Blog 1: "Visual Pollution"

             Advertising is definitely  growing out of proportion nowadays, everywhere we look there is an ad for something, not only in the streets or other public spaces but anywhere you can possibly imagine. I can totally identify with the author of "Hype" when he states: "No longer are ads confined to the usual places: buses, billboards, stadiums. Anywhere your eyes can possibly come to rest is now a place that, in corporate America's view, can and ought to be filled with a logo or product message".


            With the intention of selling more of their products, advertising firms try to trick us with their disturbing messages in places that you would have never thought of: "You fill your car with gas, and there's an ad on the nozzle", "A company called VideoCarte installs interactive screens on supermarket carts so that you can see ads while you shop", and here I add the example of NYC yellow cabs, as if it wasn't enough with the ads that they carry on top, now the passenger has to stand a screen showing ads inside of the car too!. It gets really annoying having to deal with all these companies that desperately try to sell  their products and services, and the worst is, that sometimes you can't even try to ignore them because they literally place them right in front of your face. As the author claims: "There is nowhere to run".


            Personally I am tired of marketing companies treeating us like zombies, and trying to convince us that their products are the best in the world. Furthermore I think the majority of today's marketing agencies suffer from a complete lack of creativity; "America's Favorite Pen", "America's Most Trusted Insurance Company", America's Best (Enter any product). Please, can't they come up with something better?, seriously some of these phrases are really old and repetitive.


            I don't mind reading or watching ads that are creative or funny, as a matter of fact I really like some, last week for example, I ran into this really creative ad on YouTube, it is an ad for a brand of correction fluid, in the video a bear tries to attack a hunter and when the hunter tries to defend himself and shoot the bear, the video pauses and they give you different interactive options and ask you what the hunter should do and from there you have the option of deciding what is going to happen next. Those kinds of advertisements I think are not only very creative but could prove to be much more effective, That is the direction I believe marketing companies should follow, they have to realize that the world has changed  and so should change their strategies. It is time to reconsider their strategies and move on to more creative and efficient campaigns instead of keeping on contaminating every single space in our lives with their visual pollution.