Day 48: Gimme, gimme, gimme

Advertising is an amazing, strange, bewildering creature. I went to buy myself some new shorts and a couple of tops to work out in (having lost weight, my other shorts fell around my feet).

Now I used to work in media and politics, so I have a pretty good grasp on how people are manipulated by 'the message'. I try to ignore these messages and try to find something that looks good, isn't too expensive and feels like it'll last more than a couple of weeks.

Today I bought a nice sleeveless, black training top from TK Maxx (think it has a similar but different name in the States) for 8 quid. I get it home and realise it is a Puma top, but it isn't immediately obvious as the logo is in the same colour as the top (subtle, eh). Attached to the top is a tag that reads:

'So you're interested in PUMA? Nice move. You're obviously smart, confident and know what you want from life. Sure, you work hard, but you're no slave to the rat race. You know the score. You call the shots. You make the most of your chances. So buy this, it suits you.'

The first thing that strikes me is that this label is supposed to be talking to me as an equal. Maybe I'm too British, but that seems the height of temerity. If I'd realised what was on the tag before I'd bought the top, it would have likely put me off buying it. It's also incredibly patronising: 'nice move'? F-off.

Then the blurb tries to butter me up; yeah, it suggests, you're a pleb. You work in a job that is indistinguishable from every other wage-slave, but we know that YOU feel better than that; we know you think you have some control over your life. Patronise, patronise, patronise.

'You call the shots. You know the score'? Now, we all speak in cliches. It's part of the evolution of language, along with metaphor. But some cliches are so riddled with vomit-inducing connotations that they should be henceforth banned from the english language; these two can be the first. They sound like something from the film 'Wall Street'.

Finally, the pièce de résistance: 'So buy this, you deserve it'. Advertisers love to tell you that you deserve something and that their product will fulfil that need. Mostly they don't say this outright, but other times they make it part of their marketing strategy ('Because you're worth it' anyone?). Whatever the case, it is so blatant here that I had to read it a couple of times to take it in.

But after thinking about it for a couple of hours (I was bored) I actually think I like the bold balls-out openly manipulative blurb on this tag to most of the lifestyle of most ads. I once read somewhere that all ads are based on three ideas; I can't remember the other two but one of them is that you are popular; so ads will show a person laughing happily with other beautiful people, all sitting uncomfortably close to each other with the product displayed prominently. 'This' says the ad, 'will be you, if you use our product. You will be instantly popular and have lots of glamorous friends'. Or, rather, it doesn't, it simply suggests it. This means that people are bombarded with implicit messages which are more able to bypass your critical faculties and hit that bit at the back of your brain that lights up when they see the product in the shops.

The tag from my top is rather cute in comparison. It makes a huge mistake in its tone and content; but it does so, so explicitly and so boldly, that I think I would take something like it over the general advertising we see each day as we walk down the street or watch the television.