Introduction
A memoir about the role of advertisement in our life.
You know, we live in a world where we take much of the things of our daily life for granted. I include myself here until I made “a discovery” one day a couple of years ago. It was just like “the apple” fall into my head and “enlightened” me.
It was the morning wake up of a normal school day. I brushed my teeth with my Colgate toothpaste and eat some exquisite cake with a tasty Starbucks cappuccino. I put my Levis blue jeans on with a T-shirt, tied my Nike shoes and off to school. I normally used to walk to school because it is just two blocks from my house. And as I was walking to school one by one all the signs and notices of different brands, including those of Nike and Colgate toothpaste, one by one passed in front of my eyes. Suddenly, a “terrible” thought came into my mind: what if all these advertisements are not placed there anymore, what would happen? Immediately an internal voice literally “shouted” inside my head: you must be kidding, right??
Main Text
The advertising has always been there, right?! Can you imagine yourself in a world where advertisement has disappeared? Well, I don’t. We would go to the supermarket to get some coffee, some toothpaste or some cake, but what kind of each would we get? Advertisements help us distinguish between the qualities of the products. This is what brands are supposed to be there for. This is what the role of advertisement is all about. We, as human beings, have different needs and desires and would like that business fulfills them. But none of us has the time and desire to go to the supermarket and there be informed about the different types and qualities of the products we want. At least I do not know anybody who does it and do not believe that you do it also. When I went to school I talked about this with one of my best friends. I told him about these thoughts that came into my mind while coming to school. I was a little surprised when he reacted with no interest at all. Don’t anything else to do but to think about this nonsense?- he told me. but he was wrong. This IS an important thing to think about.
When we went to class, the teacher told us that today we were going to talk about marketing and its role in society. Bingo, – I thought. That’s it.
The teacher went on to explain the lesson and, for the first time that year, I was so focused on the lesson that I completely lost account of time. But what I learned at the end of class was much valuable and in perfect synchrony of what I was thinking before. Advertising does play an important role in our life. A role that most of the time we do not even acknowledge.
It is very simple. We have to carry out our daily life and to do that we need to fulfill some basic (or even not basic) needs and desires. In order to achieve that we have to rely on different products and services. But we have to find what are the products and services that fit our needs and desires. And even when we find what category of product or service is adequate to fulfill our needs we have to choose which one fits them better. Of course we want the best for ourselves. While I was explaining this again to my friend he turned to me and said that practically we do not have the time and the desire to do all of this stuff by ourselves. He reminded me that we were at school and if we were going to do all the stuff I was thinking about then there would be no time for school or any other activity. And that is the moment I thought “eureka”. Exactly, this was it.
Here is where advertisement comes to hand and helps us. The primary goal and intention of the advertisement is to inform the public about the product, or service, it is advertising. When we see the Starbucks or Nike advertisements, we do not just see some graphical presentation. Its scope is to inform us that Starbucks makes first quality café and cappuccinos so if we want to buy good cappuccinos, we go for Starbucks. It is in our interest to do it. This is the same if we want to purchase good quality shoes. Nike is there for us.
And it is not that difficult to be informed. Now psychologists are discovering that even if we do not have the attention focused toward the advertisement still its message remains “within” ourselves. They have found that when we hear, or see, repeatedly an advertisement our subconscious classifies it. It is like we have that product stock in our minds and hearts. And every time that you need to have such product suddenly a brand name comes to your mind. It is the name of the brand that has been advertised. A brand that relates to the kind of product that you are requesting, that you are in need.
Conclusion
So, do not worry folks, as long as the advertisement industry is there you won’t have to spend additional time to be informed about what you need or what to buy. You will just have to do the “embarrassing” choice of which of the brands to buy. School was over. Time had passed so quickly and I was not even being aware of it. All of this time I had been contemplating about the role of advertisement in our life. It was time to get back home. Again I walked down the street passing different notices and ads of brands. but this time I didn’t see them as just some boring boards with some slogan, but as something that are there to serve.
This is why the advertisement industry is there for us.