Sometimes I want to sell people their own best life, for free. But this idea is hard to fund ads for. Advertisements commonly are designed and paid for to drive product purchase. How might campaigns change if advertising agencies switched from selling products to promoting great choices?
Drink Tasty Soda ⇒ Drink Tap Water
Tastes great, no calories, and nearly-free!
#1 Weight loss supplement for over 1,000 years!
Hot or cold, it heals headaches and fevers!
Goes great with any food!
The idea that the default beverage should have nearly half the calories of the meal itself without any nutrients doesn’t make much sense from a health perspective. Water doesn’t give you the taste and sugar rush of soda but I find it results in more happiness after the first hour.
Watch the Season Premier ⇒ Look at Old Photos
Going through memories gives one a sense of place, reminders of positive emotions and distracts from current problems and issues. Maybe they’d even inspire you to call and reconnect with friends and relatives, gaining you the close connections that happy people have. Note: Facebook actually does this, filling some ad space with old friends’ photos.
Buy Clothes ⇒ Exercise
Makes you feel great and look better whatever you wear. Also prolongs life and costs less than a monthly shopping trip.
Be Connected Anywhere/Anytime ⇒ Limit Checking Email to a Few Times a Day
An electronic fast can have similar benefits to a food one: a sense of distance and control, more time/focus for other things, better planning, and more thoughtful action.
Drive in Style ⇒ Bike Exhilarated, Relax on Public Transportation
If your commute route permits, either pedaling a bike or sitting back on public transportation can be a better option than driving an expensive car to an elusive parking spot.
Buy This to Be Cool ⇒ Don’t Give a Fig to Be Cool
No matter how many cool gadgets someone has, if they don’t have an iNewest they are behind. However, somehow magically, if you just don’t care to begin with, you devalue all the possessions and appear cooler! Who knew. This approach is quite scalable as indifference can be applied to everything except fundamental, physical needs.
Sometimes I imagine a world where most of advertising is done by Consumer Reports http://www.consumerreports.org/, a non-proft that provides scientific, unbiased reviews of many products. I think their aggressive pursuit of truth, to the degree that they don’t accept gifts or advertisements to maintain impartiality, is something unique and special and deserving of replication.
I’ve realized a centralizing theme of my dissents is this: All these ads try to exchange money for feelings. But the tough reality is that you often have to exchange effort for feelings if you want them to last.
Ah, there’s the rub.
Or some of it. What am I missing?
All of this is very smart thinking.
Totally with you especially on the “Buy this to be cool”. Reminds me of one of my favorite books, Alvin Toeffler’s Future Shock written in the 70s I believe, predicting that people would experience a rapidly increasing number of “corporate messages” (ads), particularly in dense urban environments. The thing about this, I’ve come to believe, is that advertisements are carefully designed to make people feel a need; that is to say, that the corporate message is indirectly communicating that we are each as individuals inadequate and need to purchase something to be “normal”, “attractive” … cool. The irony there is that it’s not really cool to accept that – would the Fonz wear a Nike branded tshirt? Some of the brands that strike me as “more legit” cool seem to have accomplished this by being quite careful with their advertising (thinking: Harley Davidson, Doc Martens), and otherwise “OK” brands, at least ones that I didn’t have any encounter with prior to the ad, I have a strong negative reaction to based on how manipulative the ads strike me (American Apparel, BMW).
The seeming counter-example to my theory-let is post-Jobs Apple. Possibly the best brand management in the history of the corporation. I wouldn’t be surprised if even Jobs’ angry public emails were a carefully controlled stunt to give him a bit of “bad boy” rebel/punk air.
FWIW i’ve been disconnected from broadcast TV for 9 years so these opinions are possibly based on media consumption that’s quite out of date.
Ha, you’re totally right Seth: if an ad is able to make you feel uncool, then you *are* uncool, and buying the product won’t solve that. I also agree Apple does a great job of advertisements. If nothing else, they showcase the product itself and the specific, believable ways it can improve your life. For instance, being able to easily have a phone that can do email and play music. Whereas many corporations of the same age and size just say “ours is the best” in an eye-catching fashion.