Not too surprising: advertising mirrors real life.
Of course, it has to make sense - ads mirror real life. Go figure.
How to use this? Back it up a bit.
We know that people compare their stories to others around them in order to improve their own plot and character.
Life essentially is communication via emotions.
Ads use emotions to get us to act - where the balance between emotion and logic meets. (You decide by emotion and justify by logic.)
When I was reviewing some "swipe" files of famous ads (the ones which just continued to run unchanged for decades) - I found a remarkable scene: Ads are entertainment.
They read like Fox News, any mainstream media outlet, and any popular magazine (like National Inquirer.)
People actually want to read a good ad - much like people will slow down to see a traffic accident.
Because it helps them improve their lives some how, some way.
I had to get out and away from most ads for a couple of decades before I could actually learn what they were all about.
Ads use emotion to communicate effectively. Humankind hasn't changed their behavior (much) even though the swapped skins for (pant)suits long ago.
Ads are just as entertaining as anything else we watch or read. In fact, the ads between the shows on broadcast TV are just almost as time-consuming as the show itself.
And is why books are still held as valuable all these years after Gutenberg and his Printing Press - reason? The plot and characters remains constant. On broadcast TV, their is a show for 10-15 minutes, then 5-10 minutes of ads, which are either 60, 30, or 15 seconds long. Each has a different director, plot, and characters. That's the only reason that I see for turning them off. (And gives a new income for a well-liked show - have the characters do the ads in between the show segments, much like "Ron Burgundy".)
Ad mirror life, which is just the same emotional responses we've trained in for so very long.
Of course, the outlet is to get enlightened.
It's just interesting coming back this way again and seeing it with a new view.
Approaching ads as entertainment gives them another reason for existence.
If the screenwriters and directors realized that people were expecting their entertainment to inspire action, maybe we'd see better shows.
Life is just life. For 997% out there, it's all emotional content studied and acted out.
Definitely going to be more fun from here on...
