After taking English this past year at school, I've come to look at advertising in a completely new way. Advertising in this country is honestly kind of ....I want to say ridiculous, but I feel like I've overused that word, so we'll go with nervewracking, annoying, and fustrating.
It's become just that because of the economy. The bigger companies are trying to get everyone to buy their dumb ass products even more. And their especially aiming towards women, but it's not like they haven't always aimed at women. Most advertising, even advertising that you may think is aimed at men, is actually aimed at women. Big corporations use womens' emotions in order to lure them into buying their products. Why do you think there are so many colored iPods? Do you honestly think a guy would give a flying shit if he had a purple iPod as opposed to an orange one? No. As long as the thing played it really doesn't matter. But Apple knew that if they made a bunch of different colored iPods, they'd be a thousand times more appealing, especially towards women, because each color almost represents a different part of a woman's personality in a way. Whatever color they get reflects on them personally, or so they think. I mean, clearly a guy isn't going to get a pink iPod, but he will more than likely not give a shit about the color. Apple knows that if they come out with an array of colors (all the time, might i add) that the consumer (women) will want to keep coming back more, and more, and more. Whereas, most of the time, a guy will get an iPod, and not come back over and over again, unless there's a problem with his merchandise, in which case, he probably will do everything possible to not have to go back to the store. Interestingly enough, if a woman's iPod was malfunctioning, she'd more than likely go straight back to the store, rather than using outside resources and then going to Apple as a last resort.
Home appliances and home products are also under fire. Pine Sol, Palmolive, Dawn, those companies that make the dishwasher tablets hoo-has, fridges, stoves, washers, brooms, etc. All of them (or most of them at least) are operating under the assumption that any woman watching that commercial is more likely than not a house wife a.k.a. stay-at-home mom, or just likes to clean. Even if you don't like to clean, it honestly makes you kind of want to get it. One day I happened to see a commercial for one of these home products and it was just appaling. On TV there was a commercial by Dawn for a dishwashing soap that would help your nails and improve the look of your hands. They even had a lady's hand painted with red nail polish just to show how "awesome!" this soap is. Like, c'mon seriously?! It's fucking soap!!! Get some Dial and STFU!!! I shake my head at anyone who is dumb enough to ACTUALLY BELIEVE that some purple soap in a bottle will actually improve the look of your hands. All they are doing is just creating a "problem" and then poof! Solution! This shit in a bottle! Tada! Buy me cause I make your hands look good! Look, your nails will be fabulous once you buy this crap!
You know what else makes my hands look good?
A nice long shower and some lotion. Give me a break.
More than ever now companies are creating "problems" and then devising a "solution", even though in reality the "solution" only does so much that you end up having to go back and get more. Thus, whatever the company was selling you really isn't fulfilling its potential completely because if it did, you wouldn't have to go back to them again! They'd go out of business! Or if you did, it wouldn't be for a while! Perfect example: the healthcare industry. Wake up!
Another example of this problem/solution phenom is a new product that "grows eyelashes." Since when did you have too few eyelashes?! Even in the progress pictures in the commercial, it didn't look like you'd ACTUALLY GROW any more eyelashes than you already had. And even if you did have too few eyelashes before, since when did it become a problem, a medical problem? This is the other route I think these companies are taking. If you create a "problem" and it threatens the health of the consumer, they will feel like they are obliged to buy it. "Oh! Well since it's a medical problem, better go call my doctor and have him prescribe me some (insert obnoxious medication here)! Then I'll shell out only a few hundred bucks, and then low and behold, I'll be paying for a prescription that a. I don't need and b. I have miraculously convinced myself that it will f#%$ing kill me if I don't have it."
Ya know, in this green, bountiful (well I guess not so bountiful anymore considering we're supposed to be running out of oil in like 25-50 years or something) earth that we live in, there are, believe it or not, some medical "conditions" that don't kill you.
Like this bullshit!!!
Too few eyelashes?! Are you serious?!?! Smh......
Here is a link to an article talking about the release of the product, called Latisse. It was originally created to treat GLAUCOMA and the growth of eyelashes was a SIDE EFFECT. Funny how they mentioned Botox in the article, which was originally a medication for eye disorders, and now people shoot it in their damn faces. They write that the safety of the product has been tested over a period of 13 years, but seriously, I would rather not be taking a GLAUCOMA medication just to get a damn side effect. If you're really that damn desperate, get some fake eyelashes and call it a day. You can read more here: http://www.prlog.org/10208046-newly-approved-product-lengthens-and-thickens-eyelashes.html
It's almost as though the media and the advertisers and the corporations who create these advertisements think Americans are stupider than ever. We as a country are progressively getting smarter and stupider at the same time. Kind of weird right? I just hope these methods of advertising change soon. I can't even stand to watch commercials anymore, I just turn off the TV when a commercial comes on. It's the same with the news. Not in that the news is directed at women, but they over-sensationalize stuff now to the point where I just want to vomit if I hear that particular headline again. Or, get incredibly fustrated that they are spending so much time on some dumb story about how a dog was stuck in a pipe in Nebraska. Blah. I'm tired of writing right now. This could seriously go on for pages.
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