The power of images and advertisement
Months ago I was on my way to the University an I saw and advertisement of a chocolate, and I thought ' I haven't eaten that chocolate in such a long time, maybe next time I go to the supermarket i'll buy one''.
The power of a simple image can drive you to buy or do something, influencing a decision.
I would say that advertisement is so powerful because creates a necessity, a fantasy that is not such. Let's say that we have 3 different pairs of shoes, but there are thousands of ads out there showing new trends, new arrivals and new brands. So, despite the fact that you already have 3 pairs of shoes you might feel the necessity to buy an extra one. Brands in general sell us a fragment of a reality, they sell fantasies that do not exist, they tell us that if we buy a product to lose weight we will look like the model of the ad campaign. So, we buy naively the product because we want to look like the model.
I believe that advertisement condition us to believe and behave in a certain way, we are conditioned to think that for example a slim model looks better than a women in her 80's wearing a dress. we don't have to think so much to realize that all the ad campaigns of big and international stores sell their products using young, beautiful, happy people .
So, in a way we are also being condition to judge something as good and acceptable.
The same happens with art. we discussed in class that most of the times when someone goes to an art gallery and see a picture that is ''weird'' has no form, unusual colors or shapes we think that it makes no sense, that is very odd. That is a reflection of us being trained to see beauty in an evident way. We have been trained to think that a slim, Caucasian, tall and happy model look better than a 30 year-old woman who is Large size in an ad campaign.
We need to rethink, reflect in the way we are perceiving things, in the way we are perceiving reality.
Brands, companies, are selling us a reality that is fake and pleasant. Maybe we should be a bit less like Prufrock, dare the world and start following our own ideas, reflecting and meditating about life. What is it that the artist is trying to say with that ''odd and different picture''?
I invite your to think in all the things that you buy, do or wear.
I completely agree with you Maria Susana. I have always been critical of advertisements for the same reasons that you have discussed in your post. But I'd like to take it one step farther by saying that not only do ad campaigns use "slim, caucasian, tall and happy model" but not even the images they present of these people are true. If you do just a bit of research you would be astounded to how much editing goes into the photos. So, not only are the people in ads "beautiful" but almost all of them have been retouched. Therefore, the fantasy the ads present us with is impossible to make into a reality. It is all fake.
ResponderEliminarThis also has to do with following the norm. What we think is beautiful is what everyone thinks is beautiful. People need to break away from the group and express what they truly think about something. We are allowed to think something is beautiful even of others would consider it ugly or weird.
I agree with you both. Advertisements are indeed a force to be reckoned with.
ResponderEliminarI remember seeing an add about houses and in the picture was a family of four, all of them caucasian, blonde, and blue-eyed. That is so not average in our country, and most alarmingly is that most of the time people do not notice or question this adds. In that way that picture becomes the reference people have of a perfect family. It's outrageous!
Even though I know all of this I still am not free of the influence that advertisement has over me. Everytime I see an add of a new videogame the first thing I think is "I have to buy it". Which is actually a pretty stupid notion. I sometimes just stop, think and then tell myself " no, Ivón we actually don't need it", and that's it.
So one of the main problems is that adds do not give people time to stop to reconsider their options as they are constantly bombarding possible customers with new products and offers.
I think that one of the biggest lies of advertisement is that you need to be happy. This topic would use too many parragraphs, but it is an interesting notion that not many share.