Tag: advertising

"Anythin fo' half-price is a bargain, irregardless o' what ya pay fo' it." ~ Mammy Yokum

A person's possessions speak volumes on what that individual regards as important. The advertising industry, devoted to identifying what the citizen considers significant, manipulates the market to create those choices. With massive sums to be spent, the competition is as fierce as it is grotesque.

Children exposed to food advertisements are more likely to overeat, especially if they have a specific version of a gene linked to obesity, a recent study suggests.

A gene known as the fat mass and obesity-associated gene, or FTO, comes in various slightly different versions, and was the first to be linked to obesity by genetic studies, the researchers write October 18 in the International Journal of Obesity.

These kinds of genes interacting with an environment full of junk food ads may make children more likely to reach for a snack when it’s advertised on TV, even when they’re full, putting them at even greater risk of obesity, the study team writes.

Last Saturday night I was watching Comedy Central and I saw a new ad for Ashley Madison, the now infamous website/app designed for and used by married people looking to cheat on the sly. On the surface, this new ad looks incredibly wholesome and inviting. It starts with a handsome, clean-cut guy singing along to a vaguely familiar pop music melody. Then another equally handsome and clean-cut man joins him. Pretty soon the entire screen is filled with pleasant looking guys, all of them happily singing. If you’re not paying attention, it’s a bit like Coca Cola’s famed "I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke" ad, first aired in 1971, with one, then another, and then hundreds of beautiful people on an Italian hillside singing a song about peace, love, and soda pop.