Thursday, April 15, 2010

Healer chickens, white magic and old spice

I have always found it difficult to understand advertising, maybe due to my scientific mind and the need for a claim to be proven or maybe because I am just thick and lack any form of mental fantasy.
In any case my glazed over eyes and ever so slightly out of focus look when presented with a new ad and my feeble excuse in the form of "I do not get it" have earned me, over the years, the resigned and vaguely disapproving look of my dear sister Lisa and lovely friend Steph, both of whom Marketing boffins and both of whom tell me smiling and gently, as a mother would to a cute but slow child, that "you are not the target".
I do confess that really only make up and pet food ads get me excited but the rest seems to me boring and vague and by the time the 30 seconds have finished I have already forgotten what the last 30 seconds have all been about. And not being the target for all but 0.01% of publicity seems to me like a lame excuse for advertising agencies to not really try hard enough to get more people to buy their stuff.
In any case the local obsession is with white. White teeth, white eyes, white skin, everything is about how white you can get. Even well known international brands of face cream mention the secret ingredient that will turn your skin as white as pearls. I wonder where this obsession comes from. Is it a silly attempt to turn oneself into a westerner or is it that the delicate features of some of these beautiful Asian girls really bloom the whiter they become?
In any case the obsession is getting to me as well and I am wondering if I should succumb and buy these magic creams.
But publicity can go too far when the local take away advertises the healing property of chicken fed on lactobacillus hence turning into a probiotic chicken, healer of all aches and pains, remover of cholesterol, asthma and bubonic plague. I mean what happened to simple corn fed chicken? The legal enforcement officer that lurks in me is shaking in disbelief!
Still, even if ads are not my thing handsome men scantily clad are so my dear girl readers click on the link and enjoy knowing only too well that you will remember what the ad is about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

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