From print to pixels

DOES this ring a bell, “Come to where the flavor is?” When you hear this, you visualize men riding horses and smoking cigarettes.

Another is the “Just do it” slogan. It’s considered one of the most successful campaigns because of its simplicity and direct call to action. Various industries across all contexts commonly use it as a motivational tagline.

Advertising started with print ads, but it has evolved to what we now call digital advertising. Even movie houses were not spared then of advertisements in between two movies shown. Today, the ads we see are anti-piracy and a reminder of the need to put your mobile phone in silent mode.

There are different types of advertisements. The most common are institutional ads, product ads, and political ads. Institutional ads focus on company image, while product ads are all about the consumer product or services that you sell.

Political ads are what one would say the latest since they used to be taboo. Now, it’s very prevalent, and their workaround to make it acceptable is this disclaimer, “Political advertisement paid for by the friends of Mr. X.”

Political ads mostly appeal to our emotions. “Pity” ads, as they say. I know it’s more on empathy, but it appears more to be that. They’re supposed to bank on their abilities and capabilities. Instead, we hear make-up sad stories, which are for MMK or Lovingly Yours type of shows.

There are no ads depicting real-life drama like, “I was born rich,” “I’m gay,” or “Meet my mistress.” Well, the last is going a bit too far. However, there were two who became national figures without hiding their stories.

Have you experienced making an ad? I did.

It was college days. It was after a holiday break spent lazing under the sun in different places. The result, I got sunburned. My father was furious. As punishment, he forbade my request to skip class even though I had swollen undereye areas. Imagine you can no longer tell where my cheeks and eyebags met.

That gave me the idea of a sunblock ad for my English 47 class. My turn came, and I went up the platform.

I was wearing sunglasses and covering my lower face with a bandana. I said a few lines, and my last line was, “Use sunblock so you won’t get burned like me.” Then I took off my sunglasses and bandana. And all I heard was, “Oh!’ I don’t know if they were shocked or felt the pain of the burn, or worse, they were trying not to laugh.

Advertisements have always been and will always be part of the business. Social media needs it to survive. Bloggers need it for them to continue with their content. News companies, be they online or printed, need ads.

It has evolved and will continually evolve. We have not seen the end of it. What’s next? A hologram ad that says, “You’re in good hands.”