@KT53 said I was reading yesterday that a charity to do with food addiction complained about Pru Leith saying a dish she tasted on the Great British Bake Off was "worth the calories". For God's sake, it's a cookery programme and people on it are going to say positive things about the food!
This reminded me of an email asking me to sign a 38° protest. It was for shops to put up signs telling people not to talk or stroke working dogs for disabled. Apparently the shops won’t do it stating that the dog owner must take that responsibility.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Cillit Bang and Shake & Vac were two of the few very irritating adverts that I hated but actually got their message through.
I take your point that we can't wrap people in cotton wool @KT53 but my point is that the gambling adverts in particular are deliberately setting out to exploit peoples' vulnerabilities and illnesses.
I wouldn't mind the cheery / big family / everyone loves everybody and everything etc Christmas adverts quite so much if, occasionally, they balanced them up showing people spending Christmas in a low-key way. Maybe as well as big family gatherings sitting down to a huge meal they could show (eg) a hard worked nurse coming home to a flat on her own but popping a special ready meal in the oven to enjoy on her own in front of the TV with a glass of wine. It can still be festive without making lonely people feel lonelier or like social failures.
John Lewis's best ever advert was the little boy who couldn't wait for Christmas Day. Not because of what he might receive, but because of what he was going to give. That really warmed the cockles of even my stoney cold heart🙂
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
The adverts must be ok. They tell you to stop when you're not having fun anymore. If a gambling addict reads that, they're bound to stop playing aren't they? Simples.
I seem to be managing to avoid more or less all ads these days. I agree in principle though, that they exploit our hang ups and insecurities and weaknesses.
Impossibly shaped men and women selling beauty products, air brushed teeth selling toothpaste, all that stuff - which has an insidious effect on everyone but a hugely damaging impact on a few with specific issues of self esteem and body image.
The gambling and the drinking ones normalise the behaviour for many, so people drink too much and gamble more often than they would otherwise, which is the point of the ad. But for those with a specific issue that constant 'drip' is catastrophic.
Back when we used to see ads, OH and I would often stare at them, baffled, and then comment 'don't think we're the target market for that one'. When you aren't the target, it is much easier to see that there IS a target and that it's very carefully done to push the buttons of a specific subset of the population. Case in point being we can avoid ads because we live a lifestyle that doesn't bring us into their path. Were we more susceptible to buying stuff, they'd have found a way by now to sell it to us.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I loathe and detest the Cadbury's ad which states that there is 'a glass and a half in everyone'. A glass and a half of what? In us? Certainly not milk in their milk chocolate as Cadbury's, now it is owned by a multinational global money-grabbing mega corporation, is not chocolate. But I loathe all ads. en bloc. We are becoming more like America with far too many ad breaks in programmes (it used to be every half hour, then every 20 minutes and now every 15 or even 10 minutes). They might allow a programme to run for 20 minutes to get you hooked into it, then an ad break, then an ad break very 12 minutes or so after that. The Last Leg is a particular culprit.
Be honest,you see the Malteasers advert and want some!! I hate the Flash aha. (I couldn't stand Flash Gordon) my hubby who isn't gullible,did seriously ask me many years ago why I couldn't just get a gras stain for instance out,by just popping a white top in the Washing machine, without scrubbing/bleaching/soaking/swearing!!
all cosmetic adverts which say things like "98% of women surveyed agreed " whilst displaying a subtitle saying " in a survey of 57 people" or some similarly low number. Ditto cosmetic ads which offer pretend science . " hylieronic acid"," pentapeptides" active liposones" etc etc.
I'm a bit sceptical when people tell me they have never been influenced by an advert because advertising works subliminally in two ways. One is that it establishes norms: 40 years ago grooming products were for women . Then we all started to splash it on all over. Now they're a multi- million pound industry and few men would admit to not using deodorant and probably much more. Another way is familiarity. When you buy a product you may well reject the brand you have never heard of. But you may only have heard of the other brand through advertising.
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I was reading yesterday that a charity to do with food addiction complained about Pru Leith saying a dish she tasted on the Great British Bake Off was "worth the calories". For God's sake, it's a cookery programme and people on it are going to say positive things about the food!
This reminded me of an email asking me to sign a 38° protest. It was for shops to put up signs telling people not to talk or stroke working dogs for disabled. Apparently the shops won’t do it stating that the dog owner must take that responsibility.
I take your point that we can't wrap people in cotton wool @KT53 but my point is that the gambling adverts in particular are deliberately setting out to exploit peoples' vulnerabilities and illnesses.
I wouldn't mind the cheery / big family / everyone loves everybody and everything etc Christmas adverts quite so much if, occasionally, they balanced them up showing people spending Christmas in a low-key way. Maybe as well as big family gatherings sitting down to a huge meal they could show (eg) a hard worked nurse coming home to a flat on her own but popping a special ready meal in the oven to enjoy on her own in front of the TV with a glass of wine. It can still be festive without making lonely people feel lonelier or like social failures.
John Lewis's best ever advert was the little boy who couldn't wait for Christmas Day. Not because of what he might receive, but because of what he was going to give. That really warmed the cockles of even my stoney cold heart🙂
Impossibly shaped men and women selling beauty products, air brushed teeth selling toothpaste, all that stuff - which has an insidious effect on everyone but a hugely damaging impact on a few with specific issues of self esteem and body image.
The gambling and the drinking ones normalise the behaviour for many, so people drink too much and gamble more often than they would otherwise, which is the point of the ad. But for those with a specific issue that constant 'drip' is catastrophic.
Back when we used to see ads, OH and I would often stare at them, baffled, and then comment 'don't think we're the target market for that one'. When you aren't the target, it is much easier to see that there IS a target and that it's very carefully done to push the buttons of a specific subset of the population. Case in point being we can avoid ads because we live a lifestyle that doesn't bring us into their path. Were we more susceptible to buying stuff, they'd have found a way by now to sell it to us.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
But I loathe all ads. en bloc. We are becoming more like America with far too many ad breaks in programmes (it used to be every half hour, then every 20 minutes and now every 15 or even 10 minutes). They might allow a programme to run for 20 minutes to get you hooked into it, then an ad break, then an ad break very 12 minutes or so after that. The Last Leg is a particular culprit.
Ditto cosmetic ads which offer pretend science . " hylieronic acid"," pentapeptides" active liposones" etc etc.
One is that it establishes norms: 40 years ago grooming products were for women . Then we all started to splash it on all over. Now they're a multi- million pound industry and few men would admit to not using deodorant and probably much more.
Another way is familiarity. When you buy a product you may well reject the brand you have never heard of. But you may only have heard of the other brand through advertising.