Advertising at the Beach

Yesterday I went the beach town of Kovalum. A nice place, a bit touristy, but nice nontheless. On the way to the town and in the town itself I noticed many similarities between the east and the west. One such example is advertising. It's everywhere over here and I found that odd at first. Huge billboards of decadent looking women wearing the latest in expensive jewelry stand tall above a man barely scraping buy selling bananas on the road. It's odd, but apparently you can make a living just selling bananas on the road. Sounds like the life to me though. Just hanging out with your fruit, chilling, watching the world go buy. There's no worries really since everyone needs food, and banannas are as good as the next fruit. Although, once your market learns that all they have to do is walk into the jungle a few feet and get their own banannas, then business is shot. I suppose that's like the oil companies hoping that people don't realize that there's other sources of free fuel out there. Wind, sun, lightning, etc.

The advertising over here is in your face and annoying and dirty and gross. It makes me think of the advertising in America as well. In the states the advertising is slick and sharp and makes you say, 'damn I need that.' But the essence is the same. When you strip away the fancy cover it's just redundant imagery playing on our base desires. That's why in America there are half naked women selling toothpaste.

Here's a test for you, don't watch TV for about a decade, then turn it on and tell me what you see.I guarantee that you'll be blown away with the amount of T&A you'll see. The language is even different. Today they can say words that I never would have dreamed possible in high school. (That's pretty much the last time I watched TV consistently)

I wonder what we'll be watching in twenty years from now? There will be a commerical showing a couple in the midst of some hot steamy action. Sweat dripping from their bodies which are in the most gymnastic of positions. Then after a minute and a half, the girl will look up and say, "Pepsi is delicious."

That's why TV is lame. The advertisers know what sells. The naked female body sells. Take the most gorgeous sunset,take any pretty mountain scene and most people will prefer to check out a nice rack.

The difference lies in the fact, that I have no interest seeing some chick on TV. I'll never see her, I'll never meet her and I'll never try her toothpaste. When I'm trying to watch some TV show about polar bears, I only get distracted by the commericials. One girl is too much too handle anyway. If you choose the right one the others seem dull and boring regardless of how much oil they coat her body in or what they're selling.