Without thinking about it, we are constantly bombarded with advertisements of all kinds, sometimes without even realizing it. Banner ads at the tops of web pages. We might not actively click on them, but we see them, and although we don't actually contemplate consuming products, the image is in our mind, and subliminally, we will remember it if the need should ever arrive.
Not all spam gets filtered in to the spam folder on our email accounts, so we have to manually go into the inbox and delete them, often times without opening them. But we still see the subject line before we hit the delete button and even though we don't contemplate, just like that banner ad, that thought is implanted in our minds. This is why so much thought and psychology goes into advertising, because they know that they have all of two seconds to get the attention of the consumer, to implant that idea of that thought in their head.
When the internet came along, a whole new plane was created for advertising. Before, products were advertised via radio and television, which had already been developed into a science after thirty years. Now, with the internet, there are so many other factors that come into play. Like newspapers, the advertisement doesn't have to fit into a fifteen second time slot. There's time for a consumer to take in all the information at their own pace and digest the benefits of this product. However, unlike newspapers, now one-hundred times as many ads are being seen by that single consumer than with print sources.
People concern themselves with how internet advertising will impact us as a culture, but I think that it will do no more than radio and television advertising has done for us. Sure, everyone wants your money, but the responsibility lies with the consumer to decide where that money goes.
spam and advertisements are annoying, but I don't think they bother me as much as they bother most people. Advertisements come in handy because, like you said, if I actually need the product, I'll remember that advertisement. That doesn't mean I'll just go buy the product, but I'll research it, which usually leads me to a better product, but it's a start.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. We're so used to having advertisements shoved down our throats that we don't even notice it anymore. We really don't have a choice in the matter. And to think we laugh at the idea of subliminal messages in advertising as if it doesn't actually happen...
ReplyDeleteYeah, subliminal advertising has been around for a while. You could call advertisements that we mostly ignore subliminal as well. (Of course, given that many tech-savvy people are now using AdBlock Plus, it might not even reach our retinas at all.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'm highly skeptical on how much they affect our buying decisions. Even Snopes disproved the classic story of a theater selling more popcorn and Coke using subliminal messaging. (http://www.snopes.com/business/hidden/popcorn.asp)