OPINION

Advertising Week: Is It Necessary?

Written by Mark Sahm
Published September 20, 2005

Hello, welcome to America. Before you may enter the country, you must eat this bucket full of clever jingles, catchy slogans, and singing cartoon pitchmen. But we swear you'll feel better afterwards! We promise! Now go buy! Buy! Buy!

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If you think you can get away from advertising in this day and age, then you'd better sew your eyes shut and plug your ears with molten lead. Not even a man living in a mountain shack in Montana can escape it. Because there has to be something he consumes or owns with a logo, icon, or slogan stuck on it.

The forces of advertising have become so strong that we now have a week designated to praise it. Advertising Week celebrates its first anniversary from September 26-30. As the website describes, AW is: "an annual gathering of the industry's best and brightest. In its first year (2004), the event attracted more than 40,000 participants from over 30 countries. By all accounts, it... will be an outstanding opportunity to learn and share best practices, hobnob with clients, get inspired, remember why you're in the business and generally have a great time."

As part of the festivities, people are able to vote online for their all-time favorite icon and slogan for 2005. The top five winners in both categories are then removed from next year's contest and put into an Advertising Hall of Fame of sorts.

2004's Icon Winners were:
1. M & M Characters, 2. AFLAC Duck, 3. Mr. Peanut, 4. Pillsbury Doughboy, and 5. Tony the Tiger

2004's Slogan Winners were:
1. Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (M&M's)
2. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. (Almond Joy/Mounds)
3. Where's the beef? (Wendy's)
4. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. (United Negro College Fund)
5. Can you hear me now? (Verizon)

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As I viewed the Advertising Week website, I realized just how indoctrinated I have become over the years. In some ways, it's personally repulsive to know that I'd get 100% on a test matching any slogan with its icon from the 80's and 90's, or vice versa. Being an artist, I could probably even draw most of them from memory too. If pop culture advertising were a virus, it would make anthrax look like a cure for cancer.

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Mark Sahm is a creative soul lurking around New York City.
His various projects include: Somrod (art), Creative Psychosis (blog), and Magic Junk Radio (podcasts). His first novel, The Art of Getting Bent can be purchased at Amazon.com, or through his site. Despite all of this, Sahm will not save you any money on car insurance.
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
Advertising Week: Is It Necessary?
Published: September 20, 2005
Type: Opinion
Section: Culture
Filed Under: Culture: Arts, Culture: Business and Economics, Culture: Society
Part of a feature: Creative Psychosis
Writer: Mark Sahm
Mark Sahm's BC Writer page
Mark Sahm's personal site
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Comments

#1 — September 20, 2005 @ 13:35PM — Nancy

Advertising is a violation of every individual's right to privacy. All advertisers should flame in eternal hell with their own damned ads eternally & unrelentingly screaming at them.

#2 — September 20, 2005 @ 13:37PM — Michael J. West [URL]

Re Comment 1:

Is it a joke? Or sarcasm? Or irony? Or satire?

#3 — September 20, 2005 @ 13:40PM — Nancy

Having just been trapped into listening to the same ads for erectile disfunction, fertility clinics, various overpriced & oversized gas guzzling cars, and other dweebs trying to out scream, outslither, & outcroon each other in their mission to separate me from my money, at the moment, I'm dead serious. This may change.

#4 — September 20, 2005 @ 13:43PM — Michael J. West [URL]

But how do those infringe on your right to privacy, Nancy? As long as you keep your radio on, you're inviting ads in.

#5 — September 20, 2005 @ 13:45PM — Mark Sahm [URL]

Nancy, the question for you then is: have you purchased any of the products whose ads you loathe?

#6 — September 20, 2005 @ 13:50PM — Nancy

So far, no. I make it a point that anything being advertised is not a good product, therefore requires the extra "push" of advertising hype to try to con people into wasting their money on whatever it is being peddled. And why should I have to tolerate interminable ads invading my radio or TV space? Most of the time I DO turn it off rather than put up with it, but it's getting more & more invasive & intrusive, as you probably are well aware. I do NOT exist for their goddamned marketing, and I resent everything I do being 'tracked' by these vultures without my knowledge or consent, let alone that they peddle it around to everyone for profit, also without my knowledge or consent - and it's MY private, personal data!

#7 — September 20, 2005 @ 13:57PM — Mark Sahm [URL]

Does this mean you won't be picking your all-time favorite icon or slogan?
:)

#8 — September 20, 2005 @ 14:02PM — Nancy

I might - as soon as I can get that lousy damned jingle for Tiny Jewel Box out of my head *groan* worse than the Andy Griffith theme....

#9 — September 20, 2005 @ 14:11PM — Michael J. West [URL]

But that's a specific wing of the advertising industry, Nancy. It sounded to me like you were saying that the very principle of advertising itself is a violation of every individual's privacy. Which is not the same thing at all.

BTW: I voted for the Trix Rabbit and "Takes a Lickin' and keeps on tickin'."

#10 — September 20, 2005 @ 14:31PM — Nancy

What's a specific wing? I don't understand what part you're referring to. You mean the data collection?

I voted for the Bud Clydesdales, having met them several times 'in person' - & lovely advertising reps they are, too. Them I can stand. I have a lot of tolerance for the Keebler Elves, too, especially the John Wayne imitation. But man, I can't STAND those !@#!$%@ CAR ADS, and it doesn't matter if they're on radio or TV or what. What IS it about those idiots that they feel that someone talking in a fake voice & semi-hysterical Walter Winchell scream is going to move anybody to actually pick up & buy one of their pieces of junk? Talk about lame. Another jerky kind: the fake "talk show interview" with this doctor & patient or that, usually for some medical group or other. They speak in the hushed, halting, pretentious tones of the radio talk shows. Turkeys. There's a new type lately, that features a female voice with the nasal, high-pitched vocals & slightly sloppy enunciation of a typical high school or young college babe. Don't remember what she's selling, but the voice is very irritating. But the worst has got to the be the damned car dealers - NOW! GET IT NOW! HURRY! SALE ENDS NEXT MILLENIUM! Yuh, right. Get out of my life - NOW!

#11 — September 20, 2005 @ 14:36PM — Michael J. West [URL]

Yes. I mean the data collection.

#12 — September 20, 2005 @ 14:41PM — S.Rod

What a tough decision to make...I couldn't decide between Juan Valdez and the Seat Belt Dummies. Maybe I'll go back and vote for Juan tomorrow.

I voted for the Seat Belt Dummies. Does anyone remember the toy line that came out of those commercials? My brother had the car and the two dummys.
Anyway, I also voted for "when you care enough to send the very best"-Hallmark. That was a great slogan...totally made you feel guilty/cheap to send anything else! I'm sure it had a few people turning the card over to check if it was a Hallmark.

#13 — September 20, 2005 @ 14:57PM — Nancy

One of my all-time favorites has to be the "Marshmallowed Meatballs". The other is for Great White fax paper, with the guy standing there holding the fax dangling from the sheet of paper saying "Son, hide this...." On the radio, an ad I DO like is for a local volvo dealer, which involves the announcer doing a long series of very clever puns on one particular theme extolling the virtues of this particular dealer & the car. If I had the money to buy a volvo, & were in the market, I might even consider them. But not the idiots bellowing about "PARTY WITH THE BIG DOGS - ". I liked the Frank Perdue ads ... he looked so much like one of his own chickens. I loved a KalKan ad for cat food, which featured a tiny kitten popping around with a relatively large ping-pong ball, then cut to a lion galumphing with a beach ball - which it accidently ruptures, and the ad ends with the lion sniffing the ground & the flat beachball. Very clever.

#14 — September 27, 2005 @ 10:20AM — Mark Sahm [URL]

Here's the final 2005 winners:

Icons--- Juan Valdez and the Geico Gecko.

Slogans--- "Imagination at work" (General Electric) and "When You Care Enough To Send The Very Best" (Hallmark)

Looks like S.Rod (comment #12) is a prophet. Or is accurately tapped into the American consciousness. :)

#15 — September 27, 2005 @ 14:53PM — S.Rod

Heck yeah!! I'm glad I went back to vote for Juan! Do I get a prize for picking the winners??? ;)

#16 — September 27, 2005 @ 17:00PM — Mark Sahm [URL]

Your prize is a 7-day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and the Cayman Islands!

Please note: You might have to pay for some of the trip. :)

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