Last year I realized for the first time why people consider advertising an evil profession. I watched the documentary called “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood” . I have to say that I was both disgusted and intrigued at the same time. For those who've never seen the documentary, it's about a time during the 90's when businesses/ advertisers would gear their ads towards kids.
I couldn't decide if I liked the idea or wanted to think about a career choice. Now don't get my wrong, that was almost 18 months ago. That was back when I only knew of the existence of the evil side of advertising, but yet experienced it. Now that I have a bit more hair on my chest I can now say that the video was a little bias, just a tad bit. I don't 100% agree with the idea of "manipulating", but hey who's keeping score. I think it's a great idea!. If you stop and think about it, americans were spending a lot money for those little tikes. We were living in a time where we as americans felt pretty good about ourselves. The video discussed that it was too easy for the advertisers, it was so easy that congress had to put a stop to it. Congress banned advertising geared for small children for awhile. I believe that alone is enough to make anyone in the industry puzzled. Why stop/change something if it works? Aren't we doing everything in our power to please you and supply you with everything you want? these are the things I would ask myself. If the general public is happy than so is everyone else.
I remember that horrible video! I'm glad to hear that Congress has put a stop to it because it is too easy. I'm in this business because of the challenge I am presented with each day, it's fun. Something like this is elementary (no pun intended) and really terrible at the same time. I don't know why Rakafette (sp?) chose to show us such disrupting videos, that obviously bothered half of the class. Oh well, no more of that. Haha :]
ReplyDelete(Also, I think that last sentence is slightly repetitive.)