Ads Ad Nauseum

According to one source in Louise Story's recent NY Times article Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Likely to See an Ad, a person is subject to 5,000 advertisements every day. That is roughly one ad every 10 seconds of waking life. With this kind of media saturation, it's no wonder that advertisers are conjuring up all kinds of offbeat techniques to stand out amongst the masses.

Recently, CBS launched a campaign to etch network slogans onto supermarket eggs. That's right - eggs that go into your omelets and cream pies are branded with such slogans as, "Find Your Chick on CBS," for the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and, "CBS Mondays: Leave the Yolk To Us." Industry insiders believe that this invasive technique is a hard-boiled case of marketing genius, as CBS Marketing group President, David Schweitzer, boasts, 'It's right in your face, you can't avoid it."

Speaking of viral campaigns that can't be avoided, McDonald's has a new virtual display set up in Amway Arena, Florida. Big Mac's whiz past you as catch yourself humming along to 'I'm lovin' It' (another reason to hate Justin Timberlake, but I digress). McDonald's has been known for aggressive, in-your-face tactics - from the loud clown who looks like he escaped a bad horror flick, to the Monopoly madness that begs you to super size your abdomen. And recently, Mickey-D's was caught red-branded when a "slip-up" clip of theirs appeared smack-dab in the middle of the Food Network's Iron Chef. That's right, during a regular episode of the hit cooking show, a single frame of the golden arches invades the screen. Both the Food Network and McDonald's deny any subliminal scheming, but what all of this goes to show is that technology is being used like never before to compete for consumer attention. At what point does this avant-garde approach become annoying?

A recent 'Got Milk?' billboard emitting chocolate-chip cookie odors received so many complaints from pedestrians that it had to shut down the aromatic assault. Evidently this scheme was offensive to the sick, the hungry, the diabetic, the obese, and general cookie-scent haters. Maggie Lynch, mouthpiece for the Transportation Agency that took down the smelly signs, admits, "We got complaints... It's controversial." Who knew cookies could cause such a ruckus?

Geico similarly lost a $3.2 million dollar campaign to post its ads in tollbooths around areas of New York and New Jersey when politicians and city-dwellers expressed aesthetic concerns. Evidently, some consumers feel they are exposed ad-nauseam to the in-your-face efforts of many marketers, and have made unsavory comparisons of recent campaigns to Las Vegas, touting these tech-laden ads as "trashy." It seems that wherever advertisers turn to try out "experimental" techniques, the age-old "Not in My Neighborhood" notion emerges.

In this highly commercialized environment, subject to the tide of ever-advancing technologies, it is difficult to determine what tactics will captivate - rather than alienate - prospective purchasers. Perhaps it is true that advertisers can only learn by experimentation, for as the article claims: "Ad executives say that new forms of advertising take trial and error."

There is no magic formula for success in this industry. Yet, advertisers must keep in mind the status quo while reaching for the unconventional. I suppose it is only those who are most keenly aware of human behavior, current trends, and popular opinion that can get consumers' attention without driving them away. Ingenuity is an imperative for success, but the sensationalism must not usurp the sensibility, lest the message gets lost in the spectacle. I for one prefer to see my ads, rather cook 'em for breakfast or smell them for dessert. Word to the ad execs: keep it simple, keep it creative, and keep it out of my kitchen.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/CBS_to_advertise_fall_lineup_on_0716.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/05/BAGQDMPQB319.DTL
http;//www.nytimes.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzbwa6PvEE