Image via Pixabay.
Advertising mirrors our worries
Many years ago, a friend made this casually profound statement over dinner one evening: “If you want to know what ordinary people are thinking, just look at advertising.”
But of course, this was kind of obvious, when I stopped to think about it. Advertising can tend to target the most common denominator demographic; the good-old spray-and-pray approach. Assuming most advertisers have a reasonable handle of their target demographics, it follows that the ads they produce must be reasonably likely to reflect the worries of the target demographic.
So I watched some TV. In different countries, over several years. Here’s what I noticed.
Australia:
- The elderly worry about not being able to pay for their funerals.
- Women are worried about how they and their homes look.
Malaysia:
- Young women worry about not being white enough.
- New wives worry about not being able to cook delicious meals.
Taiwan:
- Young professionals worry about not being able to eat endless steamboat/hotpot meals.
- Everyone worries about sickness and death, and avoid visiting real doctors.
Singapore:
- The general public wondering about new snackfoods, venues for eating out (and taking selfies), and where to get value-for-money groceries.
- Elderly parents comparing how successful their children are, through material and relational measures.
What do you make of this?
