In the article by Deery the reader gets an insight into the world of advertising and how it has become prominent within the culture we live in. Ads are everywhere, and Deery mentions how advertising has become integrated the actual programming with product placement. An issue that many viewers have problems with due to the fact that as viewers we are exposed to already a lot of ads in between programming. But, by introducing product placement the viewer is constantly exposed to ads.
However, TV is now not the only medium that the public become exposed to advertising. Social media is becoming the new place for advertisements to call ‘home’. When Mark Zuckerberg took over Instagram it soon became known that advertisements would begin to encroach the picture based medium. According to adweek.com, this is a smart move for instagram and only a few companies are able to advertise. A user may not follow a company but will still be able to view the companies adds on the users ‘home feed’ of pictures. The user may choose to ignore the ad, but also the user loses the control over what one is exposed to.
On television viewers are very familiar with celebrities presence on advertisements or within television programming. In Deery’s article he talks about celebrities presence on shows such as Home Editions or Top Chef, however viewers see celebrities sponsoring products such as Proactive, or certain products. And now within social media users see celebrities posting pictures, tweets or status’ regarding products allowing more advertisements that reach ‘fans.’ In the picture below from Khloe Kardashians instagram a user would be exposed to a product she and her sisters create, hoping users assume she uses them.
With posts such as these and now companies beginning to post to instagram as well, users are receiving a double whammy of advertisements. Of course, with celebrities posting pictures a user is able to unfollow if one is displeased with the amount of advertising a celebrity is posting. But, it is a key example of how advertisements are becoming prevalent on different mediums.
With social media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram making changes to accommodate advertisements. It is no surprised that social media outlets such as Snapchat are jumping on board too. Companies such as McDonald’s, GE and Taco Bell are just a few companies rushing to advertise on snapchat according to adage.com.
Members of snapchat who are attending an event that is sponsored on snapchat can post to the event and if a member is lucky enough the snapchat will be chosen on the events ‘story’. This allows members to bond through snapchat and maybe encourage other members to attend an event.
With technology becoming prominent within the US culture it is not a surprising that advertising is adapting to the new mediums to be able to reach new consumers, users or citizens. Advertisers want to reach their key audiences and the users of social media are advertisers key demographics, young and spenders. So, it is no surprise that these social media outlets are bringing advertising within the sites. However, once the advertisements become to prominent within the mediums I personally will stop using them.
Michael J Puhl says
After reading your post, I agree with what you said about how ads are everywhere. There is no escaping advertisements as everywhere I go I see ads on billboards, television and on people’s clothing. As you were saying about product placement, corporations are now using it because the more you see that product, the more likely you are to buying it. I agree with you about how advertisements are on more than just one medium such as television but digital media is slowly becoming the most used in advertisement. The reason behind this is advertisers are targeting young people with money and we all have smart phones. We take our phones everywhere we go which allows them to advertise us more often whereas we have to be near a television for them to target us. For example, they can show ads on apps while were are the bus. As you mentioned earlier with advertisements on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg makes money every time you click an ad or see the ad. and we are the free labors of Facebook. In other words, Facebook makes money off of us while we get nothing. We as consumers have to realize that we have the power over corporations from feeding into their ads and products. We don’t realize this but we directly fund the media and corporations and if we boycott them, we can stop them.