It is an original work which sprang from muh brain--- -- you friends out there might think I'm jokin but I'm tellin ya-- You never know what some godless soulless lawyer will attempt. just ask Chris Knight-- come to think of it maybe I should before I post this,--I at least wanted to state my ownership for the record. "Welcome to America, we have a spot just for you."
A Biology professor, Bob Futrell held the floor in rapt attention, He repeated his question: "Does anybody in class know why we as humans, are all here today?" This was met with silence, as he knew it would be. "The reason we, the human race are here on planet Earth today is simply this: to perpetuate the race! To make more people, and thus continue ourselves throughout our biosphere!" Spoken like a true scientist. A simple yet complex pearl of truth cast before a room full of lazy young American swine only worried about getting to the weekend as soon as possible to spend what few dollars they could get their hands on. It's a good thing for the advertising agencies Bob Futrell's not in charge of everyone's wallets. We'd have probably just gotten out of the mud huts by now.
The basis of this classification of commercials as a means to some enlightenment comes by way of simply paying attention. The concept of the "American Dream” figures into the American landscape in every way, it looms large over our consumer culture and nowhere is it larger than on broadcast television, a place where a great deal of our attention has been focused all our lives. This is a classification of commercials yes, but in categorizing these thirty or so proposals over the course of a Sunday afternoon or two of "American" football, one idea begins to surface; commercials exist because of human desires and certainly not the other way around.
Analysis suggests the advertising world understands a great deal more about human nature than we realize and also the biological imperative to perpetuate it’s own kind, in fact, commercials are simply human nature on digital display. We are the potential brides and the boys on "Madison Avenue" would love for us to say "yes" to a marriage of their products and our desires.
It's important to understand human needs in a simple context, In 1943, Abraham Maslow wrote an article in the Psychological Review entitled A Theory of Human Motivation, in which he outlined the basic hierarchy of human needs. Maslow's hierarchy states that human needs have different levels of importance. A summation of his work is usually represented as a pyramid, with the base level occupied by mankind's basic needs of food, water, and sleep. An important note as one travels up this pyramid of human needs is to realize the higher needs only come into focus when the lower more crucial needs are met. The next level involves security of body and resources, a shelter of some kind from the elements. The third speaks to the need for companionship, family and to be with one's own kind. Maslow submits essentially that if a person doesn't have food, water or sleep they generally aren't concerned about shelter, and so on up the chain of needs. The hierarchy reads like this; in ascending level of importance: 1.physical necessities 2.safety 3.love and companionship 4.self-esteem and finally 5.self-actualization.
The sample group of commercials was taken from the Fox broadcasting network on the afternoons of September 20th and September 27th during the football games aired, and additional samples were used from one Sunday night’s episode of the very popular CBS reality show The Amazing Race. A real effort was made to include the widest cross section possible for a more true result. Analysis shows a decided slant in the language and targeting of commercials. This should come as no surprise of course but when juxtaposed with this knowledge of human needs, interesting patterns start to emerge. Most people are the consumer in this relationship, the vast majority of Americans going day to day buying what they need and never really thinking about why they choose one fabric softener over another. However to be able to look at the world through the eyes of the advertiser, it only makes sense to take off the blindfold before aiming at the target. In looking at a cross section of 30 different commercials for things as diverse as hamburgers to cell phones, It's obvious that advertisers are trying to bridge the gap between what they know we are going to need and what they would have us to believe that we desire.
This is the connection that advertisers depend upon for their own survival. We as Americans generally don't need much of anything at all by this point in the 20th century. The majority have food and water aplenty, we have shelters and we have our families and significant others. The bottom three most important needs are already in place for the most part in the American life and as a result we see very few true commercials for retail products directed to that segment of society that for whatever reason goes without.
What we do see however is commercial after commercial that aims in someway at the top half of the human needs pyramid. There were only three out of thirty that seemed to appeal to the desire for general friendship and good times. Two were beer commercials and one was for a burger restaurant. In a spot for Bud Light beer an audience is in front of a Billy Mays style pitchman telling us about the newest beer cozy in the shape of a “No1” foam finger. Not only are you and your friends enjoying the game, but now you can have your king of beers and your king of goofy ballpark accessories in one! Truly, life is good. In another spot for Coors Light several friends are innocent bystanders at the press conference jokingly asking their favorite head coaches to approve of their cold beer. In the Burger King ad of this nature Nascar driver Tony Stewart is teaching a course to other b-list celebrities about being a spokesman for a product that you love, because we would never want to lie to our 18 to 55 year old, home or apartment dwellers with at least a diploma and an average income of 25,000 to 45,000 dollars. All three share a weak attempt at humor, with no concrete message other than "Our beer is cold!" or "Our burger is good." the target audience it seems for these is 18 to 55 year old males who only need a cold brew, a flame broiled burger and a good buddy or two to hang out all day and watch the game. The fact that these commercials are being aired on a day that for most people is a day off from work , during a football game is no accident.
It seems the other smallest segment was between 2 to 5 ads that seemed to aim squarely for that segment of the crowd who had reached the top of the pyramid, emotionally, financially and personally. The ads in this segment were decidedly more concise, smarter if you will with a deeper sort of complexity. The most striking one being an ad for Visa aimed at the baby boomer crowd, wherein to the hypnotic strains of The Moody Blues’ hit Tuesday Afternoon, a father escapes to the hypnotic undersea world at the local aquarium with his young daughter. An adventure in quality time is shared on a random Tuesday afternoon just because they can. Visa knows a full segment of it’s customers have not only discretionary income but time off to spend. Another financial companies’ ad echoes the same sentiment to the same group a few ads later. Discover Card shows us an image of people, not so young but not so old riding go karts, black and white, youngish professional regular guys having a beer, an urban (read not Caucasian) father playing video games with his kids. “It pays to Discover” is the tagline. The message being you’ll get even more discretionary income than you already have using our card, with which you can do more of whatever it is you want to do all the time, lucky you! The other desires appealed to in these type ads are morality and problem solving such as the “Lost Dog” ad being presented by AT+T/ Samsung mobile phones wherein attractive college kids use the power and speed of their mobile connections to help find the oddly named lost dog of a small child. The ad seems to imply; “Get our fast phones and forget slow as beans Apple iphone. True North Carolinians like Tyler (the hero) Hansbrough use our phones for good in the world. Gentle hearted viewer, you can too.” Also the acceptance of certain facts for this segment of the market works as well, an ad for Honda Motor Co. is particularly effective at intoning; “Everything we know, in one place.” And then using computer animation they show you what they know. They saw the car in half as it’s rolling revealing the world of expertise and science that has made their car the extremely valuable crowd-pleaser it has proven to be. The implication being they know they have the best made car, frankly they believe you’re smart enough to know it too. Stop worrying and come get your Honda. Traits of self-actualized people also underpin certain values of self-esteem that only serve to strengthen the greater truth of where most commercials are really aimed.
Roughly 20 to 25 out of 30 commercials in the test group speak directly or indirectly to that corner of the general publics’ psyche which in Maslows’ hierarchy is the most unpredictable; the potential buyer’s self-esteem. Who’s to say how this great unwashed mass of buyers was raised? The smart ad agency man realizes we can’t all be healthy emotionally, physically or financially and thus seeks to trade on all those collective fears of inadequacy. There are almost endless avenues of revenue to explore. Sex sells, but moreover, the uncomfortable realization of lack of sex is pushed to the forefront in an ad for Subway restaurants. Each member of the workaday crew is handed his pre-ordered lunch by the boss. However this lunch comes with a side order of truth courtesy of the ladies in the audience. ““Here’s your “not-getting-any” burger and fries, and for you Jim, a bucket of “keep-your-shirt-on.”” The sad looks on their faces make it clear that weighing heavily is not the only thing weighing heavily on their minds.
Other ads seems to want to make sure they save us from being made a fool by spending too much or buying the wrong product such as the Valvoline oil ad wherein it’s implied the spokesman and by extension the company is “just like us.” He’s bombarded with crazy claims about oil, and never really sure if the one oil choice he’s about to make will protect his fragile automobile investment. Valvoline is our big assuring brother who says simply; “Hey buddy, if it sounds to good to be true… it probably is.” Go with the name you trust, and don’t get taken. Some of the other popular veins to mine on the lack of self esteem gravy train are saving money, as in the endless geico insurance ads, shopping smarter is explored in an ad for Aleve where the headache sufferer almost buys four or five bottles of Tylenol only to make the smart Aleve choice before it’s too late. Living longer healthier lives is a common concern of course. A whole army of commercials for various pharmaceuticals and healthy food choices invade our homes every night. Another gambit is urging the buyer to treat themselves to the real thing such as in the latest Energizer battery ads where it’s painfully obvious the competition battery might try to look like the Energizer bunny, but in reality he just doesn’t measure up. Advertisers know if they can get us to believe that choosing their brand is the smart choice, they are playing to our desire for a boosted confidence, our sense of achievement, and desire to respect ourselves and be respected by others.
I don’t know what they teach on day one in marketing class but surely no lesson could be more useful than what people want. As a person desires so then goes their hearts, their time and ultimately their purse strings. This is the proverbial sweet spot for advertisers then, the perfect fit they are all searching for, matching a personality to a product, through a number of ways, but finding their greatest success with the largest audience by playing on insecurity.
They know if they can plant the notion that if we could just fill the gaping hole in our lives, where something of real value is missing; with their product, the union would then be complete.... and thus another lifelong consumer is born.
