ADVERTISING
By Frances Harris
Advertising
is the spice of life that employs a huge workforce. But sometimes there can be
too much spice to swallow all at one time. I often wonder why so much money is
being poured into more and more advertising spaces, competing for our ever decreasing
attention. Glitzy messages go into every little crevice or opening that can be
legally, or not so legally accessed; places like our web pages, email, or our home
letter boxes. How much paper is stuffed into our letter boxes and never read,
that goes straight into the waste bin. All
that paper amounts to forests of trees!
I
sometimes wonder if the advertising gurus give thought to whether their hard work
actually does any good. Have they realised it might be irritating us enough to make
us turn away completely? I hate it when I open my email inbox and an
advertisement is plastered right across the screen so I have to peer over and
under it to get to my messages. It’s like scratching fingernails down a
blackboard. I can honestly say, I don’t remember the contents of one of them,
but I do remember the frustration, and the times wondering if I should change to
another carrier just to escape.
Then
there is the advertising panel either on the internet or a billboard with
brightly coloured windows and panels to attract our attention, but is so
complex we can’t quickly follow the message. How many people would stop or break
their stride to pour over an advertisement because they didn’t get the message the
first time round? There is an approximate five second window to capture the
audience, otherwise it’s all over.
My
next favourite gripe is when I sign up for a monthly publication to arrive in my
in box once a month, and when I go back to retrieve it, there are twenty or
more publications I didn’t ask for and will never read, arriving once a week. I
don’t think the advertising community has realised that in a complex world;
less is more and the simple and reliable is more likely to succeed. Building loyalty
organically seems to be a thing of the past. If I had received that one
publication, on time and it was worth reading I would be less hesitant to
explore further. Now, when anyone asks me to sign up for anything new, I ask
myself what’s their motive? Are they looking for a way to swamp me with other offers
and advertising that will keep me away from what I want to do? And how do I
finally stop them once they get started when I don’t exactly know where to find
the source?
And
then, the thing I hate most over everything else, is when I search through news
web sites for the latest headlines and a booming voice starts telling me about
a weight loss pill I don’t need and despite all my attempts to stop it, I can’t.
I have no choice but to close the window. Sometimes even that won’t work and
the noise chases me off the computer altogether. I can’t see how that idea is good for
business. No wonder many oldies are sworn off computers and don’t read news any
more. They were once the primary audience. These actions must be cutting out
huge chunks of customers bowled over in the rush to capture them.
I
don’t read the news very often now, and despite what the pundits of paperless
news say, people are being turned off and some may stop reading the news
altogether. Yes they are dropping away from news print, but it doesn’t necessarily
follow they are signing up for electronic news. I expect to be one of them. Once
I used to follow every headline available but have steadily reduced my exposure
over time. Content is poorer than it used to be, and not interesting enough to
capture my attention. I can take only so much celebrity scandal. I might read a
heading, squeezed tightly between two large advertisements, but I don’t usually
feel the need to go any further than that. Sometimes all three are misleading
and have nothing to do with the subject. I regularly feel corralled into
turning my attention to something I don’t care about, so I don’t go back. It’s
amazing to think none of the major players has figured out that an unpleasant
experience doesn’t win loyalty.
The
only advertisements I do read now are the ones that tell me I can fly away on a
holiday to some warm isolated island that has long sandy beaches and blue
waters I can enjoy. I look for it to have no connection with either civilization
or the internet so I don’t have to worry about aggressive advertising. 