The Problem With Urban Advertising

When Corporate Ads Rule Our Cities

In America, we pride ourselves on choice. We are offered a wide array of goods and services and we have seemingly endless ways to spend our money. Because of all of this choice, companies fight hard with one another for our dollars partly through the use of advertisements. While I will be the first to admit that some advertisements can be funny or useful, most are just a nuisance. Sometimes, ads become so prolific that they seem to reinforce the commercialism that represents America, and I believe that this is a problem. I take particular offense to the number of advertisements that appear in cities, whether on highways, streets or buildings. 

What's Wrong with Urban Advertising?

When you turn on your TV, browse the Internet or walk into a store, you are offering permission to be shown ads; you could easily avoid advertisements by not participating in these activities. Now of course, everyone needs to enter the commercial world from time to time, but in this context advertising makes sense. 

However, when you choose to drive to work, walk down the street or relax in a park, you are not participating in a commercial activity and have not given permission to be shown ads. When advertisements, such as the McDonalds fries pictured above, dominate the urban landscape, cities transform from whatever you want them to be into an extension of our commercial culture. City street and airspace are public goods and for the most part, you can not and should not alter your use of these areas in order to avoid ads. Advertisements simply should stay away and companies should be forced to respect public space.

My main reason for rejecting urban advertising is that it is simply unpleasant. Imagine yourself strolling the tree lined streets of Paris, marveling at the beautiful architecture your see. Now imagine the same streetscape where half of the street was devoted to Coke ads and the other half was plastered in Pepsi. You would suddenly be missing out on the beauty of the city itself, as the street converts itself into a product. 

Sex in Advertising

Sex Appeal Makes us Shop

In my last post I talked about the disconnect in advertising, but today I wanted to more specifically examine the way that sex is used in ads. Sometimes it seems appropriate to use some sex appeal when trying to sell something, particularly when the product is related to physical attractiveness, but sometimes it seems pretty far off base.

Before we look into specific ads, it begs to be asked if using sex in advertising works. YES. Sex is the strongest psychological trigger that humans have, so using sex as a way to showcase a product will make a potential consumer more likely to pay attention. It almost always works at least this well. Sometimes, when ads are well done, they can make you feel on a more subconscious level as though having the product will transform you into the attractive person in the ad.

So now that we have decided it works, let's see some ads! I will start with some harmless ones, but if you keep reading through, I will show you some that really cross the line!

Ad 1: California Sun

I would say that this ad is pretty harmless. It's display relates to the product; the woman is shown wearing a bathing suit on a beach and the ad is for a tanning product. It's a good fit, the woman appears satisfied and all together the ad is not unrealistic.

Ad 2: Abercrombie and Fitch

This one is a little bit stranger than the one before it. It is a clothing advertisement so a bit of sex appeal would make sense. A bit. This ad shows about 4 inches of jeans and a belt, not a great way for Abercrombie to display what it's clothes look like! The rest, maybe 2 feet of space is just a man's chest. Looks great, but it's a stretch to say this is really a clothing advertisement.

Ad 3: Toilet Paper...

I love this. Two nearly naked people standing near a toilet in a toilet paper ad. If you ever asked me what the least sexy thing was I may have said toilet paper. But to this company it does not seem to matter. Toilet paper will do NOTHING to make you sexier. I see no reasonable case for this ad. But still, I would say this is at least harmless.

Ad 4: Dolce & Gabbana

I believe this ad was posted in 2007 and as far as I know it is universally seen as extremely controversial. Okay so it passes my measure of showing clothing, but pay attention to the scene. The woman is being forcefully held down by a man who is lurking over her while others watch ominously in the foreground. This conjures up images of a gang rape. It says to men, "wearing these clothes will make you attractive enough that you can have power over women" and it says to women "no matter how good you look you are weak, men will take advantage of you, enjoy it." Bad.

Even after this I have to say the worst is yet to come. This time in the form of a video.

 

Louis Vuitton. Tell me this isn't the saddest ad you've ever seen. It shows a drugged up woman wandering the streets and having sex with a man in a car and then glamorizes it. This woman is a prostitute wearing designer clothes. This ad has clearly stepped over the line.

I hope you've enjoyed these ads, let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Uncovering the Advertising Trap

How Advertisers Misrepresent the World

Here I was sitting on my computer the other day planning out the things that I would buy after I graduate and I decided I would love a new BMW. I read all about their program to give college graduates a discount and I thought wow this is great, and after all it is in American blood to shop endlessly. But then it hit me all at once. I cannot afford a BMW. Why? Because I'm 19! No 19 year olds should be expect to be able to afford a BMW!

I thought more into this and I began to see very clearly that there is a huge disconnect in advertising. Ads almost invariably focus on youthful people who in many cases cannot reasonably expect to afford the things being shown. If I were to purchase a new BMW at a young age, I would probably be set far back in my short-term financial goals.

Look at this crazy BMW ad that I found. It is in fact so descriptive of what I am trying to get across that I am tempted to just stop writing. This advertisement features an attractive young couple in the act of making love, but the woman's face is replaced with a picture of a BMW. This ad says "Buying a BMW is sexy and you should do it because it will make your life better." Well, it will make you life better with a perhaps 300 or 400 dollar car payment if that's what you mean. I will later do another post on sex in advertising.

On the flip side of this, we are primed to make judgement about older people doing "young" things and driving "young" cars. If we see a 60 year old man driving a BMW we may think it's strange. Reality check, that's normal. That is the real target audience for luxury cars because older people can afford to buy them.

The world of advertising has flipped our perceptions of life backwards and we do everything that we can to hold onto our youth. I think people should become more comfortable with living as themselves and being able to make choices without falling into an advertising trap.