We learnt from the textbook that one of the first things that advertising has to do is to cut through all the tasteless clutter that is surrounding us in our everyday lives, like overly muscular men in bikini briefs posing to showcase his house (and more likely his 'masculinity'), to 'energy' drinks which basically give you a sugar rush trying to draw attention by attempting to be cheeky and naughty. Gee. But has advertising become mere attention seeking? I hope that the person who coined the phrase, 'All publicity is good publicity', be condemned to an eternity of watching a loop of attention seeking antics from people or organizations.
A saying goes, 'Simplicity is indeed often the sign of truth and the criterion for beauty.' Well said, well said indeed. I am pretty sure that this applies to advertising as well. All too often, we see advertising trying to do too much and in the end, the message that was supposed to be brought across is distorted or even lost in the sea of the so-called creativity. But often, in chasing after the holy grail of advertising, creativity, one forgets the basic foundational rule, simplicity.
However, simplicity doesn't mean boring, or conventional, or simplistic. Albert Einstein said that 'everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.' I find that we, as human, have a tendency to try to make things as complicated as we possibly can, perhaps to discourage other intelligent life forms from understanding us?
Leonardo da Vinci said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and words truer have never been spoken. I remember that in Professor Armstrong's media effects class, I was asked what was my life philosophy. Although it didn't come out right at that time and people found me weird, I stated that I try to live my life as simple as possible. I try to take a more utilitarian approach to life by trying to get things that are well made and lasting so that I can reduce clutter. I am by no means an ascetic; I am still tossed about by the tempestuous waves of fashion and trends.
But I try to keep things as simple as possible. And I hope that this philosophy will carry into the way I approach our COM 443 assignments. I acknowledge that I have a tendency to try to cram as much things as possible into a 'space' and that sometimes doesn't work out so well, perhaps due to this little thing called information overload.
Anyway, back to advertising. For me, what will really catch my attention, besides skimpily dressed beautiful women (I said catch my attention, I did not say for me to find it well done), and great layout, and graphics, and creative concept, is the copy. Of course, nice pictures and all those emotional, touchy feely stuff affects me too but the copy is the icing on the cake for me. The copy, essentially, is the wording of the advertisement. Being a word person, I appreciate the precise use of words to convey something, the elegant turn of phrase, the humorous word play, the clever build up and punchline, the unexpected phrasing. For me, the copy is the deal clincher, the knockout punch that seals the deal.
But to others, different components of advertisements would be what they look out for and to them, that is what makes a good advertisement. One man's meat could be another man's poison, so to each his/her own. You may find someone's idea of a great advertisement not to your liking, but remember, you are just one person. If the advertisement managed to get circulated around, there are definitely more than one person who liked it enough to risk finances on it. Either that or companies just have blind monkeys randomly tossing darts at proposals to decide which concept gets done next (Hey, blind monkeys need to eat too, no?).
With that, I leave you with hopefully, thoughts about advertising, and definitely, a picture of a cute monkey.
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