Advertisements Are Really Funny
- Aidan J
- Sep 15, 2018
- 3 min read
I’ve recently ran out of my stockpile of podcasts that I listen to in the car, so I’ve had to turn on the radio. This is the worst possible world.
Of course, when I turn on the radio, I get one song, and then enough ads that, if they called shotgun, would accompany me all the way on a road-trip to Texas. That’d be painful. Nobody likes listening to ads, probably not even advertising agencies.
They’re just marketing ploys, right? They give us a spiel, say it’s only available at Lowe’s, and it’s on a super-secret 50% sale from the marketed price, which is twice the normal cost. They’re scams trying to get us to spend our hard-earned cash on sub-par products.
Maybe this is why we like small businesses. They don’t seem as mechanized as the corporation giants that constantly shove advertising down our throats.
There’s something weird about the advertisements though. They don’t just say “we have the best deal so spend your money here.” Some do, for sure, but there are plenty that go to the trouble of mimicking Handel’s Messiah, or making mock, “funny” conversations with made up people to talk about the joy of house paint (that sounds as boring as ceilings). We have Phil Swift, who is the icon behind Flex Tape. For posterity, I’ll let you know that Flex Tape commercials became memes because they were so absurd compared to what they expect. My favorite was using Flex Seal to fully repair a metal boat sawed completely in half so that Phil Swift can sail on shark-infested waters. They’re insane, inane, and downright hilarious.
But why don’t we enjoy the others? Why are they not fun? During the Superbowl, companies compete to fly the funniest ad during the show. This last year’s Superbowl was poor in that aspect—the only company that tried was Tide. For the next three weeks on the internet, people commented on every piece of subversive content, asking “is this a Tide ad?”
During that American pseudo-holiday, people are relaxed and nonchalant enough (and intoxicated enough) to just look at what the commercials are doing, not the companies. Most commercials try to be amusing, and they usually succeed. But people never appreciate them outside of the Super Bowl. They don’t listen to what they’re hearing, but instead remember what the company is saying behind the advertisement: buy from us so that we can make more goods for you to buy.
I presume that most of us can force ourselves to look at advertising for what it is outside of the Superbowl; it’s just not our natural reaction. We all hate how prolific advertisements are in our culture. It takes away from good entertainment, discourages free thought, et cetera. The advertisements aren’t disappearing, though. With the repeal of internet safety regulations and private companies introducing ad-block blockers into their sites, advertisements may even become a singularity-- everything will be an advertisement. If this happens, we need a way to preserve our sanity. I propose that we take the stoic path to appreciate commercials for what they are.
We must learn to love them.
In other words, we need to adopt Stockholm Syndrome.
In other words, there does not seem to be a rational solution.
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I was expecting an advertisement at the end not gonna lie :P.