The Role Advertising Played in Turning Everyday Perceptions into Reality #26 #cong23 #reality

Reading Time in Minutes

5

1. With the advent of the internet, algorithms became an effective route to target audiences.
2. Social media Companies have learnt from this and use algorithms to push content that appeals from like minded individuals. They do this to keep the customer on their website longer so that they can, ironically, view more ads.
3. This has created a bubble in which viewers see only content that concurs with their own. Their perceptions become reality with little or no room for other views.
4. Because we spend almost 6 hours a day on the internet viewing content that is less balanced we as a society have become less tolerant of other peoples views, and this is a cause of conflict in the World.

I’m an ex advertising Creative Director and have produced a stack of award winning work for brands like Volkswagen, Carlberg, McDonald’s and Bulmers down through the years. In between ads I co-wrote a few books on Irish culture which included ‘Stuff Irish People like’ and ‘The feckin’ book of Irish Slang that’s great craic for cute hoors and bowsies’ I’m now directing shot movies and producing an ‘advertising led’ cyber security programme

You can connect with with Donal Twitter (x), see his work or send him an email.

By Donal O’Dea

When I started working as a Creative in advertising 40 years ago, our job was to change the way people’s thought about stuff. In a world where most products and services looked and behaved the same the single biggest competitive advantage brands had was its advertising.

If we could favourably change someone’s perception of a product we had a distinct competitive advantage.

In adland- perception was reality.

I think there were 2 TV stations and 2 (legal) radio stations back then.

And it was easy to influence people in the decisions they made.

Very often the advertising was more stimulating than the programmes they were listening to or watching.

So if you told people that a cheap cigar called Hamlet could make everything okay after a bad day (and you told them often enough) you could make them believe, perhaps that it’d be a good idea to take up smoking.

Jump forward 20 years Bruce Springsteen brought out a song called 57 Channels and there’s nothing on. He was right. People were flicking from one channel to another and were less inclined to engage with advertising.

It became harder to persuade people because markets were fragmenting. More TV stations, more radio stations more newspapers. We had to be more strategic about how we targeted the people who’s perceptions needed changing.

If we wanted to persuade people that Carlsberg was in fact, probably the best lager in the World, we’d now use researchers and media planners to identify who the best people were to aim at and then figure the best media to hit them with our message.

It was called ‘targeting’ and it was necessary because people were being exposed to more marketing communications than they could actually handle and an awful lot of advertising is wasted on people who are never going to buy our products.

Jump forward another 10 years and the internet has really taken off. A lot of people have stopped watching Television altogether. This was the era of laptops phones and tablets.

And targeting took on a new life of its own in this digital age. Now brands could look at what you were looking at online and target you with products they feel suits your buying needs. If they saw that you were looking at reviews for, say, a chainsaw, you’d be looking at Chains saw ads for a week. If you didn’t buy it you’d see ads for electric saws. If you didn’t want that…. how about a secateurs?

This was called programatic. And it was run by the computer geeks. They could write code to put consumers who wanted chainsaws in touch with people who made chainsaws. And while these ads could irritate, it was a very clever marketing tool because there was now less waste for the marketeer.

These algorithms were so clever that other industries began to sit up and take note.

Social media sites have taken a leaf out of our book. Instead of pushing ads at us, they push information that they think we’d like at us. The longer you stay on a social media site the more money they make. (Funnily enough, with programatic advertising!).

So if you’ve taken a stance on the Stormont Assembly in Northern Ireland, it’s likely you’ll get fed content that supports that view. Likewise with the way you vote… or your stance on issues on something like abortion.

If you feel something about anything the programming guys will try to target you with content to support that view. It’s all innocent enough. They just want you to hang around a little longer so that you can see some more ads in the background. Where’s the harm in that.

Now here’s the thing. 99% of the Irish population is online. The average daily usage is 5 hours 59 minutes. Business Plus August 2023

Now people are consuming more than just ads. They’re consuming news articles and opinions. And they’re only seeing ads for what they want and seeing articles and opinions that concur with their own.

With the result that a lot of people are now living in a bubble that contains only like minded individuals. People who think the same way vote the same way. Tolerance for differing opinion and voting habits is way down because it doesn’t have a voice in this bubble. And because of confirmation bias these views are unlikely to be challenged.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the ever increasing vitriol between the Republican tribe and Democrat tribe in America. It’s become difficult for their elected representatives to find common ground and run the country because the other persons opinion has played such a minuscule role in their media consumption. On each side of the divide there’s a different perceived reality.

These algorithms are causing conflict.

It’s playing a role in the Russian-Ukraine conflict

It’s playing a role in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

And I think Advertising has a lot to answer for.

God be with the day:-)