D-R-E-A: Driven. Resourceful. Energetic. Artistic

Oh advertising. You are so pervasive in our culture. From the moment we wake up and see billboards and posters on our way to work/school to when we fall asleep on our laptops after watching animated characters dance across the screen, you work tirelessly to get across your message.  The constant barrage of advertisements through so many channels makes most of us feel bombarded and irritated at advertisers who relentlessly attempt to shove all of this information and flair down our throats. However, most of us are ignorant of the methods behind the perceived madness of advertisers, especially children.

Our very first thought of advertisers when we were younger were nonexistent. We weren’t quite aware of the role that they played, but they sure made Cinnamon Toast Crunch look good to eat, My Little Pony look oh so pretty, and Hot Wheels look so cool! But apart from those commercials that seduced our vulnerable little minds with fun background music and clever editing to make the toys seem larger than life, there were also the other commercials that pissed us off right before the climax of whatever cartoon we were watching. So there was Pikachu, frightened and unsure as the massive Raichu was thundering towards him. Would Pikachu be able to successfully evade Raichu’s strike? Or would Raichu make a rotisserie rat out of Pikachu? Stay tuned as we keep you in suspense by showing two torturous minutes of ads!

I find it astounding how my perception of ads have changed so much when I was younger. I went from annoyance to amazement in what seems like a matter of minutes; looking narrowly at first but widely now. Now I know that without those commercials, the channel operators would be unable to pay the programmers which would mean no more Pokemon.  This same principle applies to all media including radio, magazines, newspapers, you name it. And because there are so many products which do the same thing but have different names, it’s hard for each one of them to really stand out. That’s why they go to such lengths to make sure that we remember who they are and what they can do FOR US.

There will be hit and misses but that goes to show you that advertisers are human too. They make mistakes, they work under pressure, and some of them don’t even know what they’re doing. So we will get a stupid ad along with a brilliant one, a simple one and a long-drawn out one, and so on. All in the name of establishing a brand that will be remembered and revered

I thank the classes that I’m taking now for this realization and for the knowledge bestowed upon me. Each and every day, my perspective widens as I absorb more information and I am grateful that my naivete is being shattered so I will no longer misunderstand a seemingly abstract concept