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Previous Columns:
A Wooden Block Worth its Weight in Gold
It's Not What's on the Surface That Really Matters
Seven Mantras to Survive The Sleepover
What a Surprise (After the party nonsense)
The Greatest Gift of All (Birthday related nonsense)
Heatwole: Hero, Criminal, or Scapegoat?
Cell phone conversations: the new reality show
Life doesn't necessarily fit into pre-made forms
If only [what hangs on] these walls could talk
What I did for summer vacation
The red and the gray: a not too civil war
A fair weather friend she's not
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Advertising Pollution
“In antiquity there was only silence. In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the machine, Noise was born. Today, Noise triumphs and reigns supreme over the sensibility of men.”
Luigi Russolo (1885–1947)
Today I scrambled for my cell phone as it rang, paused to listen to my front doorbell, jumped when I thought the smoke detector alerted me to a potential fire and became ill when I heard “I’m so and so…and I approve this message” for the umpteenth time.
The thing is, it wasn’t my cell phone, my doorbell or my smoke detector. At least not the ones I own. It was the radio and television and their ever-annoying commercials employing the use of common noises to get my attention.
Not only the common noises but now local car dealerships have resorted to adding this season’s favorite political campaign slogan to their ads, which for all intents and purposes makes me vow with an intense fervor to never, ever darken their doorstep.
It’s true new campaign laws dictate candidates must add this tagline to their television and radio spots, but I don’t approve it, let alone agree with it, especially when those not required by law overuse it.
I think one of the things (of which there are many) most bothersome about advertisers and their sound gimmicks is this -- when I’m concentrating I notice little else around me, unless I hear the noises I am programmed to respond to happen. Once I hear them, then it’s over. I’m distracted. Begin again.
It’s the same with television. I might be working on something that’s not as demanding of my attention but want to keep an ear open and an occasional eye on perhaps the latest hurricane on the Weather Channel. Same deal.
Common noises, when broadcast over the airwaves, are distracting but when they’re not the real deal, are maddening.
I know it’s the job of the advertisers to get my attention and apparently they’re doing a fine job. They just don’t understand their approach is as aggravating as a cold sore.
Maybe they don’t take into consideration the disservice they’re doing their clients. Don’t they understand I will never use the cell phone service whose advertising consistently fakes me out?
I will never ask for a quote from the insurance company who makes me think someone’s at my door several times a day. And there’s no way I’ll use whatever service or product that makes me want to bolt from my home in fear of smoke inhalation. I still haven’t figured out which company it is. I’ve gotten pretty fast with the Mute button on the remote even while I’m checking my pulse.
It would stand to reason if I feel businesses that annoy me with stupid advertising gimmicks won’t get my money, then it makes sense that candidates who do the same thing won’t get my vote.
However, since campaign law mandates the use of repetitive taglines, I’ll make an exception, especially since the bombardment only occurs every four years. More important, maybe I can find and vote for the candidate who can get that law changed.
I’m Bex Hall and I approve this message.
Copyright © 2004 Bex Hall
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