The mad ad world – Ad ‘diction’ or Ad ‘nauseam’?

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Some time back the advertisers were freaking out at the ad blockers that had invaded the digital marketing space, but frankly, do they need to? Well, not at all, viewers are still as gung- ho on adverts as before and seem to be avid watchers, listeners, followers and of course protestors which goes on to prove my point!

Controversies surrounding ads are from time immemorial, some brands have managed to play along, a few have bitten the dust giving in to the parochial thoughts of netizens while some have manipulated and charmed their way into the masses. Be it the charming and creative Amul ad showing the door to the dragon, or our neighbour country mocking a surgical strike hero, or the stark naked bodies with pythons as companions for a footwear product, voluptuous models baring them all to fire the imagination, or ones that bring in disgrace to a community or ‘fairness’ creams justifying racism or sullying the faiths of the believers, ads have their fair share of ignominy!

The deluge of commercials may be obnoxious to say the least, portraying men, women, animals and everything else in the universe in a bad light for the twitterati, facebookers and whatsappers to take up the cudgels and go hammer and tongs at the marketers. These very same social ogres, replacing butterflies as that would be a gross misnomer for the violent and hysterical cyber mob, lap up the innumerable ads, most of them fake, not verified, vilifying the competing brands and damning them for no rhyme or reason. The witch hunters and the self -proclaimed crusaders of ethics, morality, honour, equality, justice and what have you are members of the collective obsessional behaviour making a stink at the illusory threats to their so- called customs and beliefs.  

A lot does go into the making of an ad in today’s world with the innumerable platforms that are available to aid the pursuit for luring customers into their dens and companies are allocating humongous money to make themselves visible. In their attempt to gain supremacy has an all -out war with the competitors in the form of flashy landing pages on their websites and creating a blitzkrieg of relevant assets to promote.

The burgeoning field of marketing which is forever expanding into unknown and unheard realms cannot simply do away with advertisements. The world of marketing has changed dramatically with the arrival of the internet and the emerging fields of Neuromarketing and Behavioural marketing.  The cause and effect of advertisements on consumer buying behaviour has been phenomenal. They have immense potential to trigger the buy button in our brains, the capability to unleash the fondness for a brand and get loyally attached to it.

The latest tool for the marketers, Neuromarketing, which is a psychological study of the human brain and its response to any kind of advertising campaign and many companies make use of them to study the reactions and responses. The intersection of consumer behaviour and cognitive sciences in the background of technological changes, has far reaching impact. Corporates today have jumped on the bandwagon to connect with the customers in a big way and maintain the emotional strings of attachment with them. The strategic manoeuvres to match products with people by measuring the attention and interpretation maybe must indeed consider the moods of the cyber mob too! Companies must now think of ways and means to energize the brain waves to think rationally and logically and keep captive and hold to ransom the subconscious minds of the messiahs of justice!

Well till such time neuroscience takes over completely, the ad blocker mavericks and marauders will have their bull run and lay siege on sanity of ads and their expressions!!