Cracking on Conspicuous Advertisement

In the early 00's I stumbled with a movie, absurd, but utterly funny, about a greedy corporation trying to swindle their customers into overbuying their product, who are thwarted in their tracks by an unlikely hero. Mr Accident is a forgotten Aussie comedy by Yahoo Serious, which saw little action at theaters, but just like his other movies, gathered a cult following over the years. For almost twenty years I had forgotten the movie, until this week, when I stumbled with an Instagram ad from a friendly NGO, who claimed to be non-profit, promoting the benefits of the consumption of egg, and egg by-products. What a coincidence that the villain from the movie, is an egg factory executive.

Going back to the post-world-war decades and talk about advertisement, it’s almost impossible to not mention tobacco, oil, and alcohol related ad campaigns, and the repercussions they had for almost 60 years of politics, and even more interesting, public perceptions on brands and world views. Toasty cigarettes, velvety bourbons, and sexy cars made a deep impression on inexperienced consumers, that for the first time had television sets, and 12 hours of broadcast networks on their living rooms, which brought along powerful, expensive advertising campaigns. They all had their champions, either dentists associations, famous actors, or most insidious of all, seemingly independent research centers, that claimed to work hard for consumer safety, and satisfaction. The latter became paragons of consumer justice for decades to come, advocating for the consumption of sugary-carbonated beverages, the use and benefits of cellphones, and of course, the positive impact that fossil fuels have on the environment, and society. All of them have been exposed as front organizations, primarily financed by the corporations they were supposed to examine, and their findings have all been expunged from academic journals, and denounced as faux-science.

The reason think tanks and private research centers worked so effectively, despite being denounced by politicians and consumer advocates, was because they used several media and psychological tricks that left audiences wide open to their message. Most people have several barriers in their minds, specially crafted by their parents, their friends, their school, and their neighbors, in order to protect them from outside influence, be that from a stranger at a club, or a billboard on the street. These campaigns used respectable figures, like doctors, and actors, as a way of by-passing these barriers, as our minds are more open to friendly recommendations than overt messaging, that is the same reason that you may see a movie trailer and ignore it, but when a friend recommends the same movie, you'll run to the nearest theater to buy a ticket. Just like your friend made you ignore your barrier, 9 out of 10 doctors achieve the same result, as they are respectable figures in society, and if they said that smoking a dromedarian's product was okay, you won't be that opposed when offered one at a party. Now rinse and repeat for every product and corporation mentioned, as they used the same trick for decades.

Consumers all around the planet had a different take on the ex-communion of these privately owned institutions, mostly because they don't read academic journals, and all of their accumulated knowledge comes from virtual chat rooms, and advertisement. The belief that their freedom is more important than their health, the environment, or everyone else's liberties and safety, is the direct result of ads that embolden these worldviews. That's just the case for this egg-friendly Instagram campaign I faced. Never had I seen more facts, recipes, and information on how wonderful eggs are, or how beautiful lives egg-laying hens live. They even had a guided tour through our own national Egg-Trail, where you could experience first-hand egg laying, collecting, and processing. Their claims of how wonderful eggs are, reach even gluten and sugar free territory. In a matter of days my phone began receiving messages from aunts and uncles, sharing with me the wonders of egg consumption, and then I knew that this organization had done a proper job, without appearing to be advertisement, they had reach their audience, and delivered a call to action, easy to follow, and easier even to replicate.

Just like in the 50's and 60's, depending where you live, people are facing a new reality, were they have a device that delivers raw information, and with it the inescapable advertisement, which like before, disguises itself as cooking videos, funny memes, and appealing personas, and their conspicuous consumption of preferred brands, and way of life. Sometimes they are harmless as my plumaged ad, that will at best get you a heartburn, but more than often the influence of these un-affiliated groups will deliver dangerous content. We forget that not-for-profit NGOs not only cover consumer products and commodities, but also fringe ideologies, from left and right, and promote their own agendas, where sometimes people receive call-to-arms in order to defend their freedom, or cleanse their fatherland from unwanted visitors.

I wish more people learned to be aware of the media they consume, and stop and think about what they were just reading, or watching, and how it made them feel. I also wish for a convertible, but just like the movie, without noticing, people will consume the product or media they are presented, and by adding trace amounts of nicotine to eggs, or using enraging anecdotal examples, producers and not-for-profit advertisers, will hook them into their supply, creating fans of their cause, who behave like replicating trojans who continue to spread their message. I won't lie, that is excellent advertisement, as it achieves good results with their target audience, pulling them in with emotions, make the move forward into a funnel of related media, always drumming a cohesive message, and as an end result they get free press and word of mouth from this converted audience. But it's still bad for our society, just like it was to smoke, eat ice-cream for breakfast, or put our toilet paper upside down.

Unlike the movie, we don't have a clumsy, accident prone hero to save us from greedy corporations, or fringe media, although there's always the possibility that aliens will come to fetch their spare tire hub, and by chance show us who's bankrolling our favorite internet-personalities. And don´t forget, eat your eggs.