I'd like the puppy in the window...

Advertising fascinates me... no matter what you do, it's fairly impossible to get through life without advertising something at least once... we all do it. Advertising is a way to get people's attention... it tests our creativity and teaches us how to appeal to different types of people. They should teach it in schools... it would be extremely beneficial to the development of the present day teenager.

But I digress... the point of this blog is to just get some thoughts out on paper... well, e-paper, I guess... lol. I haven't blogged in a while, and this has been in the back of my mind, slowly becoming a blog, for a while, so two birds one stone, yeah?

Like I said - Advertising fascinates me. It's a universal concept and everyone takes part. Whether you sell girl scout cookies, or raffle tickets, or need something donated, or blah blah blah, you're going to advertise... and there are SO MANY techniques you can use, especially with the technology today.

Signs are used a lot... colorful ones get more attention than black and white ones, bigger signs are easier to see than little ones, streamers and glitter and other things catch the eye, blah blah blah.

Commercials are big, too... though a little more complicated. There are straight forward commercials, where you know what is being sold. There are stranger commercials... skantily clad women dancing in the rain is supposedly supposed to sell tires.... and there are extremely creative ones. Jack in the Box has some of the most interesting commercials I've ever seen.

Slide shows are also a good way to advertise something... pictures of the great times people are sharing get others interested.

I really respect most forms of advertising... there is a lot of creativity put into them and even if they don't make sense to me, they're probably getting someone.

However, there are still forms that I just have to ask: WHY?

What got me on this tangent is... anyone been to the Merced Mall lately?? Down at the Sweet River end, there's a GMC (I think) vitamin store... and they're advertising some new vitamins... but the advertisement is SO strange to me. There are two posters... one is the lower half of a young woman's face. You see the bottom of her nose, her mouth (painted with red lipstick), and one of her hands, along with a package of these new vitamins. The other is a young male. You see his whole face and shoulders, one hand, and pack of vitamins. (No red lipstick.) What strikes me as odd is what they're doing. Both people are very happily biting into these packages of vitamins. Just... biting the packages... not the vitamins, the packages. And it just struck me as strange... is that going to sell them? I mean... really? I can see how some people might be like... "I wonder what is so amazing about these vitamins that they're willing to EAT THE WHOLE PACKAGE!" But there's no explanatory text, just people eating wrappers.

so what about you? What's the strangest advertisement you've ever seen?