Why Advertising Matters

If you ever wondered why corporations like Ford or Apple spend millions of dollars on marketing their already incredibly well know products – products that everyone who's going to be interested in purchasing have already heard about – well, here's why:

Kids think food tastes better if it's wrapped in McDonald's foil.

I think it's pretty good common sense that advertising does affect behavior. If it didn't, there are a lot of dollars and hours being wasted on it. And while it might those resources might not be used the most efficiently, I think enough people have been involved in the ad game that if it didn't drive behavior then someone would have found a better way by now. But the scary thing here is that the brand marketing created by McDonald's is driving irrational behavior.

Even carrots, even carrots, wrapped in a McDonald's wrapper tasted better to the discerning palate of a five year old. Oh sure, they'll eat mud if you're not looking but, trust me, they'll let you know if something doesn't taste right. That's how powerful, that's how effective, the advertising we're bombarded with can be. And if this effect is solely limited to McDonald's, I'd eat, well, McDonald's.

It makes me wonder just how many other, subliminal, subconscious desires have been molded by marketing departments. Just what's rattling around in my head because some ad exec was trying to sell a few more bars of soap. Because, of course, the effect might be most apparent in children but there's probably some influence on the behavior of even the most rational. And from all types of sources, not just commercial advertising. How about from the soundbites of a political campaign as they try to drive their message home? Or the stories that are repeated ad nauseum on the news? Or even the narratives we tell each other, the truisms and adages we reinforce on a daily basis. The thought of what they're doing to our minds isn't as scary as the thought of what they could do, if someone really understood how to use these techniques. If someone, some company, some society, put the time and effort into understanding just how far they could influence people with advertising and not just leave the bouncing and tumbling to the random twists of the marketplace.

But even from such chilling news can come good things. I have, by the way, already sent an e-mail to my cousin, my sadly much younger cousin, who already has a young child and advised her to save some wrappers from her next trip to Micky D's should my niece ever develop finicky eating habits. Take whatever you want, fold it up nicely in the – cleaned - wrapper and serve it up to your child. Tell them it's from Ronald's new line of McVeggies, it's no worse than the white lies you tell them about Santa Claus. And in the ongoing battle to get your kid to eat her broccoli, I think our parents will take any weapon they can get their hands on.