(Taken By JCD 2010)
I've always been excited about advertising. It changes our views, and influences our choices. It even helps one decide between products. Advertising has always fascinated me. It is the most ingenious ploy to have ever been crafted. In some way, everyone has been influenced, inspired, persuaded, and even convinced by it. Advertising is tremendously intelligent, it serves its purpose: to catch the attention of its consumers; to sell a product. Advertising sells a way of life, or better yet, an idea.
The idea of advertising is sharing, consuming, and selling. I like advertising for a variety or reasons. But I've always found it incredibly manipulative. It gives reasons for people to buy something that may or may not work, or need. However, advertising sells products in such way, the consumer will feel some obligation to purchase a product. It’s the messed up part about advertising, but that is what makes it so interesting. It changes the way we think. But more importantly, the way we buy things. Advertisers use art, slogans, and design, anything that can be used to sell. Coca Cola is a great example of highly influential advertising.
Coca Cola had to find a way to sell their product in winter. People normally drink something warm, or hot in cold weather. To solve this, they reinvented a character that we now associate as jolly, bearded, red, and
old. He checks his list twice, comes down a chimney, and visits once a year.
More importantly, he finds out who's naughty or nice, we all know him as Santa
Claus. He was originally portrayed as a saint, and wasn't quite pleasing to look at. So an artist
changed the look. This look became a more relatable, and an iconic figure. In 1931, the Santa we all know and love came to be. His image was literally crafted, and defined by Coca
Cola. Since the 1930s, generations of people now associate this image as Santa.
The message they sent to their consumer was: Santa's like everybody else. He enjoys a nice, cold drink; especially in the winter. That kind of innovation changed a character for mass consumption, it's pretty extraordinary.
It's unusual, but admirable. In my opinion, advertising is just a smart way of
influencing the masses. Be it positive, or negative, it has an impact. Some
think advertising is a cruel way of tricking people. I think it's just a smart way of selling a product, or an idea.
Advertising is like a salesman, it tries to promote something. That kind promotion was crafted so well, it's hard to imagine a world without advertising. It gets into a consumer's head. Advertisements connect with people in some way. It's like what graphic designer Saul Bass said, "Thinking made visible." Advertising is like selling an idea. And isn't just exciting, it's extraordinary.
