Cartoon 744: Just Don’t Get It

In the movie “Minority Report”, Tom Cruise was confronted with personally tailored holographic advertisements as he moved through a mall. They were very invasive. This was a movie extrapolation of the direction advertisements would take.

Advertisements over the last half century have changed from their early years as product announcements. Once people were made aware the market created itself. People had enough disposal income and desire to purchase products and services that offered them improvements.

Today, advertisements are about weaseling money from an increasingly recalcitrant consumer. It is about creating market. Games such as easy credit has run its course. Games such as the “band wagon” approach of, “others having it so you must”, are losing steam. Games of the latest and greatest iteration are failing in many segments to drive demand. The exception is the electronic industry. New cell phone models and some of the other electronic devices still fly off the shelf.

Businesses have become addicted to advertisement dollars. The need and costs of advertisements has skyrocketed as the wealth in the general public of America has evaporated. Advertisement revenue makes up a substantial percentage of customer facing communication products such as television, newspapers and magazines. To increase revenue, the amount of advertisement must increase. I wonder will advertisement reach a salutation point? A point where more advertisement does not create the desired market and revenue increase.

It is interesting to note the difference in emerging countries. They are more like America a century ago in terms of advertisements. A typical television show will have 30 seconds of advertisement while an American show today has 3 minutes or a 30 second advertisement every 5 minutes. In emerging countries countries the focus is still on the content as the primary revenue stream with advertisement being an undesired interruption.

The fast food industry in America would die overnight without the deluge of advertisements. I wonder would that be a bad thing?