Thursday, November 26, 2020

The Mind of America

    According to those in the advertising market, not of the highest intelligence. I admit I don't watch commercials deliberately, so I often miss the beginning. But take this commercial: A young woman presents her apparently significant other with some apparently small gift; "One for me and one for you,"  she says. I acknowledge I don't know what these gifts are. He reciprocates by leading her outside where a pair of brand-spanking-new trucks are parked in the driveway. "One for you and one for me," he tells her. Without any question as to how the vehicles showed up there, what they cost, why they would want 2 of exactly the same model, she runs to the darker colored truck, exclaiming "I love it."  No thank-you even. When the poor doofus tries to explain that the vehicle she is embracing was the one intended for him, she repeats her claim, "I love it."  He than concedes that "I like red."  

    I don't care what happens in that simulated interaction, but can't help but wonder what the creators of the ad were thinking when they came up with this idea. Who are they marketing to?  In what setting would one partner go out and buy 2 brand new trucks without consulting the other, as to make, model, need, budget, personal preference, not to mention who the heck surreptitiously delivered them. Are the advertisers directing their appeal to  millionaires, very young ones at that.

  Many Americans are presently not engaging in large purchases and it would not be smart of them to do so. Maybe the target  audience are those who watch fake and staged shows like The Masked Singer, I Can Hear Your Voice, The Bachelorette, Wrestling, Survivor, Jerry Springer----wait, there are a lot of those folks out there.

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