Sunday, July 18, 2010
Commercials Aren't Even Advertising Their Product
The other day while I was spending some time watching television a few commercials came on to my screen and I did not understand the meaning of them and what they had to do with the product they were advertising. I am sure most of you have seen these commercials, the Carl's Jr. one with Audrina Patridge in a bikini eating a hamburger and the shaving commercial with some man crawling into the bed with a woman only wearing her undergarments. Honestly, they both have nothing to do with the product. I understand Jack In the Box's commercials when it explains what is inside the actual burger, but Carl's Jr. using a girl's body to advertise and Schick Quatro using sex to advertise as well? It seems to me that society now does whatever it pleases just to sell their product because I am pretty sure most guys saw the Carl's Jr. commercial and 'wanted' to go buy the burger. This type of advertising works, but is it the right thing to do?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Norma, everything you implied is entirely true. Commercials and ads often times go off topic from the product they are trying to sell, and use other mediums to get the audience's attention. This is unfortunate, because while producers are 'advertising' their products, they usually abandon moralities and will put practically anything on the screen just to grasp our attention; even if it means displaying a half naked person(as you had mentioned in your post)! What a shame; but it works, right? The bizarre part about this method of presenting products is that often times at the end of a commercial, I will ask myself, "Umm, what exactly were they advertising?" For example, the first time I saw the Carl's Jr. commercial that Norma mentioned, I was a bit puzzled. Was it a Nordstrom's commercial advertising a blowout sale on bikinis, or a workout commercial showing how to get your 'hot summer body'? Am I the only one who feels this way about commercials on television nowadays? And no Norma, it isn't the right thing to do. I'm sure there are other ways of successfully getting the audience's attention.
ReplyDeleteVery true Norma. But I think what the company is trying to do in these commercials is further inspire soon to be customers into buying their product because if they use THAT product, they'll subconsciously feel like their buying something worth their money with beautiful people being shown.
ReplyDeleteI think that the goal of a commercial is to at first grab the consumer’s attention. So maybe the first time a TV viewer sees a commercial that is unusual, it’s not important to the seller whether the consumer understood the commercial, but that the potential buyer thought something of it so he or she will remember the commercial the next time they see it and be interested in the product.
ReplyDeleteFor example, has anyone seen that commercial with the rapping hamsters? It got your attention right? And after seeing that commercial for a second time I knew that the commercial is advertising a new car from Kia. So I think that although completely irrelevant to the actual product, the Kia commercial did a great job of grabbing the consumer’s attention.
These tactics of advertising using irrelevant information sets these commercials apart from their competitors and makes the consumer remember the advertisement for the future.
Commercials do this on purpose, from using sexual messages to making so sense at all. For instance, the weird car commercial of rapping mice driving around Kias. Imagine if someone who was thinking about getting a car saw that commercial, once they get to the dealership, they're more than likely going to get a Kia. Why? Because they remember it. Advertisers purposely use insane, provocative messages to get different audiences attention. Like the Carl's Jr. commercial, the majority of the time men buy burgers, so they're naturally going to appeal to men with a barely-clothed woman eating their burger. So, yes, I completely agree with you: advertisers will do anything to catch peoples attention and sell their product. Since television is crazy and weird now, the commercials have to be just as bad, sometimes worse, to get peoples attention. Sadly, that's the society we're in, and as time goes by, commercials are just going to get worse and worse.
ReplyDeleteMost people will buy the product because their favorite celeb. is saying that they use the product. Commercials use sexual things or something ways to make their product look cool and to entertain people so that they would want to use it. They also showing good looking people in the commericals to grab people attention even though it has nothing to do with their product. Now every commerical that you see show other than the product.
ReplyDelete