Why you hate Advertising
..and what you're missing
I read this in the book Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.
Dear Ann: I have a problem. I have two brothers. One brother is in advertising. The other was put to death in the electric chair for first-degree murder. My mother died from insanity when I was three. My two sisters are prostitutes and my father sells crack to handicapped elementary school students. Recently, I met a girl who was just released from a reformatory where she served time for killing her puppy with a ball-peen hammer, and I want to marry her. My problem is, should I tell her about my brother who is in advertising?
I mean, where did it all go wrong?
Since the day I entered this vast world of Advertising, I have sought possible arguments that can help form my understanding of this sheer distrust towards Advertising.
This issue of Adamant is long but intriguing. I’ve tried to see it both as a consumer and marketer.
I can’t promise to change your mind magically, and I don’t intend to, but I’m sure you’ll leave with a perspective you haven’t thought of before.
Let’s dig deep 👇🏼
Argument 1 / Do I hate all ads, or do I hate ads that are irrelevant to me?
Listen, I hate ads too (YES! It doesn’t matter that I work in advertising) because it has become my second nature to break down every piece of communication I see. And, it is heartbreaking to see more bad examples that’ll bore you out of your wits than great ones.
Every day, I come across a plethora of content that I don’t find exciting and honestly worth ignoring, but I never have such a solid repulsive response to it. I am sure you feel the same. So what is it specifically about ads that tick us so hard?
I know, I know. We as humans don’t like to be sold, or should I say, we don’t want to know we are being sold even if we are.
Is there something more powerful at play? What have ads done to warrant such harsh reactions?
Anyway, let’s get back to the argument:
Do I hate all ads, or do I hate ads that are irrelevant to me?
See this ad made by Ogilvy for Fortune’s Cooking Oil “Ghar Ka Khana”.
Teary-eyed?
I am a huge believer in the power of data, but not the kind of data that tells you human attention spans have reduced to 6 secs or that people don’t care anymore about what you have to say to them if it’s in the form of an ad.
The ad you just saw is a testament that people will sit through it if you create something worth their time and attention.
Anybody will tell you that grabbing attention and keeping the audience engaged for 4 mins 42 secs is wishful thinking, not to mention that it didn’t have the brand logo until the last 6 secs.
That’s the brilliance of advertising when done right.
So maybe that’s the whole point - the onus of making people watch ads is not on the audience but is entirely on the creatives making it.
I don’t think people hate ads; I believe they tune out anything that doesn’t interest them, as they should.
Argument 2 / Where does my mistrust originate from, and why do I feel agitated and restless whenever I see an ad?
Okay, we can look at this from many angles.
Context and Effort
Nature of Consumption
Woke Washing
First, let’s talk about context and effort.
When I say context, I mean the context of the ad (relevance), timing (what’s my mindset at that given time), and stage (am I actively looking to buy).
When I say effort, I mean the effort put in to create a compelling ad in the first place. It’s a big turn off when you see that the team hasn’t put enough effort into convincing and making you feel important, and I don’t mean trying too hard.
I know! People are picky.
It is a given that people don’t want to be sold to unless they are asking for it themselves.
Ads target a specific audience, so there is a massive chance that out of the ~5000+ ads you see daily, only < 1% would be relevant to you and still might not match your mindset and intent at the time of impression.
Ads that pass this filter and find the right match will finally qualify for further consideration by the customers, with possibly a tiny chance of converting to substantial revenue.
Yep, people who think advertising is easy. Think again.
Moving on to the Nature of Consumption.
Throughout the day, we are surrounded by impulses we usually have no control over until we consciously take action to become more proactive than reactive to the cues that tick us off.
The digital world is created to hook you and provide you with a consistent stream of content that has become a place where people go to relax but are instead flooded with content that makes them feel anxious, inadequate, and incompetent.
People go to find calm in the very place where they find chaos that renders them numb and worthless.
It is a toxic hamster wheel that seems to have no end.
There are many emotions people go through when browsing through these curated profiles that seem perfect to us from the other side of the screen.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not tagging these platforms as evil; it’s just the nature of this arrangement.
Now imagine this scenario - a platform where everyone is anxious and constantly comparing themselves to someone who seems to have a better life than them basis what the other person chooses to post after hours of consideration. Add Ads to this concoction of emotions, and we get a recipe for disaster.
Many transactional Ads tend to sell you a product/service that at the time would add fuel to the fire, causing you to misdirect your anger and agitation to these disruptions that give you a sense that what you have is not enough.
Buy more. Be better.
The reason why I’m not too fond of this cocktail. I don’t personally accept ads that profit from FOMO.
People are already vulnerable, and this is where I draw the line between being an advertising professional and someone who also consumes this crap daily.
I am also not saying that all ads are the same, which is acceptable, but they will still bear the brunt of the mistrust and disgust created by these other ads.
A lot of hate towards Ads is misdirected, but I won’t deny that a lot of it is deserved.
P.S. My life goal is to change advertising for the better, and I know it’s a lofty goal; and I believe change has to come from creatives and clients that produce work that tarnishes the impression of the entire industry.
..and last but not least, woke-washing/false promises.
I am sure this is a big one for many of you reading this issue of Adamant.
The real reason behind people's mistrust of advertising is their immediate mental response to thinking they are being conned by the flowery language marketers use.
No one likes to be influenced into buying something unless they are actively looking for that very thing and people are very aware of this when they see an ad.
How often have you felt [dissatisfied with your purchase]* through an ad? I am sure more than you can count.
*Cognitive Dissonance
Consumers have potential conflicts and expectations that affects their buying decisions and it relates to their feelings about brands and internal logic.
For example - You bought a car thinking it will give you expected mileage but turns out it doesn’t. Before you know it, you’ll start to regret your purchase and feel unhappy with your decision.
Marketers try to be aware of these possible conflicts and create their communication and campaigns accordingly to address these to aid your decision making process.
P.S. What I am talking about is post purchase cognitive dissonance.
Before making that purchase, you might have considered many factors, but even if the company were clear about its product, you’d still feel cheated if it didn’t match your expectations.
Some companies do woke-washing.
What is woke-washing, you may ask?
When brands promise a better future but don’t put their money where their mouth is, what results is the mistrust and anger people feel once they know they made a decision based on false promises.
Similar to what VW did for many years. Disgusting to see this from a legacy brand.
..and what was their response to the emission scandal 👇🏼
So yes, these are some possible angles to see where our mistrust originates. We’ll discuss it in detail in later issues of Adamant.
Moving on.
Argument 3 / What would the world look like if advertising didn’t exist?
Incredibly tasteful, isn’t it?
Let me give you a very different perspective.
Imagine you walk into a showroom (in a prime location, otherwise, you won’t know it existed) to buy a car, but there are no signages to tell you more about it. No salesperson is hired because advertising doesn’t exist.
How will you make the decision?
You’ll be restricted by options in your vicinity since you won’t know what other companies are there in the market to buy from.
How will you compare and negotiate?
It is easy to say, “Advertising sucks! I wish it didn’t exist in the first place.”
But, a world without advertising is a world without endless possibilities.
It is not evil (unless used for this very purpose), but it is definitely necessary.
A world without advertising will be a world not worth living in,
Free access to Information will disappear.
You will have to pay for any service you want to use, which won’t be many to pick from since revenue comes from advertising to keep these valuable mediums up and running. Most services like YouTube, Maps, etc., will go out of business, and no advertising revenue will even force platforms like Wikipedia to constantly ask for donations. Sure, some things will still exist, but the downside heavily outweighs the upside.It will become easier to form Monopolies, and capitalism will be threatened.
Since competitors can’t advertise, companies with a first-mover advantage will be able to do backdoor deals with vendors and suppliers and drive competition out of business. More so than that, consumers would not even know that there are alternatives since advertising doesn’t exist. This will be terrible for consumers because of price control over the market and end badly for the employees since they won’t have any other choice but to work at a place that matches their skillset, so they will continue to endure unfair treatment.We’ll teleport back to the former Soviet Union with plain packaging and horrible product quality.
You will be unable to differentiate toned milk from the almond mind, you will be unable to choose which cheese you want for your pizza, and there will be no way for you to have as many options as you have today if advertising didn’t exist. The product quality would deteriorate because no feedback given by the customers will be incorporated since monopolies will be ruling the market, and other options would not exist; hence there will be no incentive for them to change.
It will become impossible for Entrepreneurship to flourish.
Without a store at a prime location, it will be impossible to build a customer base since drive-bys will be the only traffic source. The real estate prices will also skyrocket due to this. Also, the threat of established businesses wanting to drag you out of business will be imminent.
So yeah, I will vehemently believe that a world without advertising doesn’t seem interesting enough to live in.
Yet, I do not deny the consequences and malpractices that exist because of it. But, I find it somewhat unfair to judge the essence of advertising in our lives when the pros outweigh the cons.
Give Advertising the respect every other artistic expression commands, and you’ll see how much there is to learn from the geniuses who have contributed to creating work that defines how we see the world.
This article was pretty long, and there is still a lot I haven’t covered in this issue, but there’s a long way to go, and I will share my perspectives as we move forward.
Listen to this Spotify Playlist I made that goes well with everything you read here at Adamant 👇🏼