Advertisements are everywhere! They even have their own channels dedicated to selling products they know people will eventually go out and buy. From the TV commercials and movie theater previews to the logos on a bus, these things all play a large role in the development of our society.
Picture this… Its late night and you’re lounging around on the couch watching your favorite television show. Next thing you know a Taco Bell commercial comes on and flashes its newest product on your TV screen. It doesn’t look all that appetizing, but the man eating the taco disposes of it as if it will be his last meal in forever. You sit there totally engrossed and hanging on to every word the person is saying about the biggest taco you have ever seen. Almost immediately you become hungry. That’s funny because you don’t remember being hungry before while you were watching your show. After all, you’d just eaten dinner a few hours earlier. With your mind made up and a stomach that seems to become increasingly angry with each ticking second that goes by, you scramble to find your car keys and get out the door.
Picture this… Its late night and you’re lounging around on the couch watching your favorite television show. Next thing you know a Taco Bell commercial comes on and flashes its newest product on your TV screen. It doesn’t look all that appetizing, but the man eating the taco disposes of it as if it will be his last meal in forever. You sit there totally engrossed and hanging on to every word the person is saying about the biggest taco you have ever seen. Almost immediately you become hungry. That’s funny because you don’t remember being hungry before while you were watching your show. After all, you’d just eaten dinner a few hours earlier. With your mind made up and a stomach that seems to become increasingly angry with each ticking second that goes by, you scramble to find your car keys and get out the door.
This is how advertising agencies know how and when to attract consumers to their products. Even though the taco mentioned above doesn’t appear to be greatly as satisfying as anything you’ve eaten from the restaurant (and due to the fact that you had just eaten), the way the person is devouring it makes you just have to have one. Also Taco Bell is open late so the ad agencies know when to target their buyers. This is true for so many other products we purchase in our country and I think advertising plays a major role in luring people in to buying things we might not always need. I truly feel that the U.S. has become overly materialistic partly because of the fact that we have become more modernized and expanded our knowledge in different areas of how things work. I am satisfied with knowing that we are figuring things out and making life easier for people and families, but I think the over abundance of some products are consuming us. Instead of buying things out of necessity, we buy to compete. We are constantly obsessing over what somebody else has and looking forward to the next best thing. Some people can’t even enjoy what they have because they are so busy obsessing over what’s to come. Gaming systems are like that. Not necessarily because one is better than the other, but because of how advertisements make the product appear larger than life and some almost guarantee the other’s superiority. That works for almost anything. Stores are in competition with other stores and generic brands are in constant battle with name brands. It’s the question of what makes one any better than the other? Sure some name brands look and work better than generics, but they are also highly expensive and often times not worth what you pay. However, because it looks good you have no problem splurging on it. As humans, we all tend to want the best of the best but when those things appear to take charge of our lives, things can become hectic.
With that being said, I think advertising can work both ways. It can be either good or bad. I believe that we must first determine our needs from our wants and that way we won’t spend money on things that are unnecessary. We need to learn how to balance our spending because it seems that the only people benefiting from sales are the ad agencies and product manufacturers. Sure we have fun and enjoy the product at first, but what if something happens to it. All those people still get to keep the money they made off the product, and you are stuck getting the run around with customer service representatives and insurance agencies that refuse to refund you or ship you another product for free. I have one solution: buy what you need and forget about the stuff you want and can’t afford. Easier said than done I know, but in the end it will make a big difference and help to keep our economy intact.
