If you haven’tseen the ads, you�ve probably been living under a rock. Then again, there might have been ads under that rock, too.
The ads are everywhere, and it’s not that I have something against Hal Sparks. I am plainly irritated by the amount of advertising that’s been done. It’s gone on for weeks! It’s on the all walls, in the bathroom stalls, on the dining hall tables, on Facebook, and even on the school computer desktops.
By Karissa Kilgore,
Senior Staff Writer
If you haven’tseen the ads, you�ve probably been living under a rock. Then again, there might have been ads under that rock, too.
The ads are everywhere, and it’s not that I have something against Hal Sparks. I am plainly irritated by the amount of advertising that’s been done. It’s gone on for weeks! It’s on the all walls, in the bathroom stalls, on the dining hall tables, on Facebook, and even on the school computer desktops.
Advertisements can get under my skin very easily. One way is by bombarding me with them every waking moment.
I got rid of my �98 Compaq when the poor brute was riddled with so much adware that it wouldn’tfunction. We all deal with spam in email accounts, pop-up and pop-under windows, and unsolicited junk mail in the post.
I don’thave a problem with someone trying to sell something to me (or sell me on the idea of something). However, I do have a problem with feeling like I can’tget away from it.
I logged in to a computer during class one day to be greeted by a stretched out image that was all too familiar to my eyes. Hal Sparks was smiling at me, and there below his picture was all the information for the event, as the desktop on the PC.
I couldn’tbelieve it. This felt akin to a salesman coming into my own home through the back window and waving carpet samples in front of my face. Too much, right?
Where is the line drawn, and when is it crossed?
I don’tfault whoever is responsible for the advertising. I fault the methods.
Are students really so apathetic that the only way to deliver a message is through an ad campaign that seeps into every possible space of their lives?
I can’tspeak for every student, but I know that sometimes I feel like there are things that I don’tever hear about happening on campus. The out-of-the-loop feeling, however, won’tbe fixed by an inundation of advertisements.
Last year I wrote about apathy and incentive iPod giveaways. You might remember the line about our generation being as easily motivated as a pair of dirty socks. Apply that here: why does it take so much to grab students� attention?
�Get out from under your rocks, please.� That’s what the advertisements should say.
Sure, studies say it takes hearing something seven times before you can commit it to memory. But why, oh, why must we see at least five different kinds of ad for the same event hundreds of times during the day?
While the Hal Sparks event is one instance of this all-out advertising anarchy, what’s to say that this concept won’tbe repeated?
Perhaps if students just start responding to ads it will stop the steady pour of ads in our lives. Or at least slow the drip.
I just hope they don’tput pictures of that Biava Quartet in the bathrooms.
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