Have Corporations Gone Overboard with Advertising?

The rise of "conversational media", defined as a two way model of advertising between consumer and producer, is a direct result of years of pent up frustration with traditional advertising having over-saturated every sector of a consumer's life. This pent up frustration recently in the Brazilian city of São Paulo took the form of a complete ban on public advertising:


Courtesy of Walker Art Center

São Paulo's conservative Mayor, Gilberto Kassab, stated that his opposition to outdoor advertising was rooted in his desire to reduce pollution in his city:

"The Clean City Law came from a necessity to combat pollution . . . pollution of water, sound, air, and the visual. We decided that we should start combating pollution with the most conspicuous sector – visual pollution... surveys indicate that the measure is extremely popular with the city's residents, with more than 70 percent approval."

Conversational media is the great hope for advertising agencies increasingly facing market challenges like the decline of the traditional magazine/newspaper industry and the rise of the commercial-skipper DVRs. This media platform is simply a band-aid for the industry, which seems stuck in a cycle of over-saturating consumers in all possible mediums and seeing what sticks.

Consumers are not terribly content with the current state of advertising affairs:

71% say there are too many ads on TV.

44% say they skip ads more often than they did a year ago by turning down the TV, changing the channel, or fast-forwarding through commercials.

Over one-half of Americans (56%) say there are too may ads on the Internet

Courtesy of Marketing Profs


Just some food for thought.