Speaker 1: It should come as no surprise that modern advertising as we know it has shaped our society in many ways. A lot of our daily decisions and life choices are influenced in part by advertising itself. It's become such a deep-rooted constituent of our established norm that a world without

Speaker 2: it would seem, frankly, strange.

Speaker 1: And this is because barely a moment goes by during our day when we aren't bombarded with advertisements in some form or the other. Posters, billboards, flyers, TV commercials and internet ads all creep into our personal space and tell us what we should buy and who we should be. For now, our only brief escape from our role as a potential consumer comes to us during sleep.

Speaker 3: But even this could possibly change one day.

Speaker 1: What's important to know is that the purpose of advertising isn't limited in its capacity to harass us into parting with our hard-earned money. Advertising plays a traditional role in helping businesses reach prospective customers and vice versa. Without it, we would not know where to look for a particular product or service we need. Perhaps without advertising, we wouldn't even know what we wanted in the first place. Yet in our present-day technologically driven lives, the reach between producer and consumer has grown a lot smaller. With the numerous media platforms and channels available to us, a simple online search takes us to a list of providers able to satisfy our every want. Our dilemma today comes in the form of not knowing which product to choose from out of the many available to us. Now this is where good advertising comes into play. In a saturated market, subtle differences can make the distinction between the choice of one product over another. There are typically two modes of advertising that ad agencies and marketing gurus utilize. One focuses on the qualities of the product, while the other seeks to arouse an emotional response from the intended audience. The moment you start to think about advertisements that have stood out to you in the recent past, there's a high probability that they incorporated the latter. And that's a good reason for this.

Speaker 4: Well, gentlemen, I don't think I have to tell you what you just witnessed here. I think you do.

Speaker 1: Why should you choose one product over another? That decision becomes easy when you develop an affinity with a particular brand. It could be something as small as an aesthetically appealing logo design. Something that resonates with you and feels calming. The right colors and appropriate typography all match in harmony for a well-packaged product. But advertising goes beyond a well-thought-out logo or attractive packaging. The most successful ad campaigns hardly say anything about the product itself, but instead create a lucid atmosphere that evokes a strong emotion from its target consumer. These are the types of advertisements that we remember, talk about, and influence our purchasing decisions. Now, let's take a look at the following two commercials about perfume.

Speaker 3: your gayest self. So choose a gay adventure. Choose Escapade Toilet Water. Immediately, you'll feel lovely. Why, you are lovely in that light and gay Escapade mood. And remember your Escapade stick cologne to renew adventure wherever you are. Enjoy all these Chilton fragrances. Escapade. Friendship's Garden. Early American Old Spice. Desert Flower. At leading cosmetic counters everywhere. Toilet water's $1.25 and $1.50. Stick cologne's $1.

Speaker 5: Acqua di Gioia. The new Eau Fraiche. Giorgio Armani.

Speaker 1: The differences between the two commercials are quite stark. The first ad for Escapade perfume quite explicitly focuses on the product itself. It describes certain characteristics of the perfume while going on to talk about its application and effect on the user. And this is quite difficult to do, especially when describing a product whose main selling attribute, which is smell, is not transmissible through television. It almost seems absurd, but the second perfume commercial does not even try in the least to directly communicate the features of their product. They rely solely on alighting particular feelings and associations with their perfume. In this case, we could assume that the directors behind the ad want to transmit the feeling of ethereal beauty. We see a woman, who fits into our standard of high attractiveness in a society, frolicking through rainforests in the midst of a storm. The only mention of the perfume is in the last 6 seconds of the 1-minute ad. So why do we care about the associations of our product rather than the product itself? Good advertising helps us begin to answer one of the most fundamental questions of human life. Who am I? This is because when it comes to figuring out who we are and what we want from life, we usually struggle to find answers. Now a lot of this is existential and has to do with the fact that we are born with no pre-established notion of what it means to be human. It's simply up to us to figure that out along the way. But making that decision isn't easy. In fact, it's a huge burden. Out of all the possibilities our lives can take, how can we decide who or what we should be? We have no inkling if the choices we make will turn out to be good or not. Yet, we are each tasked with the responsibility of deciding for ourselves and can only hope that we've chosen well. On the other hand, good advertising helps us build an identity by releasing the anxiety brought about by self-determination. It tells us exactly what choice to make by compelling us to buy a certain product. And once we have done so, will we be able to emulate the identity and characteristics that we have learned to associate with our product from a particular commercial advertisement?

Speaker 4: Advertising is based on one thing. Happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing, it's okay.

Speaker 1: You are okay. Advertising that caters to our feelings primarily resonates with our subconscious mind and not our conscious mind. It's why we sometimes can't rationally deduce our preference for a certain brand and our ability to pay a premium for a product we can't tell apart from its competitors. If we are drawn to it simply because of what it evokes inside of us and the associations that come with it, then rest assured, the marketing department has done their research. What this means is that we need to start thinking carefully about the decisions we make even if it's something as insignificant as purchasing a perfume. Good advertising feeds off both our insecurities and deficiencies as humans and makes us believe that we can mask them with a new and exciting identity. Make no mistake, the only thing you'll be able to achieve is to diminish your anxiety in the short term. And of course, you'll spend money on things you don't need in order to quell the discomfort that needs to be addressed appropriately. Making authentic decisions that align with our best interests is no easy task and takes a lot of effort. Yet, we have to realize that losing ourselves to the illusions constructed by good advertising will not make our lives any easier. They will only detract us from accepting and being comfortable with who we really are and the givens of our reality. There is no point striving towards an ideal when perfection does not exist. Accomplish this and you'll be a much happier individual.