Archive for the 'silly observations' Category

Advertisements are becoming more and more invasive and sometimes discreet in our daily lives. Advertising started out with a campaign like “Take stick. Stick good. Hit things.” Soon marketers smarted up and started to lie to sell their products: “Snake Oil: it cures what ails ya!” After some time, as consumers became more educated, jingles were introduced to create a happy feeling associated with a product. “I’m Chiquita banana and I’ve come to say…” More recently, product placement and celebrity sponsorship has taken hold. The psychology of this advertising has people convinced that “that basketball player wears brand X shoes, and he’s a good basketball player, therefore if I wear brand X, I will play basketball well.” Or “he’s hot; he drinks Coke; if I drink Coke I’ll be hot too.” The most recent wave of advertising is known as viral advertising: the consumer knowingly or unknowingly advertises on the behalf of the company. Email forwards, YouTube videos and BitTorrent have all been used. Have you seen the recent Domino’s Pizza videos? I haven’t, but I did hear about them.

Just yesterday I was rock climbing and I saw this little old lady, probably about 70, belaying. She looked like she could be Mennonite, with her simple clothing, pale yet aged skin, her long gray hair tied up in a bun. At first I thought, “wow, that’s cool; she’s helping her son and daughter-in-law rock climb.” Half an hour later, however, I turn around and she’s climbing up the walls like spider woman! Clinging to negative inclines posed no threat to her super-human powers. Was I witnessing the next generation in advertising for modern mature lifestyle enhancement drugs? We shall see, we shall see.