All that glitters is not gold
If you are able to read, see or watch something, it means someone wants you to
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Hello everyone, today’s broadcast is about advertising, and specifically what I think the ultimate goal of advertising is and some examples. Often when someone brings up advertising, all one thinks of is those pesky things taking up your screen or your time, but some have ascended from the swathes of mediocrity into permanent success, so much so that they have household recognition. Some have transcended further, becoming used in everyday language as nouns, verbs, sayings or even ‘facts’. Let’s see if I can illustrate this.
“carrots help you see in the dark”
Who hasn’t been told by their mum or someone close to them that ‘carrots help you see in the dark?’ While carrots may have some benefits that may help with potentially improving eyesight, this is not where this saying came from. This was originally propagated by the UK government during the early years of the Second World War. After the fall of France in 1940, UK appeared to stand as the lone country against Nazi Germany (Resistance cells from many European countries were based at this time in the UK, and participated in the Battle for Britain, most notably the Polish 303 Squadron). The UK’s strongest defense was also a key weakness- being an island, it proved very difficult to directly invade, but it also meant it could be relatively easily blockaded. And being cut-off from the rest of the world by the Nazi blockade and U-boat submarines, the UK was struggling to feed its army and population.
British weather is not ideal for farming as it is difficult to grow crops, but carrots proved the exception, being able to grow well, which meant they could become a vital, home-grown source of food. However, carrots were not very popular, being seen as 'the poor man's vegetable'. Therefore, in order to persuade the public to consume more carrots the government launched an advertising campaign. They decided to propagate the idea that carrots help you see in the dark, as a benefit of consuming more carrots.
This wasn’t a random benefit idea. From the intermediate stages of the Battle for Britain, the Nazi’s resorted to conducting a terror bombing campaign, targeting large cities, attempting to demoralize the UK into surrender. As a response to the campaign, the government decided to implement a Blackout, in an attempt to make cities harder to spot at night. All streetlamps were shut off, lights were discouraged or banned, windows had to be covered up in order to prevent any light escaping. However, as a result, it was difficult to see or do anything during those times. By extolling the benefits of carrots for nighttime vision, it was a match made in heaven, and this phrase has lived on past the war into the modern times.
“diamonds last forever”
Da Beers is a diamond company, engaged in both mining and the sale of end-products, such as jewelry. In order to increase sales after the Great Depression of the 1930’s, collaborated with NW Ayer (the USA’s first advertising agency).Their tactic? Engagement rings.
Prior to their advertising campaign, it was seen as a luxury to have engagement rings, and it was even rarer to have one containing diamonds. The advertising campaign slowly changed the narrative. At first diamonds and romance were interwoven together. In the late 1940’s, a step further was taken to link diamonds and love: ‘a diamond lasts forever’, just like love is meant to. Diamonds became a symbol, something you buy for your better half and treasure forever. This eventually led to the norm and expectation that a diamond ring should be given.
However, that wasn’t enough- De Beers noticed that engagement rings were often being picked by women, who ‘had a tendency to pick cheaper rings’. Naturally, the firm couldn’t have that, so newer adverts emphasized that it should be the man picking the ring, not the other way around. This led to the idea that the value of the ring was equal to the love for the other person. Noone is going to go cheap on something that symbolizes so much, and is given to the most important person to them. Love and marriage are powerful emotions, and tying your products to that has resulted in incredible profits for the company: in the 1930’s it earned around $25 million annually from diamond sales- 40 years later and sales reach over $2.1 billion annually. Not too shabby.
“green santa”
Santa wasn’t always the cheerful, larger than life person in a full red costume, through the course of history santa was a mash up of colours, from green, yellow, brown and of course, red. Maybe some of you have been told by someone ‘did you know coke created the santa we know all know? He was actually, like, uhh , green before that’. Well, that person isn’t entirely correct. This ‘modern’ version of santa did exist prior to Coca Cola’s advertising campaign, but what Coca Cola did do was establish this version as THE version. Decades of folklore depicting different versions of santa, and yet it was a corporation that decided the ‘official’ version of santa. Being able to decide how culture is perceived is one of the most impressive advertising feats that one can achieve.
But why did Coca Cola connect itself with santa? For one, its winter sales were lackluster, and the company wanted to target kids as they were a booming market. Coca Cola pumped millions into advertising campaigns every winter, and santa became synonymous with the bright red robe version, so much so, many credit the image of santa to Coca Cola.
“Breakfast most important meal of day”
Breakfast was always evolving over time, depending on societal changes. Typically, it was whatever was not eaten at the previous night’s dinner. As industrialization ramped up, heavier breakfasts were typically the norm. After the invention of cereal, breakfasts began to become lighter, and it was often the norm to have light breakfasts. However, this wasn’t good for Beech-Nut, a packing company: lighter breakfasts meant bacon wasn’t being sold as often, lowering profits. The firm hired Edward Bernays (often dubbed ‘the father of public relations’, a really fascinating figure), to help with this.
Bernays’s strategy? He asked doctors for their opinion if having a heavier breakfast was a better option. Bernays amassed thousands of signatures from doctors agreeing to this statement. Later, news outlets reported that ‘4,500 physicians urge Americans to eat heavy breakfasts to improve their health’. Coincidentally (…), within these reports and articles it was mentioned how bacon and eggs are an example of a bigger breakfast, or how bacon and eggs were the perfect breakfast. While it was never explicitly said go out and buy bacon, Bernays gave the public ‘nudges’: at first something was recommended by doctors and physicians- opinions that the public are accustomed to trust- and then examples were given of how to achieve what doctors recommended.
Over time this message evolved into breakfast being the most important meal of the day, and while the claim may be slowly contested by science, it still has a significant grip on society to this day. This example also illustrates, frankly, the genius of Bernays, who many credit with the invention of public relations, and with many of the central tenets of public relations which are still used today.
So, what have we learned? It appears that many of these advertising campaigns were inspired or motivated by a difficult time, such as low sales figures (or an impending Nazi invasion), or were motivated by a want to capture a new market. Advertising for the sake of advertising may not have the same cultural impact as advertising to a new audience or marketing a new thing. Some may say that successful advertising is when a phrase, song, picture, or jingle is immediately associated with that firm or its product. I’d argue that advertising is at its best when the message they try to convey becomes dissociated from the company, while still having its impact- The slogan they implement becomes a universal saying, the idea they push becomes the standard expectation of behaviour. Take another example, Uber. When one needs a service to get from one location or another, someone often says ‘let’s Uber there’ – this can constitute as advertising for Uber, but at no cost to the firm.
Another theme that appears among these examples is the health-improvement aspect of advertising. Many advertisements around food center around the idea that the product can tout benefits, either by proving extra vitamins or not containing preservatives- but none of them have had the same impact as the ones mentioned above. Edward Bernays arguably pioneered the idea of using scientists, doctors, experts; some of the most upheld members of society as mere megaphones for their propaganda.
The evolution of that idea is to not advertise directly by mentioning firm or product, but by advertising benefits under the guise of something else, This is one of the most popular and effective tactics for advertising in modern times.
Just a couple examples to illustrate this point:
- A hero in a movie may have a seen where they are driving a car, and the camera pans over to show what brand of car they are driving: One can argue its done for cinematic effect, such as trying to achieve a specific shot or film sequence, but it is unavoidable that the logo of a car has been clearly displayed for an audience to see. (just a sidenote, not entirely relevant: have you ever seen a villain of a movie use an IPhone? A little spoiler for any future mystery movie)
-A highly respectable news outlet may publish a piece about a scientific study which suggests benefits the benefits of drinking coffee. The scientific study may be genuine, the reporting reliable, but it could be the case that a coffee company paid for either the research or for the news article.
- In basketball, when a senior insider or journalist leaks breaking news that a player may attract as much as x million dollars a year contract, this may be that the insider found this out from a team looking to sign the player- it could have just as likely come from the player’s agent, in order to create the idea that their player is in demand and therefore may lead to higher bids.
This may seem a little conspiratorialist, but such examples of ‘native advertising’ are not uncommon. It is merely a modern adaptation of advertising- people are more receptive to less conspicuous advertising than blatant pleas to buy the product. And it isn’t all a ‘bad thing’- these native advertisements enable films to be funded and have become a key source of funding for many news outlets, struggling to earn revenue in the digital age. But it makes you think, what is the true reason as to why something has been published? If you are able to read, see or watch something, it means someone wants you to.
Feel free to give this broadcast a Coherence Score!
That’s all from me for now, but stay tuned for future broadcasts,
This has been Kunga’s Written Radio,
Some todays ads do not even pretend they are no more but ads. Like in that song from Lidl’s one: „kup wiecej, kup wiecej” (more, buy more) 🤦♀️