In today’s society we are completely surrounded by advertisement, in fact it often feels there is no way to escape it. In fact, I took on the challenge of writing down the time every single time I saw an advertisement, and it was incredible. I have never been so sick of advertisements in my life, nor did I truly realize how often we actually are exposed to. Why? Because, it is our way of life, we are so used to it we don’t even realize it anymore.
The number was uncountable; it is almost not exaggerating to say every minute in a 24 hour day we are exposed to advertisements; whether it is a billboard on the way to school, that I see daily or the brand on a fellow classmates shoe as we pass on campus.
For me the biggest advertisement exposure came from my cell phone. As a teenager in the 21st century I too am very connected to the internet. On my phone, I am not receiving alerts straight to my phone on advertisements, for example today it was a new cell phone came on basketball. Also, I receive hundreds of emails weekly that are advertising certain stores or brands. The main ones I get emails for are Hot Topic (Save 50% on summer wear today!), Victoria Secret (20% off blow out sale), Spencers (Clearance saint patties day wear!), Amazon (Top gift ideas for Easter!), and Bon Ton (65% off one day sale) which I receive daily.
The next biggest advertisement was typical branding. Seeing the brands of everyone clothes, shoes, school supplies, est. as I walked through my college campus, and sat through class. Every single person had some sort of advertisement on them somewhere.
One final major area was on the television where you get bombarded with commercial after commercial. However, your expecting those, and nowadays most people fast-forward through them (I know I do!) What most people are not expecting is the subliminal and not so subliminal messaging within their television shows. For example on Deadliest Warrior, they strongly promote their technology produced by Slytherin Studios. In almost if not all shows you can pull out an obscene amount of advertisements. As well as the commercials clearly targeted for that particular demographic.
It is no argument that we are completely surrounded by advertisements; practically anywhere you look there is another advertisement. We are so accustomed to it that we don’t care, however when you actually take the time to watch for every single time you are exposed to advertising it gets rather frustrating and overwhelming. I know by the end of my 24 hour of advertisement watching I was annoyed, assaulted, and exhausted. I felt so exposed and felt my privacy was demolished. Advertisements are so invasive. There truly is no escape from advertisements in the world we live in.
