We see them every day, everywhere we go, whatever we do – advertisements for products and services plastered in front of our faces. And of course it is a huge business. Good advertising tricks the average person into believing that they need a product or service even when they don’t, and the tricks are usually sublimal and well constructed. They play on a person’s imagination and portray life as dismal and pointless without the given product in their possession. The thing is, we all know this advertising technique and yet we still get caught. This is the true sign of just how effective good advertising can be for businesses.

But some advertising goes too far. Sit down and watch TV for a night/day and take notice of what is advertised most. A few stand out in my opinion: toilet rolls, shampoos, new cars, shaving products, tooth cleaning products, perfume, car insurances and mortgage lending serices. I live in England, so maybe it is different in your part of the world, but I imagine you have certain products that stand out above the others, no matter where you are located.

And they are definitely way over the top. Take toilet rolls for example – a basic requirement in most westernised countries, but I sometimes wonder why they bother even advertising this product at all, when it is considered that we will buy them whether they are advertised or not. But not only are they advertised, over and over and over, they use all kinds of mind tricks to make us buy a particular brand. Andrex is a classic. They use a cute little puppy as their main theme and make out that the whole ‘wiping the anal passage’ experience is something we all should look forward to in our daily routine. Now, maybe I am a bit strange and miss the point here, but to me, the clean up operation after secretion is not the highlight of my day. And I certainly do not think of cute little puppies at any point during the process. In my opinion, advertisers would be far better focussing on the particular biodegrable qualities of their toilet paper and how it is made from recycled products, rather than trying to push some stupid idea that a puppy pulling toilet paper around the world is a good reason to buy.

And what about this whole shaving and toothbrush/toothpaste advertising concept? It’s crazy. You have everything from fighter jet pilots to astronauts, raving on about such things as Mach 3 and G-Force just to make us buy a razor! And the handles of these products seem to be the main focus more often than not. What’s that all about then? They try to mislead us into believing that they spend millions on designing these elaborate, sophisticated, high-tech handles in laboratories with hundreds of employees in ultra-white coats working around the clock, just so we can shave and brush our teeth more easily. Get a grip people [pun intended]. These are just everyday items that do not need wads of cash to be invented. Hell, I could probably sit down for one hour myself and come up with 100 designs for each – and they would work. Really!

The thing is with all of this, it makes me really think about why it is exactly that I buy one brand of product over another. For instance, if I am in the mood for a bowl of cornflakes, I will always buy Kelloggs and no other brand. Is this because I have been brainwashed by advertising though, or simply because experience has taught me that any other brand just does not taste quite as good [in my opinion]? I would have to say the latter in this instance, because I have tried others and do not prefer them over Kelloggs. Likewise, we bought a new car recently, a Citroen C4, [you know - the one where they use the transformer, dancing car as the advertising gimmick] and as much I think it is a great advertisement in terms of entertainment, it had absolutely no impact on our decision to buy this car. Let’s face it, there are too many other considerations when buying a car to be caught up in the advertising hype as well.

However, there are other times, and other products, where I think I am influenced by the advertising techniques. When shopping, I do go for the popular brands in many instances and this is solely because of the advertising, because of the fact they are a recognised name and I associate with them because the advertising has made me aware of their existence.

So, what to do about it? Nothing really! Except, just be more aware that advertising can easily mislead us if we let it’s ‘power’ lead us astray.

Don’t believe me? Watch this video below…

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