Advertising

It's funny to see how this blog thing works out. If we look back a couple of weeks I was posting on a near daily basis, now you're lucky if I blog an entry every other day. I'll be the first to admit that it really seems to co-relate to my happiness. See I'm not the kind of person to go running around telling everyone I meet how happy I am. So I don't feel highly compelled to tell you all how great life seems to be at the moment. I think it goes without saying that I am having a great time with Deirdre. I'm not going to go into details about it, our private life will remain that way.

But of course since I'm not bitter and angry I seem to have so much less to comment about in the blog...but I think I came across something that could be worthy of the blog yesterday.

I think all of you have seen, at one time or another, a truck driving down a main city road with some large billboard on the back. I've seen some like A-frames, others that were three sided and rotated and I'm pretty damn sure that I've seen some with lights. Well up until yesterday, I hadn't seen any with people! That's right, this truck had people in the back.

At this point I'm sure you are all wondering what kind of advertising would require live people. Well, on this chilly fall afternoon the people in the back were promoting Mexican vacations. See the interesting part was that in order to do this the three girls in the back of the truck were wearing bikinis, in a glass enclosed 'beach' with Mexican music being played over the speakers. A few more details about the ad campaign were found in the local paper by Deirdre.

Now what gets me about all this was a quote in the story from one passer-by, a communications studies major, who said that:

“It’s biased,” he said. “They’re basing this on the assumption that that’s the only thing you’ll find in Mexico. It also contributes to objectifying women.”

Now, I can't argue with the statement, yes there is more to Mexico than beaches and girls, and yes, the ad campaign is objectifying women (but no more than any other ad). See what stuns me is that the response was from someone in communications studies.

There are two major flaws in this persons logic, this person has ignored three key facts:

1) The goal of the advertising
2) The tools of advertising
3) The target audience

See if we look at this logically this ad campaign is nearly perfect.

1) Advertising goals: the ad is from the Mexican tourism industry, now sure, Mexico has plenty of rain forest, deserts and ancient ruins...but when was the last time you heard someone say that they wanted to go on a vacation to some ancient ruins? Which do you think will draw more money? People renting hotel rooms on the beach, or those paying to hire a guide with a couple of mules to take them to some old temples? Let's face it, yes there is plenty to Mexico, but the average, American, tourist is more likely to spend their money on beach resorts than eco-tours.

2) Advertising tools: now this should be obvious to 12 year old, yet alone someone in communication studies, nothing gets attention better than sex. Sex sells. It actually sells to both sexes. The men will be brought in by the thought of beautiful women and the women will be thinking of being the beautiful women, or being where the hot guys go...I really don't know exactly what level it works with on women, but for the most part I'm pretty damn sure it does. Otherwise why aren't all the women advertising household products old, over-weight and not made up?

3) The target audience: come on, this is another obvious choice. Who is likely to take a Mexican vacation, a family of 5 or a frat boy? Now, once again, what will said frat boy be most interested in? I can tell you that you won't find it in Disney Land.

So I really wonder if people think about things or just become indignant over what they want to see as offensive. Ok, the whole thing could be seen as offensive, but you cannot deny that it is also effective, and so long as it remains effective it's going to be around. So either you can get angry over this kind of thing every time you see it, or you can understand it and realize that it's not going to change. At least if you understand it you stand a better chance of not being persuaded by the advertising...now I have to run and get some tickets to Cancun for spring break ;)

Oh, before I sign off, check out Deirdre's blog, she's got a bit of a contest on the go, and having seen some of her work I think this would be worthwhile to win.