After a long Easter break, I am back to whinge about this and that. So... the Olympics.
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| A positive from the Olympics. I like this stamp. |
Can you believe that McDonalds sponsors the 2012 Olympics? And Coca Cola? Have you seen how buff olympic athletes are... they definitely do not consume McDonalds and Coca Cola. More obscure, but equally mad, is the fact that BP sponsor the Olympic games... surely athletes run everywhere??? Ok, that is ludicrous- but, amongst the Panasonic, acer, VISA, BMW, Cadbury sponsorships- where is there anything relevant to physical activity which may promote it. Surely the spirit of the Olympics stretches beyond antithetical sponsors, just because they are giants? I'm betting that, if Cadbury's Creme Eggs really did don helmets and ride bicycles in the games, they'd manage about as well as
the Michelin baby.
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| Inspire a generation to get lashed... but not to binge drink. Or smoke. Or buy cheap alcohol. But specifically Heineken is OK during the Olympics, but not Amstel as they didn't cough up. |
In all fairness, poor Londoners. Imagine the traffic, the chaos. London is hectic at the best of times. I'm not saying the Olympics are a bad thing, far from it, they've made giant corporations an absolute bomb of money! My fear is that the spirit of the Olympics (fitness, national pride, guilt at sitting on your bum writing a blog rather than going for a jog) is being manipulated and obscured by product placement and strange advertising schemes.
Check out this SAMSUNG advert, what the piss has SAMSUNG got to do with the Olympics? What has SAMSUNG got to do with the 100 year old dream? I despair. Whilst watching television we are constantly confronted by these inspiring adverts that get you to thinking 'ooh, inspiring music, inspiring active lifestyle... I wonder what this product is: maybe the ultimate sportsbra, combining both practicality and cosmetic appeal'. Alas, no, it is advertising a mobile phone. I was innocently sat in the cinema, awaiting Snow White and the Huntsman (bit of product placement there) when
this Blackberry advert assaulted my eyes. I have a Blackberry. It hasn't worked since February. How, in any way, is my faulty Blackberry helping me be a person 'that does'? It is not! If you want to be active and lead a happy life, a mere phone is not the answer. I feel a new wave of manipulation from advertising, wherein they claim that their product will provide for you the perfect life, although I suppose that is the lifelong motto of advertisements. Nowadays they just chuck some acoustic hipster-licious soundtrack over the top and are done with it.
Completely agree. There was a shift in marketing and advertising at some point in history (you know more than I do) where instead of marketing to a need e.g. you need this washing machine to wash your clothes effectively, a very clever person began to market emotionally e.g. you need this washing machine to be happy. This has changed everything. Now we're bombarded daily with products that we're told we have to have not because we need them, but because they will make us look cool, fit in, increase our popularity or make us "that guy" and happy, which of course is b*llshit. Consumerism at it's finest and worst!
ReplyDeleteIndeed! It's just everywhere, you can't escape. It's scary when you look into what advertisers study psychologically and put to practice! Especially with children's toys- they research the correlation between children nagging their parents for a toy and the number of toys sold. We have to upsell at work and I hate doing it, but I don't do it with children because I don't think they're capable of making an informed decision! According to most adverts, if we buy the product we will suddenly become beautiful, rich, happy models!
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