ashamed if you don't understand stupid behavior!
;-)
I think I'll market cyber-sold T-shirts saying: "Sucker is as sucker does." And the price will be printed on the back...