The Modern Advertising System

The ever-musing Protestant is back, after his all too long absence. And he's ready for action. :-)

I'm sure you have, while innocently watching your TV, come across an advertisement whose scenario (not exact words) and intended viewer response go something like this:

This is Joey. He has a hot girlfriend. (Boy! She is nice...wish I could have a girlfriend like that.) Joey drinks an awesome, cool, refreshing brand of beer. (So?) This is the reason he has such a hot girlfriend. (Oh!) You can drink this same awesome, cool, refreshing brand of beer too, and for an affordable price! Then you can be just like Joey. Try it, you'll never regret it...and think about that girlfriend... (I say...not a bad idea! There's a 7-11 a couple blocks down, isn't there? I'm sure they sell that kind of beer there...)

And so on. The system has an almost infinite amount of variations, and sometimes appeals to different appetites (humor, toughness, freedom from "the rules," etc.), but as a general rule this is the basic pattern which modern advertising follows, right? I'm happy to accept disagreement here, you know...:-)

But, supposing for the moment that everyone agrees with me, let us consider: what is this system, exactly? What is it appealing to, and why does it work?

This system appeals almost invariably to the passions, emotions, and desires. Whether that be having a hot girlfriend or building up your biceps or going to the mall and looking good in front of your friends depends mainly on the type of product being sold and the audience at which it is directed. These advertisements dangle before their viewers some particular end, usually to an excess, which they know that most viewers want to some degree, and then tout their product, whether explicitly or implicitly, as a means to that end. The advertisers are really making the incredible claim of being able to satisfy man's greatest temporal desires--a happy marriage; an easy, untroubled life; and so on--with their product.

The strange thing is, these "hooks," so to speak, with which customers are fished for, more often than not have absolutely nothing at all to do with the product being sold. A large percentage of men in this country drink beer, but not all of them have hot girlfriends. Thousands of people own Volkswagen Touaregs and BMW Z-4s, and yet don't zoom down beautiful country roads with a trophy wife at their elbow. So why use this advertising system? Why offer people things which the product can't provide?

The simplest answer to that question is the kind of people our modern culture has produced. We (and I use this as an only semi-inclusive term which doesn't signify everyone in the world; I mainly mean the modern culture of the unsaved, though Christians aren't automatically immune from it themselves) have largely let our desires run amok. Having rejected Christ, our culture searches in an endless, unsatisfactory quest for something foundational, and something touting the ability to provide that--a sort of God-substitute, if you will--must have a powerful pull on people stabbing about in the darkness of the void for something to hold on to. I want happiness in my life. To me that means being muscular, looking good to me friends, having a beautiful wife. The Audi A4 can give me that. I'll buy the Audi A4 and see what happens. Something like that.

So modern advertising only works because of the sort of society we live in. Throw at Thomas Jefferson and he would give two or three hours of blazing rhetoric for every two minutes of commercial time. But throw it at someone nowadays and you get...the world of modern advertising, and modern sales.

What is the solution? Advertisers need to get real and provide us with some deliciously refreshing logical arguments as to why something is useful and should be bought. I'm not against humor in an advertisement. Certainly I wouldn't be one to be against humor! :-) But please, throw in a little how and why with the advertisement. For example: "You should buy X car because it gets superior gas mileage, is fast, reliable, handles well, looks nice, and can be bought at a reasonable price." Throw out the trophy wife; that is using a rubber worm to catch the fish. It won't satisfy. Only the truth will satisfy anyone--anything more is heresy or a vicious cycle of disappointment.

Thoughts, my friends? ;-)

~Connor, the musing Protestant

Side Note: I should mention that I myself almost never watch TV at all. Only on vacation, during elections or other important events, and at the homes of some people whom I know or to whom I am related do I normally watch TV.