Commercials. When did they actually become apart of our lives, what was life without them... What is the main aim of commercials anyway =P. Okay, okay, I know that in today’s world, a commercial is nearly everything if you want to sell, buy or bring a new product to the attention of the general public. But hasn’t some things been a bit over exaggerated, not even a teenny weenny bit? In the old days, no insult to instructors :), commercials were short and direct. For example, you wanted to sell detergent, the commercial was about a housewife doing the laundry, then she looked at the camera and smiled and said “for the cleanest results for my families clothes, I use X” and that was it. That’s how it used to be, simple and short. Whether this technique proved to be successful of course, is totally a different question, but you get the flow don’t you? But now, commercials have become a mini TV series of their own. They have really detailed psychological impacts on the viewing public and are using the element of human wants and desires for almost everything; not even letting you think about whether you really need the item or not. It’s all about buying it.
I really admire the person or the group of people that come up with these really smart new commercials. Of course, some are totally stupid (like you end up thinking what the...) but others hit you in an emotional way. I’m sure you’ve all seen the “orkid” commercial, I thought it was a great new way to try and sell menstrual pads to women. Instead of a female jumping around and saying this is so comfortable, I don’t know what I would do without it, it’s taken from the point of view of a father, bringing up his daughter by himself and trying to fill in the missing place of a mother. Which, needless to say, is so very important for a young woman, especially at that age. I thought it was cute and touching and different which made it better than the other commercials, well at least better than the jumping up and down and pouring blue liquid commercials :).
Another commercial I like watching these days is the “Nike” one. You know, how in one commercial a basketball game is being played then suddenly the music stops and everybody tries to sit in an empty seat. When I first watched it I was like “huh!” what does that have to do with Nike? But without realizing it, every time I turned on the TV, I was hoping to see it again.
It was only a commercial you might be saying, and they weren’t even saying how good their product was. But see, that’s the tricks of the trade! Get people to want to be apart of something without forcing them or trying to persuade them. So, if you see me running around in Nikes, you’ll all know why! Heheh =P
Sibel Muradođlu (ELIT/IV)
