June 3, 2012
Advertising is one of primary sources of revenue for many companies, and of primary expenditure for many others.
In order to validate the humongous expenditure on adverts and to optimize the RoI, a lot of researches are conducted to create the right messaging and feeling around the product and the brand to improve the targeting and enhance the effect advertisements have on the audience. Advertising is what enables us to know about the new products and companies in town, gives us options to choose from and thus provides for a better market (going by the age-old 'Competition breeds excellence' adage).
Obviously that is how they try to instill good messaging, but it really annoys me how advertisements imply that the only thing missing in your life keeping you from being truly happy is the one product they are selling.
In the real world, especially in the big cities, there almost is no breathing space without ads. In fact, if you look around right now, I can almost assure you that you will come across at least one piece of advertising in one of the multiple forms available. I loved the concept of a place without ads.
With the 'personalization' and 'social' advent of the Internet, the targeting seems to have started hitting the 'creepy' limit, if you ask me. I mean, just because people on my friend list like jewelry does not mean I do too (yes, I'm referring to Facebook showing me all kinds of adverts regarding jewelry and fashion shopping). IMHO, the Google model is as good as online advertising gets. I'm not saying that there can't be further innovation in the space, but showing ads of things I am actually searching for seems much more sensible to me than showing them to me when I'm communicating with the people in my life. Not just that, Facebook knows (almost) the deepest of your secrets and can sell them to other companies in lieu of advertising revenue.
I really think that the Advertising industry needs a breakthrough/overhaul, but maybe that's just me.