The Good Weekend is a magazine included in the Sydney Morning Herald each Saturday. This week the magazine was longer than usual - 119 pages (not including the front cover). 59 of those 119 pages were full-page advertisements. An additional 20 half-page ads also appeared. That means that 69 of the 119 pages of the magazine were advertising - 58% of the publication! It’s just as well that I enjoy reading advertisements (call me crazy, but I like to see how advertisers try and tempt us and what they appeal to) because my Good Weekend magazine was basically an advertising feature with a couple of articles.
When we watch television the advertising seems more prolific, but perhaps that’s just because it’s less escapable - we have to push through to watch the rest of the episode. Yet television advertising only takes up 27% of your 30 minute program. This almost sounds quite reasonable when compared with the Good Weekend!
The internet is changing our tolerance for this kind of ‘catch-all’ advertising. Google Ads displays advertisements relevant to what’s in my email or what I’m searching for. I don’t need to see ads for the Sydney IVF clinic, or spring carnival fashions at David Jones, or the latest car that I can’t afford. Tivo has now made it possible for us to record TV and avoid the advertisements.
Technology is changing, and advertisers are going to have to get smarter.
One of the advertisers that needs urgent help is Nivea. The line for their latest range of male skin care products is:
“for men who know what a good investment looks like”
Clumsily trying to tap into the current financial mess, they have conveniently forgotten that the human body is one of the worst investments around. Like a new car, the depreciation starts as soon as it walks out of the showroom. It is fragile, with no hope of a good return, in fact, this investment has a 100% guarantee of failure - the only question is when. Who would put any money into this investment?!
C’mon Nivea, you can do better than that.
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