Blog #6: Korova Milkbar

This weekend, I had the unique opportunity to view a "viddy" of the old age. Until this blog topic helped me realize that product placement is a relatively new concept (since the early eighties), I figured it was just a part of movie making. I thought movie making relied on this advertisement funding to help better their sets. As I discovered, movies apparently were made without product placement and thrived...

As teenagers, our counter-cultural (not counter-culture, for some of us do believe in work and war) bias and attitudes tend to align themselves with my generation's abhorrance and ridicule of product placement. (I mention counter-cultural because as noted in an advertising documentary where teens were told to define "cool," teenagers will abhor the idea of proclaiming or even defining/labeling "cool"--it is more of an elusive force that one is either a part of or apart from it. This counter-cultural idea suggests that no matter what the masses suggest is a good product, through advertising, teenagers will counter those examples and find a new trendy "cool".)

As if advertising is trying to play a game of hide-and-seek with teenagers, ads must become disguised and readily hidden if a teenager is going to buy into it. Literally. If an ad agency makes a product as clear as an azure sky of deepest summer, a teenager is going to cry foul and revolt (as the hippies once did) against the masses of corporate ads.

In the years before product placement, simple scenes such as a bartender pouring a beer would have clear glasses without brand names on the beer or other drinks. Clothes were generally more bland, particularly in favor of stripes or more "dressed-up" apparel. No one ever criticized a show for making product placement on the account that it just did not exist.

Today, product placement is an insidious droog that, if not subtle, will have the negative effect on teenagers. A classic example of product placement that was used for satire was the scene in Wayne's World. This comic suggestion of advertisements puts the movie on the side of the viewers, as if the movie were saying "We disagree with product placement in our movies, and we agree with YOU, the viewer!" This subtle yet obvious "alliance" with viewers, predominantly teenagers, only engrains the product further into one's gulliver.

Blog #5: The Indigestion of the Media

Since the media can basically penetrate every orfus of our body, if we so permit it, we must realize first that certain mediums of "media message travel" are more potent and prevalent than others. The most frequently abused medium that I utilize would be the radio; naturally, it would deem a worthy medium with to begin.

Radio commercials target specifically the demographics that most frequently listen to that particular station (e.g., you would not hear a trojan condom advertisement 98.5 KTIS, etc). Likewise, the time of day also plays a significant role in the content of the ads: I found myself humming the "Five Dollar Foot-Long" song from Subway in class the other day. Despite my abhorrance to that commercial, the annoyingly agglutinative jingle stuck with me the rest of the day. Jingles for food items such as that enhance the Decision Making Unit (Behavioral Variable) absorbed by the customer. Basically, if someone is driving, working, or whatnot and happens to be going on several hours without a meal, the almost fat-saturated Big Mac becomes a delectable entity that is that person's choice for food. In addition, commercials such as these expediate the readiness to buy these products. Advertisers will also assume that many radio listeners are driving; therefore, if they make their claim for a product purchase immenant and accessible enough, a consumer could theroetically continue driving to that particular store.

Because radio is commonly the "blind medium," it must make a product's functionality and product attributes much more clear, concise, and memorable. Though people deny it readily, every person actually has some degree of a photographic memory. If a TV is on mute during a commercial, a person may view a promo for an upcoming movie but not hear about it. Yet, if that person happens to be anywhere else and see either one of the lead actors or some part of the movie in print or on display in public (poster, billboard, etc.), they will automatically be that much more inclined to see that movie because the photographic memory will enhance the "remembrance" of that product through association, more commonly known as Classical Conditioning. With radio, they have to assume that you will listen to ads, and with catchy jingles, famous voices, or familiar radio station hosts, a person can relate on a more local level with certain products and markets. And since many radio spots are 60 seconds or less, they must establish enough info and "pizzaz" to invite consumers into the respective retail stores or businesses where they can then demonstrate all of the other product attributes to the consumer.

Continuing on the driving theme, since television viewing is nearly impossible with work and unnecessary assignments such as these (hell, it's almost midnight), billboards are an intriguing form of advertising that is unique in its own way. Specifically, product attributes are rare on billboards unless weasle-word/vague "attributes" are given to the product. An example of this could be Questdex.com: "Fast, Convenient, Easy"... these are all relative propaganda terms that could range from referring to the actual website (given a high-speed connection, with that page bookmarked) or the actual obtaining of the information on the site. To a car passing on a highway going 70mph, a driver will not really think about it too deeply. The visual aspect (as mentioned earlier with the photographic memory) is almost subliminal because of the assumed rate of cars driving on that road. Advertisers do not expect us to watch full-length commercials on billboard stands because it would cause more accidents than bailout-enhanced insurance companies could afford. For this reason, a quick glance at a "slogan" or image of some person/product may be instantaneous to our immediate memory, but to our "hard drive" in our subconscience, it is a now a permanent commercial.

This week alone, after I have seen signs on my way to work, I find myself pondering over the need/want of the actual product advertised when I have down time. It was not until the writing of this blog that I realized that the billboards had subliminally engrained product "want" into my brain. The psychological techniques of conviction and awareness due to the billboards helped me indefinitely consider the product multiple times.

Through both these mediums, they both have significantly different means of how they affect me. I must say, a radio commercial has the equivalent of a billboard when I am not really paying attention to it: the commercial becomes a mind-numbing subliminal message that I inturn remember and process later. The billboards do the same. Likewise, for any billboard to be effective, certain word phrasings (simplicity is the best) and image placements can make or break a whole product or industry. To close, the movie I Love You Man had a scene where the main character's best friend made billboards of the main character to help his house sales. Some of these images were very doctored and erroneous (hilarious as well), but the point was that a billboard out of the ordinary will be noticed and paid more attention to, as in real life. However, for both billboards and radio, the main objective is to draw the customer into the store--it is there that attributes, risks, and other benefits are displayed.