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Jeremy Reed

Professor Bender
English 101
3/29/2016
Advertisement On Demand
"People don't buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons." Zig Ziegler.
Consumers see advertisements. Even when they arent aware of what they
are viewing. Buyers hear advertisements. Even when they are not aware of what is
being vocalized. Children sing to them on the way to school. Parents wake up in the
morning to that cup of Folgers coffee, The best part of waking up.... No doubt
consumers never knew how affected they had been. The first glimpse of themselves
in the mirror did not seem to be a satisfying one. Today, consumers are more
infatuated with the thought of living up to the advertisement standard. Two very
important aspects of advertising in present time is their use of social media to
attract consumers and their use of celebrities. Both having a never ending impact
on the average buyer. They are persuasive, and the average person may not be
able to see past the smoke screen. However, consumers deserve to know the truth
behind what they are buying and how these forms of advertising truly affect them.
Advertisements are defined as: something (such as a short film or a written
notice) that is shown or presented to the public to help sell a product or to make an
announcement. Advertisements are a relentless assault on the subconscious with
only one goal in mind that being to attract more consumers. Attract consumers in
such a way that they feel inclined to purchase. Advertising robs us of the most

intimate moments in our lives because it substitutes an advertiser's idea of what


ought to be. (Chiat 2000) wolves in sheep clothing can be one way to describe
advertisements. The average buyer parades around in the latest fashion, flash their
shiny jewelry, scroll down their Facebook pages on their shiny new tablets, tablets
which have lost half of their value as soon as they were removed from the
packaging. Whether consumers purchase to stay warm or purchase to stay relevant,
the marketers goal is completed every time a card is swiped, every time cash is
exchanged, or every time a customer agrees to a term that is not their own.
Consumers have given away their right to think, observe and react. They have now
allowed themselves to be consumed into a paradigm where they are told what to
buy, when to buy, and how.
Advertisements and celebrities are so crucial in the everyday fillers in this
time the we call life. Whether opening a link and finding it full of advertisements or
turning on the television to see Michael Jordan in a Nike shoe. Its not easy to
maneuver around whats in every crevice and hole consumers choose to venture
into. Advertisements are neither good nor bad, their meaning is highly dependent
on what perspective they are viewed in. Which in turn determines their worth. Do
not dislike ads. It is better that consumers find them amusing. Consumers should
use what they need but shouldnt allow ads to persuade them into believing that
they live in a truly perfect world, or that what they have is what theyre worth. Im
no longer swaggering around in overprice Italian shoes till I can book a flight to
Italy, on my road to recovery, I have continued to purchase clothing sensibly
priced. And every now and then, the money I save goes towards a Broadway play or
a vacation in the sun. (Chiat 2000)

After an infomercial where any given medicine may be being advertised,


viewers hear something that starts with, some side effects are. This rapid word
combination is the advertisers commitment to truth. While consumers are warned
of the many different side effects for this one medicine. They are also observing a
visually stunning beautiful video of a happy human being in a field of flowers
smiling from ear to ear. Strolling in slow motion to a tune that is all to pleasing to
the ears, consumers often forget what they are hearing and focus on what they are
seeing. The truth that consumers see is quite difficult to spot in most
advertisements as humans have become a race of material beauty than a race of
self-aware self-confident people.
Advertising including movies. TV, and music videospresent to us a world
that is not our world but a collection of images and ideas created for the purpose of
selling. (Chait,2000). Its not easy being on the losing end of an agreement you
never consented to. There are endless amounts of tactics used today that slip under
the radar leaving the consumer unaware that they have in fact been affected by an
advertisement at all. Affecting people more and more each day is their interaction
with social media.
Social media used to be a safe haven. A place to find friends, chat, and
observe like-minded people who they may one day choose to friend. The entire
paradigm has changed since those wonderful times. Consumers are no longer home
away from home. Buyers are now in the Lions den and they are Daniel praying not
to get bit by another Advertisement. According to (Kemp, 2015) based on a study
done from We Are Social 2015 from 7.3 billion people in the world, 3.1 billion have
access to the internet, while 2.2 billion are active users of social media platform for
various reasons. Moreover, key web-sites of this platform based on the number of

users of by ranking are: Facebook with 1.490 B users, Twitter with 316 B active
users, Google + with 300 B users, Instagram 300 B users, etc. (Beqiri, 2015). Here
lies an immense numbers of targets to capitalize on in this market. Competitors
over the last decade seem to have perfected their sales pitches. They have
mastered layout, position, colors that evoke emotion, and sounds that evoke
emotion. As if this isnt a big enough elephant in the room, they now target
consumers directly. The elephant is now staring at their soul. Anything that is
searched inside of the social media platform and outside, all this metadata is being
collected reviewed and regurgitated back to you in the form of an advertisement.
Say for instance a consumer feels overweight, and has recently googled weight loss
pills. The next time they log on to Facebook they may have a very high chance of
seeing numerous ads pertaining to weight loss. It is an inescapable cycle. Not only
will they see this advertisement, but the algorithm for attracting customers is so
deep that consumers might have products sent your way with your favorite
celebrity endorsing the same type of product. This takes consumers into a whole
new world of buying. The twinkle twinkle little star universe. Where a star is
everything.
Many buyers complain about lack of funds. Consumers have allowed
themselves to become the prey and quite literally have allowed the Vultures to have
an easy hunt. Heads high and stomach full companies fly back to the nest to rest on
their residual, income, hatch their next plan, and laugh as they watch the average
American go broke. I refuse to tote a 500 baguette until I can fill it with an equal
amount of cash (Cleveland 2001). The celebrity doesnt help the consumer share
this view or even get close to this very rare but wiser train of thought. This is the
celebrities use. Simply, bypass statistics, and bypass the ever evasive truths.

Celebrities must smile, dance, laugh, and commit all they can to making the product
look great and appeal to the target audience. This is a method that has worked over
and over again for Generations. Celebrities embody unique images and transfer
these representative images to the products they endorse (McCracken 2004).
Another source states The power of these messages lies in their unrelenting
pervasiveness, the 24-hour-a-day drumbeat that leaves no room for an alternative
view. (Chait, 2000) Celebrities are very important in major companies advertising
strategies.
In Conclusion, consumers see advertisements even when they arent aware
of what they are looking at. Buyers hear advertisements even when they are not
aware of what is being vocalized. A decade ago when the world was different,
celebrities engulfed the forefront of advertising. They played an important role and
still do in modern times. As times have changed the angle on advertising has
changed. With social media attracting billions of consumers into one place and
giving them instant access to some of their favorite products and opportunities.
Many strategies are used today in attracting consumers. Celebrities and social
media are just small parts of the big whole of advertising. They are also very
important. In this world where everything is sold to a consumer it is imperative to
know what is being sold, and exactly what they are buying. Consumers should
search to understand what they are being shown, decipher it, and carefully choose
what is real to them.

Beqiri, Gonxhe. "The Impact of Social Media on Higher Education in Kosovo: The Students
Perspective." AJIS Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (2014). Web.
Chiat, Jay. Illusions Are Forever. Mirror on America. Ed. Joan T. Mims and Elizabeth M.
Nollen. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Page 212. Print.
Choi, Sejung Marina, and Nora J. Rifon. "Who Is the Celebrity in Advertising? Understanding
Dimensions of Celebrity Images." J Popular Culture the Journal of Popular Culture 40.2 (2007):
304-24. Web.

Cleveland, Delia. Champagne Taste, Beer Budget. Mirror on America. Ed. Joan T. Mims and
Elizabeth M. Nollen. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Page 217. Print.
Stever, Gayle S. "Fan Behavior and Lifespan Development Theory: Explaining Para-social and
Social Attachment to Celebrities." Journal of Adult Development J Adult Dev 18.1 (2010): 1-7.
Web.

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