Many people tell me they think advertising doesnt work and they are surprised when I tell them I agree with them, to a point. The world has changed an awful lot since advertising started, but it still shapes our life in dramatic ways. I prove my point thusly: How many meals per week do you cook at home? Not many, Im guessing. If I ask why, the answer is always some variant of not enough time. (This is especially true for people who have spent $20,000 remodeling their kitchen and are very concerned about their diet.) Having laid my trap, I spring the follow-up question: who does your laundry? The answer I get is usually something like what do you mean? as if there are no other options. Yet laundry takes an hour or two every week that could be spent cooking! Any chance that years of advertising for restaurants has had an impact on our thinking? If Ray Kroc had bought a laundromat from two brothers instead of a hamburger stand, we might be seeing fluff and fold franchises on every corner. Has advertising shaped the world we live in? You bet it has. -dk
Tags: No Comments