Flibbertigibbet

This is one of those posts I preferred to lurk over, rather than contribute. But seeing as how we *all* seem to feel that way, I'll volunteer to be the first penguin in the water. I'm an Objectivist, but hopefully my thoughts will be welcome.

I rarely consciously acknowledge that advertising, per se, is a noble activity - the gospel cry of the capitalist, so to speak. Most of the time, I curse it or do my best to ignore it. I use ad-blocking add-ons (Firefox fan that I am), and my favorite button on the remote is the one that jumps 30 seconds ahead (close second being the one that jumps 5 seconds back). I will subscribe to a service and pay for it directly in order to avoid a so-called "free" advert-supported product.

The fact is, today's advertising, virtual universally, addresses only the base, animalistic, short-ranged, witless fool. Ads are all illusion and no essence, flesh without soul. Even this last year's Superbowl ads were disappointing. It is evident that this is undeniable by the fuss that is made in blogs when someone finds a truly original, creative, high-quality advert and posts it for the enjoyment of all. And it isn't due to the paucity of value (i.e. you have to have something to sell before they'll buy it) of today's products - most of my favorite products have deplorably low quality advertising campaigns.

But, Mr. Flibbertigibbet, if you want to advertise products that you think will enrich our lives, I have confidence that you will do your part to redeem the reputation of that most-sadly-fallen-from-grace evangelism.

Go tell it on the mountain, brother!

As a marketer, your comments wound me to the core!

;o)

Some of those ad services that "attempt" to "target" ads based on page content get very confused over sites that talk about Objectivism. It can be difficult to get them to return unobjectionable ads, let alone ones for products one would actually care to endorse. This coming from my experience with ads on other Objectivism-related Web-o-blogs.

Though if you are planning to sell advertising space for specific products/services rather than subscribe to a service, this problem falls away.

Incidentally (and totally off-topic), have you ever noticed how some of the best and worst TV adverts are for one of the most loved and hated products in America: the car?

~Q

Hey, Flib, as an insider, perhaps you can shed some light on the constraints that marketers face when trying to design objectively appealing adverts?

Qwertz, I've racked my brain and I can't think of any car commercials I've enjoyed, recently. Though, I must admit that those ones about the truck that can stop before going over the cliff, etc. aren't awful.

Not a car advert, but check out this one: galileoblogs.blogspot.com/2007/09/nuclear-fun-this-is-new-television.html

You know, it occurs to me that I always liked those one adverts done by the guy that did "The rest of the story", on the radio. He'd read the ad more like a performance. He sounded believable as if he were really interested in what he was plugging.

Flib, maybe you can do some product plugging via posts. Could you get paid for that? I guess you'd call that a product review, wouldn't you?

I've seen that Areva ad on television and for some reason I had it in my head that it was for a different company like BP or GE or something like that.

One of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x09vZHNWt60

There's also a shorter, narrated version with different music that played in the US: http://actionfigure.com/content/commercials/?Roads527

BMW has some innovative campaigns out there. OTOH, I can't stand the new Chevy commercials - the "An American Revolution" ones. Aack.