Have We Entered the Visual World of "Blade Runner?"

[Hemingway Jones]

The lead story on "CBS Sunday Morning" this morning was how advertising is covering virtually every inch of the geography of our lives. They asserted that in the 1950s, a consumer was exposed to 500 adverisements per day; Now, over 5,000.

Advertisements can now be seen on buses, taxis, video screens in supermarkets, on screens in auto repair shops, projected onto floors, in NYC they occupy the fascades of entire buildings (ergo the "Blade Runner" reference), CBS is advertising on eggs, products are being added digitally to television shows, the lines of parking spaces are used, posters are strategically placed in subway tunnels to create moving images like a zoetrope, restrooms are being plastered with images.



Is all of this advertising effective? Is it too much? How do you respond to new forms of advertising?

 

[Hemingway Jones]

My opinion is if it is something I want to know or see, I am very interested. If it involves classic clothing, I will look. If it is not something I am interested in, I tend to look away.

I look at the advertising overload of Times Square as something beautiful and exciting. It doesn't hit me on the enticing-me-to-sales level, but rather an aesthetic level; I think it is beautiful as a colorful work of pop art.

I didn't know that the advertisements you see at Baseball games on the walls behind the players aren't there, but are added digitally.

I knew about advertisements being added to films, but I didn't realize it could be done digitally and even in syndication, after production.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Frankly, I don't think it *is* effective. Once you reach a saturation point with advertising, it just becomes part of the background, and you don't even notice it.

Back in the sixties, the Coca Cola Company did an investigation into the effectiveness of its display advertising -- by that time there were millions of Coke signs plastered around every place where a sign could be plastered, painted on walls, hanging over doors, stuck on windows, you name it. And they found, much to their surprise, that these signs were no longer effective as advertising -- because they'd become so ubiquitous that they were no longer being noticed *as advertising*. They were simply a part of the background, like a chimney or a window or a tree, and they no longer had any meaningful impact on the viewer. People had become desensitized by overexposure. I think we're reaching a state now where the same thing is happening with advertising in general, and all these weird novelty ad campaigns, like with the eggs and all, are simply last-ditch efforts to avoid that.

 

[Matthew Dalton]

Another one that is happening now involves video games. Advertising has been part of many video games for quite a while of course. But now that consoles are able to connect to the internet at affordable rates, they're going to add dynamic advertising to games, probably sport games for the most part.

Say you have a Baseball game you've just PAID for, well there's advertising for real products all over the digital park, then after a certain period, your game downloads new advertising and replaces the old. I really don't like that people have to put up with that kind of thing in a product they have purchased.

But people are going to vote for it with their wallets, if they didn't like it enough then it'd just take a slump in sales and complaints and it'd be gone. It could be done with any advertising medium.

Fat chance of that happening in a world where it is "cool" to pay hundreds of dollars extra for things like clothing, so that you can advertise that company's products for them.

I have to admit; in places like NY that advertising is often pretty. But I find it offensive to be assaulted by it everywhere. Anyone here see that Futurama where they beam the ad's into people's brains while they dream?

 

[Senator Jack]

I've been equating it to Bladerunner for some time now. Don't know about anyplace else, but in NY we've had video screens in elevators for the last few years and there are the screens that are mounted to the subway entrances. I suppose the subway cars and taxi interiors will be next - anyplace where one is captive for more than one minute. (The backs of restroom stall doors perhaps?)

I recall they placed an international ban on satellite advertising some years ago. Imagine looking up into the night sky and being bombarded by advertising.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Matt Deckard]

I think Blade Runner's look was trying to emulat the look that was already in Hong Kong and Japan. New York was catching up and has, though LA is a far cry from the Blade Runner look portrayed. I think LA is just too much of a stew and will take more time before there is enough density in the inner city to warrant that much light at night. Go to LA after 10:00 and it's like walking into the Thriller Video. Go to New York after 2:00am and it's still hopping.

So.. I don't think we are near what was portrayed in Blade Runner. Could it become that way? yeah... though overseas first.

 

[Elaina]

I have a very selective memory process. I know as a kid, and my own kid, can sing a jingle better then, oh the Star Spangled Banner.

Because of my studies in fashion, I HAVE to read and view a certain number of advertisments. I'm less inclined to think someone is "smart" as a designer using heroin chic, but this is a different story, and other then that, I see maybe 2-3 commercials a day, a slew of print ads and practically nothing else.

Between Tivo for the very few programs I do watch, tapes in my car, studying, being a wife and mother and books, I'm not over exposed to advertisement. The only video game I play is Final Fantasy, and I own most of them...and uh, yes. I'm too much of a nerd to pay attention to mundane things like ads.

Which may be why I'm surprised when something's been out for a while I'd of liked and I didn't know it.

Elaina

 

[Matthew Dalton]

Just wait; by XXV your Phoenix Down will be replaced by drinking Pepsi.

 

[Elaina]

:eusa_clap Okay I needed a huge laugh.

I can see it, but by then I'll be too old to care about playing it anymore. I was the nerd fan-girl waiting in line with her equally uncool redneck Sci-fi fanboy dad for number ONE to come out. Now my geeky kid is dying to play XII and can't understand why he can't pop in X or play online.

Elaina

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Personally, I think there is a certain dehumanizing effect. It is alientating to be bombarded by images from all over your environment. Video screens on walls of elevators, the sides of escalators, hanging at checkout lanes, on pillars in malls and public places; there is simply too much disconcerting movement.

In Boston, we have laws against large scale public advertising. Yes, I know, how did CITGO get away with it? I don't know; probably a grandfather clause. We do have a lot of advertisements in bathrooms, above the mens room stand-up stalls for instance. Also, our light rail line, the "T" is covered and sometimes literally covered with advertisements. None of this reaches the level of NYC.

 

[McPeppers]

As for advertisements in video games I actually like them when they serve a purpose in the game. In the Urbz I was thrilled to see that the machine you get a stamina boost from was a RED BULL vendor.

Its all about practicality. Like if I'm driving a stolen car around New York, LA, or Miami in the 80's 90's or beyond in a game... I dont mind huge billboards with ads on them. They dont influence my purchasing but they make the world seem more realistic.

And if they decided to be creative rather than sell out... if I'm driving a stolen car around New York in the 1900's - 1960's then there might be an old Coca-Cola billboard atop a building... or something from Rolex... Heinz...
Vintage signage from real companies that still exist today (and thus can pay royalties and adds incentive to game makers to produce a "true" feel.

So really its about realism to me...if you are going to slap an ad somewhere in a game I better darn well see it there in reality.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In Boston, we have laws against large scale public advertising. Yes, I know, how did CITGO get away with it? I don't know; probably a grandfather clause.

I think the Citgo sign was actually given landmark status a few years ago when there was talk of tearing it down. It's been up there since 1940 (it was originally a Cities Service sign, but was rebranded to Citgo in the mid-sixties), and it's accumulated an awful lot of sentimental value -- especially for Red Sox fans -- over the years.

Personally, I prefer the gorgeous big Shell sign over the river in Cambridge -- dates back to the mid-thirties, and was restored a while back.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I think the Citgo sign was actually given landmark status a few years ago when there was talk of tearing it down. It's been up there since 1940 (it was originally a Cities Service sign, but was rebranded to Citgo in the mid-sixties), and it's accumulated an awful lot of sentimental value -- especially for Red Sox fans -- over the years.

Personally, I prefer the gorgeous big Shell sign over the river in Cambridge -- dates back to the mid-thirties, and was restored a while back.

I forgot about that Shell sign. Boston seems to have it under control.

However, I think we as a culture are entering that realm where advertising is truly entering the realm of the ubiquitous.

 

[Zemke Fan]

An interesting contrast...

... my wife Helen spent about 15 years in Sevastopol, Ukraine, before coming to the USA with me. When I went over to visit her one of the things that absolutely floored me (in a good way) was the absence of advertising in almost all of the Crimea. It gave the whole place a much more rustic and even romantic flavor....

 

[Feraud]

The bombardment of our lives with advertising apparently works. People associate the products they see on television and the movies with the characters. Cars have been advertised with beautiful women for years. Product placement in movies (James Bond, The Soprano's, etc.) works. I have spoken to people who specifically reference a watch, car, or clothing worn in a film.
NYC is a mess with advertising. Buildings, taxicabs, club restrooms, handouts, and guerrilla marketers are all out there selling their products. More than one person on a NYC subway reading a popular novel is a guerrilla marketer paid to read that book on a subway car in rush hour.

I wonder how perceptive people are to advertising and their feelings about it?

Not since my early 20's have I walked around with any logo on my clothing. I realized I am paying a lot of money for clothes and should not be giving away free advertising. I think people who walk around "branded" with a Nike, Sean John, Gucci, etc. logo on their person are being taken advantage of. Race cars and their drivers look ridiculous with all that advertising plastered all over them.

In keeping with the spirit of this topic I want to add, how current is the advertising blitz?
Here is a quote from a letter by Tom Black (written in the 1930's?) printed in Beryl Markham's novel, West With The Night.

I want the opportunity of busting the cape record, but it's hard to make money for such a flight unless you sell you shirt and your soul to advertising agents - which I have no intention of doing....

 

[Matthew Dalton]

I considered buying a cheap jacket or somesuch and sewing dozens of patches on it, those belonging popular clothing brands. That way I'd be the coolest dressed guy around, at least I think that's how it works...

Many a time I've asked my mother to get something from the supermarket when she was going out. I've named a specific product and a specific brand, with much emphasis on the brand to ensure I get it. Then she'll come home with something else, confident that it is what I wanted and willing to argue that it is what I asked for.

Why? It's being advertised on TV at the time. I have to wonder just how much this stuff effects us.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I think all that advertising is frightening in a way. It's pervasive to the point of being Orwellian. I think it's really a thinly veiled attempt at mind control, that has had an effect on our society in general. I think a large portion of the population actually is influenced by it all to some degree,especially the programming and advertising on television. The appalling rise of materialism and consumer debt bears this out.
I read about a study on creativity that was done some years ago. They found a direct coorelation between the amount of television people watched, and their level of creativity. Those that watched the most television scored lowest on creativity tests, and hence have less ability to think for themselves.
This is one reason why I do not watch television in general.

 

[Story]

And I love, love, l-l-love... love those blip-blip-blip-blipverts!

 

[Quigley Brown]

I read about a study on creativity that was done some years ago. They found a direct coorelation between the amount of television people watched, and their level of creativity. Those that watched the most television scored lowest on creativity tests, and hence have less ability to think for themselves.
This is one reason why I do not watch television in general.

I wonder what that creativity test was like. I watch tons of tv, but I think I've got tons of creativity.

...and now a word from my sponsor...

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I wonder what that creativity test was like. I watch tons of tv, but I think I've got tons of creativity.

...and now a word from my sponsor...

The test was given back in the dismal viewing era of the 70's. Before cable, which was when I stopped watching it for the most part.
We have more choices now and the quality of some of the programming has vastly improved since then, so if the same tests were given today, the results would maybe be different.