"The television commercial is the most peculiar and pervasive form of communication to issue forth from the electric plug."(Ch. 9 in Amusing Ourselves to Death)
The commercial definitely is peculiar in the way that it both informs about the product and entertains people in the span of a minute. It is a guaranteed way for companies to capture the attention of potential customers and sell their products. And you have to admit, its pretty successful. Most commercials have the flashy background, music, or something else that captures a person's attention. For example, I'm pretty sure that everyone has seen the Head On commercials where an announcer repeats the same line at least ten times in a row. Annoying, yes, but it captured people's attention and got the point across. Also, has anyone else noticed how a lot of new ads come out around the same time as major television events, like the Super Bowl? Some people watch the Super Bowl just to see the new commercials and ideas that companies come up with. It entertains them and guarantees the companies that their product is getting some attention.
Since the commercial has been so successful in gaining companies more customers and more profit, a lot of other organizations have jumped onto the bandwagon. Now there are commercials advertising about health issues, environmental issues, and especially political propaganda. The campaign ad has essentially become one of the fastest ways for political candidates to attract voters and attack their opponents all in the same minute. It has increasingly become the method of choice for politicians to spread their message rather than debates and rallies because it can reach such a wide number of people. And as I watch the Obama and McCain ads interspersed between the broadcast of the Olympics, I wonder what else the television commercial will be used for.
-Sejal Shah
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Television commercials are pretty bizarre. They rarely use logic to sell their products. I've seen dozens of commercials that don't even tell the viewer what the product does. I've also seen commercials that are so entertaining and off-topic that I don't know what the product actually was. It really is a problem that all a company has to do is flood our mind with useless images and then show a picture of their product to get us to by it. Take, for instance, the commercial where Paris Hilton washes a car to sell Carl's Jr. burgers. Her washing a car in a bathing suit has absolutely nothing to do with the burgers and yet Carl's Jr.'s sales went up 40% because of it.
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