Advertising as Advertising

For today's post I decided to discuss an advertising topic that has come to my attention as I continue to work on my grant. To put this topic in the most simplistic terms, it appears that consumers practice subconscious ad avoidance techniques everyday of their lives. Much like an annoying friend or that pesky ex-girlfriend consumers find ways to avoid interacting with advertisements. It appears that this changes with non-traditional advertisements due to the preconceived concepts of advertisements. Specifically, the argument has been proposed that the disruptive functions of advertisements are what ultimately make people want to avoid them. Thus the reason we quickly flip through magazines or change channels during commercials. Yet non-traditional changes all of this by placing advertisements within a non-disruptive framework of our daily lives so that we interact with them without even knowing. Take product placements for example. You can watch an entire episode of your favorite sitcom and being exposed to advertisements without even knowing it as they play a role in what you are watching. Do you think that everything in Seinfeld's kitchen is just there for the hell of it? Think again? 

So keep this idea in mind. While you may have unfavorable opinions towards advertising, you may be more accepting of it than you may generally know. It is only when advertising disrupts our daily functions that we come to find it annoying. But when seamlessly integrated, we all may find that this necessary marketing function plays a greater role in our lives than we would like to admit.