I believe that we as humans are constantly assaulted by the media and advertising. Especially in New York City, and so much so that we are in effect desensatized by the mass of the advertising. Everyday when i wake up on my way to school there are millions of images that I am bombarded by and my mind is forced to take in and proccess. The media afectds me intensely becasue of the overall volume of it that i am subjected to.
Everyday, i watch TV, and when i watch TV, I am shown advertisemrnts and promos for other shows and the shows that i like have crossocer speacials with the other shows that i ahte. Soon enough i am tricked into or honestly intrigued by the shows that Iu previously disliked, or had minimal interest in. When my family from overseas come to America, they are shocked by the amount of commercials ort adverts as they call them adn that we truly have almsot nho real television programs on.
Another way that advertising affects me is by hitting close to home by taking a piece of my culture and portraying their product an esential piece of it. For example, the ad campaign featuring every top athlete in proffesional sports sweating dropletts of Gatordae is intoxicating to the mid. That makes one believe a link between performance at a proffesional level and drinking a colored water. Now, Gatorade is a staple in a young athletes life becasue of how cool they think it is and more than cool, nescessary to play sports. Water is now laughed at and undesired among teen athletes.
Another way that Sprite has tried to advertise in a way that infects the urban culture is that it has linked itself with hip-hop and rappers. Fans of hip-hop then repond greater to a product endorsed by an idol than a simply informational fact ad about the beverage. Soon ebough, they have blurred the line ebetween what is your culture and what you use becasue of who you are and why your using Sprite at all!
Posted by at November 5, 2003 10:25 AM