Can you see me ???
 In the age of consumerism, global inflation and competition between corporate brands, and, with the rapid growth of different companies providing all types of services and commodities; Advertisement, as a prominent and powerful tool is experiencing an era of gigantic growth, allowing ads to penetrate every aspect of our lives. Whether in the streets, at home, at work, or even over the phone, it seems like wherever you go these days you are sure find an ad popping up in your face one way or another. In this sense advertising changed from being a method that is supposed to inform us and keep us up to date on the improvement of existing products and the creation of new ones, into an annoying tool haunting us and affecting our life styles negatively. It seems that advertisers and marketing agencies in Egypt are not familiar with the term clutter! Clutter, as defined in good ol’ Wikipedia, is a term used to describe the phenomenon of a marketplace being full or even overcrowded with products. It also refers to the extreme amount of advertising the average person sees in their daily lives. And Clutter is not a phenomena that is restricted to Egypt, unfortunately it is another global disease that is closely related to consumerism and the culture of consumption.
Advertising was originally an art, intended to be a means of communication and to express human creativity, using various techniques, to deliver an informative message about a product. Yet, this is not the case nowadays. Over the past few years, we have seen how advertisement infiltrates our homes; Starting from the TV, which became one large advertisement bonanza, to the Radio, Internet, Newspapers, Magazines and street posters. Not to mention, targeted ads on cell phone and emails. And let us not forget the greatest annoyance of all, Billboards; Billboards on buildings, on bridges, on every single road and highway
(checkout Cairo-Alex. desert road and the ring road) and soon enough they’ll install a billboard in your living room (Billboard le kol mowaten).
Are you starting to get the picture? Is it clear how manipulative the situation is becoming?
The question is: is there no one to supervise such commercial chaos?
Isn’t it enough that everything in our lives is polluted, did we really need visual pollution to close the deal? I use the word visual pollution because it’s not about the quality or creativity of the ads any more, apparently advertisers in Egypt thought it was a quantitative equation rather than a qualitative one, so they have been hyping ads upon ads, until the point of over saturation!
There is a recognized concept in advertising known as stopping power, which is the ad’s ability to grab the attention of the viewer, in very few seconds. If an ad lakes stopping power, it will pass unnoticed by the consumer. Now how does any of the Advertisers and marketing agencies in Egypt expect their billboards to get noticed if the viewer/consumer/ victim has 50 billboards thrust in his/her face with all colours, sizes and flashy lights?
Of course, I personally don’t care about them getting noticed (I say, may they never be noticed),
 what I care about is these evil billboards obstructing my vision and distracting me from driving or even thinking! I don’t know about you but I consider it literally visually painful!
Nevertheless, it have long passed the realm of visual nuisance and entered the realm where it affects our perception and behaviour. The repletion of these ads and the way by which advertisement companies succeeds in making commercials infiltrate nearly every aspect of our lives cause severe Affluenza, not Influenza, Affluenza; which is: a painful, highly contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the pursuit of the American Commercial Dream.
Gradually we start following the messages delivered to us in every waking moment (and in the near future during our sleep) and start living our lives according to the lifestyles taught to us through advertisement, covert advertisement, and the newly introduced Shockvertising. This slowly converts a large portion of the population from consumers to addicts who are obsessed with shopping. These addicts go on a frenzy of buying stuff they don’t need, with money they don’t have. Alas, in this day and age, that’s the whole point of advertisements. To increase the sales of their clients and brands, by creating a need on the consumer level, for a product that previously didn’t exist, like for an instance an MP3 player, or a camera phone, or a paper thin laptop, or a Bluetooth Wi-Fi Gaming console that can do anything from playing DVDs, to cooking your dinner!
And the effect doesn’t stop there, it goes much further, to make those individuals believe that their self esteem or social image depends what they buy (instead of the old concept of you are what you do and what you achieve).
But the worst effect of this mindless commercial wave can be observed on the children. Because, as we all know, children are effected much more faster and easier than adults. Children under the age of four may be unable to distinguish uch as Advertising Standards Authority in the UK). The general aim of such organizations is to ensure that any advertising is ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’.
Such systems of governmental regulation or even self-regulation must be introduced in Egypt because without, this chaos of advertisement, and it’s negative effect on the society and social behaviours, is bound to get worse.
On the other hand, we, as the consumers that we (unfortunately) are, have to be more aware of the messages delivered to us. We have to know how to register our concerns with advertisements and impose some kind of consumer regulatory body, which can help us stand in the face of this advertising frenzy.
Finally, and despite all the cons of the misuse and overuse of advertisement, some socially aware agencies and companies are starting to realise the social impact of advertisement on our lives, and are using this knowledge to produce creative and smart campaigns that properly informs the consumer and even teach the masses. Hopefully that would be a start of a trend in marketing, where ads, actually benefits the user, not just help the greedy corporates to cash in.
a product that previously didn’t exist, like for an instance an MP3 player, or a camera phone, or a paper thin laptop, or a Bluetooth Wi-Fi Gaming console that can do anything from playing DVDs, to cooking your dinner!
And the effect doesn’t stop there, it goes much further, to make those individuals believe that their self esteem or social image depends what they buy (instead of the old concept of you are what you do and what you achieve).
But the worst effect of this mindless commercial wave can be observed on the children. Because, as we all know, children are effected much more faster and easier than adults. Children under the age of four may be unable to distinguish
advertising from other television programs, while the ability to determine the truthfulness of the message may not be developed until the age of eight (or 48), which means that they believe what they see on TV as much as they believe what their parents tell them, imagine the catastrophe? It’s enough for us to observe the effect of Melody commercials with its unnecessary violence, and inappropriate language, on the children of Egypt, to know how bad it hits us inside our homes.
Advertising and marketing in general, became increasingly ubiquitous in the modern world and ever-present in our daily (if not hourly) lives. But the industry is accused of being one of the engines powering the same convoluted economic mass production system which promotes consumption.
In the US many communities believe that many forms of outdoor advertising blight the public realm. Starting from the 1960s in there were attempts to ban billboard advertising in the open areas. Cities such as São Paulo have introduced an outright ban with the UK capital also having specific legislation to control unlawful displays. In the UK most forms of outdoor advertising such as the display of billboards is regulated by the UK Town and County Planning system, with a harsh criminal penalty of £2500 for the display of an advertisement without consent.
 There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by regulating the content and the influence of advertising. In Europe and elsewhere, there is a vigorous debate on whether (or how much) advertising to children should be regulated. This debate was intensified after a report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2004, suggested that food advertising targeting children was an important factor in the epidemic of childhood obesity.
In many countries - namely New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and many European countries - the advertising industry operates under a system of independent self-regulatory organizations (such as Advertising Standards Authority in the UK). The general aim of such organizations is to ensure that any advertising is ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’.
Such systems of governmental regulation or even self-regulation must be introduced in Egypt because without, this chaos of advertisement, and it’s negative effect on the society and social behaviours, is bound to get worse.
On the other hand, we, as the consumers that we (unfortunately) are, have to be more aware of the messages delivered to us. We have to know how to register our concerns with advertisements and impose some kind of consumer regulatory body, which can help us stand in the face of this advertising frenzy.
Finally, and despite all the cons of the misuse and overuse of advertisement, some socially aware agencies and companies are starting to realise the social impact of advertisement on our lives, and are using this knowledge to produce creative and smart campaigns that properly informs the consumer and even teach the masses. Hopefully that would be a start of a trend in marketing, where ads, actually benefits the user, not just help the greedy corporates to cash in.
Mohamed Radwan |
