Advertising messages

I have been well aware of the mass marketing techniques of using subliminal advertising. This has been happening for many years and I heard reference to it on a recent episode of Nervous Teeth. Now I can't say I'm not as much as a sucker for advertising as the next person but I am slightly more aware than most of the strategies having a close colleague whom has worked in the field and is about to return to it as well as a relative who carries out market research into advertising campaign effectiveness.

These days I have made the conscious decision not to watch TV much to avoid advertising overload and the subliminal messaging through news distortion and certain popular programs. That's not to say I don't succumb to some of the 'must haves' but am very sceptical now about advertising claims and loath much of the manner in the way things are advertised.

One form of advertising that initially I thought was pretty cool but now not so sure of is viral/buzz advertising where the population are unaware they are being fooled into purchasing something by being mislead by actors posing as members of the public tauting the benefits of something. An example I came across was actors coming into a pub posing as football supporters showing a new text messaging service for the football club in question, how good it was and how one of them had been sacked by his boss for receiving texts constantly at work, plausible but complete rubbish. You have your guard down not expecting people to be 'hawking their wares' in this fashion and I feel as the public are becoming more aware and therefore less susceptible to advertising the marketing strategies are now becoming morally and ethically dubious.

What we should all be aware of is the shiny packet and big advert doesn't make one product better than it's cheaper rival, often quite the reverse. A recent study in the UK showed that 'own branded' products from supermarkets where in 90% of the items tested by a panel no different in taste to the 'premium range' products from the same supermarkets so that plain white wrapper of biscuits is almost identical to the super duper branded variety.

I have experience of this working in a QC lab for a manufacturer of cosmetics and toiletries as well as over the counter pharmaceuticals. I had to have access to all the formulation ingredient lists and can honestly say that in many cases the 'own brand' shampoo was identical to the premium shampoo except for perhaps the colouring used and the scent/perfume both of which were around 0.01% of the formulation volume...... Difference in price 3-5 fold, staggering. Also own brand products in most supermarkets come from the same supplier. The aforementioned firm I worked for pretty much supplied all the UK supermarket chains and they all sold the same differently packaged product for different prices. Word of advice, use the cheapest supermarket you can if you use a supermarket at all.