I'm not fond of ClearChannel; I'm already inclined to regard it as a
fairly vile mob because (a) it's an advertising firm and (b) it
systematically destroyed non-top-40 music radio in the USA so as to
maximise advertising revenue. But it's reached a new low.
I've been seeing this about from time to time on their video
hoardings, as a break between the actual ads (they even have smaller
versions of these screens in some pubs now, because goodness knows
you're not being advertised at enough already); this one was at a bus
stop in Oxford in August.
This strikes me as remarkably creepy even for ad-men. I feel that
brands should meet cattle, not people, unless it's all consensual and
whatnot and even then I'm not entirely happy about it. But clearly
someone at corporate headquarters thought this was a good idea. I
thought the point of advertising was that you tried not to say
things that would make people actively dislike the product.
- Posted by John Dallman at
11:45am on
18 September 2016
In the minds of advertising agencies, brands are the household gods of the modern era. And, of course, they can make quite a few people believe this. Personally, it makes me engage in wilful blindness towards branding.
- Posted by RogerBW at
12:16pm on
18 September 2016
One only has to live through one example of a brand being transferred (with or without its originating company) to entirely new ownership to realise that, as a guide to the quality of a product, they're entirely meaningless.
(And I know, I'm not supposed to care about quality, I'm supposed to care about what other people will think of me when I display the right or wrong logos – but that's what we get for letting the extroverts define the societal norms.)
- Posted by Dr Bob at
07:32pm on
18 September 2016
Management are always wittering on about 'brands' at the BBC too. Where the brands in question are what mere mortals call TV series: Eastenders, Dr Who, Antiques Roadshow, etc.
- Posted by RogerBW at
07:52pm on
18 September 2016
Hmm, if they said that to me I'd assume they meant the TV series as well as the halo of stuff around it - DVDs, books, toys, all the things the fortunes of which will rise and fall with public perception of the series itself.
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