[projectvrm] Multifunctional Advertising

[Chris Savage < >]

Perhaps someone can point me to resources dealing with the following:

1.    It seems to me that when we talk about "advertising" and/or "marketing" there are several different things going on at once, with differing levels of intrusiveness, annoyance, and usefulness.

2.    On the one hand there is purely informational advertising.  I'm going to go buy new DVD player later today.  There's a brand I've heard is pretty good.  Right now I would affirmatively welcome information about which vendors within a 10-20 mile radius have which brands and models in stock, at which prices.

3.    On the other hand, there is stuff designed to stimulate desire for some product.  Some of it is blatant and some of it is subtle.  But on the whole I don't want my desires to be stimulated by some third party seeking my money as a result.  That may be the world's oldest economic activity, but it still leaves you feeling, you know, kinda cheapened.

    a.    But of course it's not quite that simple.  In matters of fashion, for example, there is a very fine line between "needing information" -- which in that case, is needing information about what is fashionable and cool -- versus having one's desires stimulated.  (I'm thinking of something like Vogue, which someone else mentioned recently, where the ads simultaneously reveal and shape perceptions of what's cool, and what, therefore, people will actually want to buy).

4.    Then there's the whole issue of intrusiveness of presentation.  In every medium there is something that, to me, marks the line of "OK" versus, "This is just too f**king much!  Stop!"  In magazines, e.g., its the use of multiple "blow-out" cards.  I mean, really?  You're going to make me pick up the damn card after it falls on the ground and put it somewhere before I throw it away?  Online, it's pop-ups, pop-unders, and that abomination where you get to the site (the NY Times is horrible about this) and there's some add along the top that expands to take over half your screen (and distorts the location of the text) before it disappears again.  My reaction is akin to that I have to a particularly aggressive and smarmy salesperson in a clothing or whatever store.  I walk in to look around a bit, and they are totally in my face with, "Can I help you with anything?  Can I show you what's on sale?"  As if I am incapable of exercising my own agency and asking them to tell me about something if I'm interested, or where to find it if I don't see it.

5.    Weirdly, from this perspective, I like reasonably subtle product placement (mocked, e.g., in The Truman Show).  I'd rather see that all the cool folks in some spy movie use Macs and all the bad guys use Dell, or that all the cool guys drive Fords, or whatever, than have someone run up to me in some store and pester me about what kind of computer or car I want.

A bit of a ramble.  Sorry for that.  But my question, again: has anyone done any notable (or at least readable) research about these different dimensions of the advertising/marketing phenomenon?

Thanks,

Chris S.