Mirror Mirror On the Wall
"Mirror Mirror on the wall, show me a reflection of myself, so I can buy them all."
This is the basis of what's currently happening in the media as explained by PBS's documentary of Frontline: Making Cents out of Teens: Merchants of Cool (http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/story/2009/08/post.html). They describe it best as a feedback loop where advertisers learn how their consumers act and then commercialize products by dramatizing their consumers. It's this vicious cycle of consumers buy products in hopes of being this ideal ad character, but the advertising companies come up with these characters based on their consumers. This makes it so that as long as people keep digressing, the advertisers will follow in presenting the "modernized" person. But the question is: has it always been this way?
Compared to the example of Sprite in the documentary, I have personally been a consumer of the popular toys growing up. The three I distinctively remember are Silly Bandz, Kendamas, and American Girl Dolls. All where around 2012-2014, which was around my 5th and 6th grade years. At that age, most kids are crazed about getting toys and having objects to show off with their friends. It is the ideal age for advertisers because kids are old enough to choose the toys they want and having their parents continuously buying from the same brand for holiday presents.
For Silly Bandz and Kendamas, they started off as an odd knick-knack that soon popularize to where almost every kid had one or several. They were common objects on school play yards. I remember how kids used to trade bandz during recess, have them all along their arms, and show off cool tricks with their Kendamas. It got to the point where mainstream stores like Walmart and Toys-R-Us were always out of stock as this short phenomenon was 'The Toy to Have.' They were even ways for news outlets to attract viewers by making the content appear relatable since their own child had these things (https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/kendama-craze-sweeping-the-country/509-4936d1ac-b62c-4d05-af0b-06bd630f5d54). The mirror effect of this is then evident.
For American Girl Dolls, they were mainly advertised as customizing a doll to look like your kid(s). One of their biggest campaigns was around the idea of having Mini-Me's with the dolls. Parents would then buy dolls that look like their child along with all the accessories like pets and clothes that their child has. But when their child gets older, they will need to buy another doll to match their older description. It was a built in feedback loop where parents would always come back to buy their children's reflection in doll form.
As someone who has seen this as a normalized childhood experience of buying products that reflect myself, it makes sense that this sort of feedback loop has always existed in advertisement in some way. Its incorporation is slick and unnoticeable many times because the audience is seeing themselves which is normal. When products from the last decade are seen, many would say, "that's weird" or "why was that ever a thing?" It is because products and commercials follow the people. Whatever the people are going through is the trends that will merge into media.
This is the basis of what's currently happening in the media as explained by PBS's documentary of Frontline: Making Cents out of Teens: Merchants of Cool (http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/story/2009/08/post.html). They describe it best as a feedback loop where advertisers learn how their consumers act and then commercialize products by dramatizing their consumers. It's this vicious cycle of consumers buy products in hopes of being this ideal ad character, but the advertising companies come up with these characters based on their consumers. This makes it so that as long as people keep digressing, the advertisers will follow in presenting the "modernized" person. But the question is: has it always been this way?
Compared to the example of Sprite in the documentary, I have personally been a consumer of the popular toys growing up. The three I distinctively remember are Silly Bandz, Kendamas, and American Girl Dolls. All where around 2012-2014, which was around my 5th and 6th grade years. At that age, most kids are crazed about getting toys and having objects to show off with their friends. It is the ideal age for advertisers because kids are old enough to choose the toys they want and having their parents continuously buying from the same brand for holiday presents.
For American Girl Dolls, they were mainly advertised as customizing a doll to look like your kid(s). One of their biggest campaigns was around the idea of having Mini-Me's with the dolls. Parents would then buy dolls that look like their child along with all the accessories like pets and clothes that their child has. But when their child gets older, they will need to buy another doll to match their older description. It was a built in feedback loop where parents would always come back to buy their children's reflection in doll form.As someone who has seen this as a normalized childhood experience of buying products that reflect myself, it makes sense that this sort of feedback loop has always existed in advertisement in some way. Its incorporation is slick and unnoticeable many times because the audience is seeing themselves which is normal. When products from the last decade are seen, many would say, "that's weird" or "why was that ever a thing?" It is because products and commercials follow the people. Whatever the people are going through is the trends that will merge into media.
Comments
Post a Comment