Well, I'd just like to point out that it's *your* post about the Everready
Bunny that is refreshing my memory of it. I'd quite forgotten about it, it
doesn't engage my attention from day to day. In other words, advertizers
do not have a power to appropriate time that is not theirs. They get their
30 second spot same as all the other advertizers, there is no power to
capture attention indefinitely. Marketers always STRUGGLE to gain
attention, it is a difficult battle for them, as they *know* that the
audience is going to do their best to tune them out, change the channel,
ignore the sign on the highway, etc. The modern consumer defends himself
by "tuning out" the noise of all the input that the marketroids would seek
to pummel them with. This is why repetition is the primary means of idea
emplacement: if they see the same stupid McDonald's commercial 300 times,
they will remember it (maybe). Thus, it is not an "unpaid for" mnemonic
time, it is a direct consequence of the consumer choosing to sit in front
of the TV and watch for X hours in a day. This begs a more important
critical question than notions of temporal payment: why are consumers
MOTIVATED to behave in this way?
> now, given margaret morse's alignment of television, the mall and the
> freeway, to what degree might tactics deployed within one domain be
> transferrable to another? what would be the equivalent of the everready
> campaign along the highway?
On the highway, the eqivalent is the "Do The Math" campaign. Atari used to
use it for their 64-bit game consoles. 'Round here, Washington Mutual
reappropriates it for their no-fee checking accounts, and you see these ads
on billboards and buses. And I think I've seen yet-another-advertizer use
the phrase, but thankfully I can't remember who. These ads reassure the
world that "Yes, math is still being done." :-)
> in the mall?
That would be Nike's "Just Do It" campaign, which I think has been
re-referenced by quite a number of enterprises, but thankfully again I
can't remember which. Within the USA it is a slogan for everything, even a
philosophy (and part of its power is that it's often not a bad philosophy,
either.) The mnemonic assurance is that "things are still being done."
> it should be noted that the
> moment in which everready's tactic is repeated by another ad agency, it's
> effectivenes diminishes... thus the necessity for perpetual re-invention,
a
> condition harder to achieve through built works which traditionally have
> longer refresh rates...
I disagree. It seems that Washington Mutual has been quite successful at
reappropriating the form of a previous ad agency. A very simple mechanism
is going on here, it is mere repetition of catch-phrase, catch-image, or
sound byte. Why as critical analysts do we priveledge the battery power of
the Everready bunny, and its capacity to keep moving forever and ever?
It's a goddamned pink bunny with sunglasses!!!! That's why people remember
it!!!! It had a certain degree of catchiness, it has been repeated for a
very long time, it is a "successful" advertizing campaign. The ad world
abounds with examples of this. If you can get your product to the point
where it's a cultural truism or slogan, you've won. This stuff is all so
simple as to mechanism, that we are in serious danger of overanalyzing it.
Cheers,
Brandon J. Van Every <vanevery@blarg.net> DEC Commodity Graphics
http://www.blarg.net/~vanevery Windows NT Alpha OpenGL
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The anvil upon which you hammer another's words is as hard or as soft
as you care to make it. Wherein lies insight?
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