Advertising is everywhere - before film screenings, on bus stops, the side of taxi's, during the break between shows, every nineth social media post; I agree that advertisement has indeed become 'too much'. Unless you're a paying customer (but even then, you're subjected to 5 second advertisements), there is almost no activity that can be enjoyed without a product being pushed into your forefront view. As a consumer, are we being too exposed?
As of late 2022, we live in a world saturated with advertisements for products, people, and services. Social Media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok are arguably the biggest promotion services on the internet. Tiktok confirmed that alongside the initial advertisement when first loading up the app as well as a video promoting different companies every nineth video, they pay certain content creators to publicise Tiktok's own shop. Social Media adverts are undeniably the quickest and easiest way to market products, with the simple click of a button and it's out there for millions to see, not to mention big name celebrities who'll give publicity to any brand that offers them enough money. For example, the Kardashian's own Kim Kardashian (most famous for her role on "Keeping Up With The Kardashians", as well as her connections with Paris Hilton.) collaborated with the company Beats. Kim Kardashian x Beats flooded the Instagram feed with posts from both sides of the partnership, as well as news accounts and fan accounts who indirectly marketed the products (wireless earphones in nude shades) by garnering attention to them. In turn with her promotion for the earphones, Kim Kardashian also promoted her own clothing line 'Skims' in which she stated, "I could even style them with Skims." This is a perfect example of the advertising based on social media as it shows that when advertising a product, brands/companies will not hesitate to also promote their other, less new, products whilst they have the attention of a large audience.
YouTube, a media platform for posting videos, has mandatory advertisements at the start of every video - they can range from five seconds to four minutes. With a five second advertisement, there is no option to skip; watching the ad is mandatory in order to view the video, for any longer promotions, an option appears to bypass the video after a five second minimum. During those five seconds of being displayed a product, we're filled with annoyance as we impatiently wait for either the video to begin or for the 'skip' button to appear. Is this an indication we're too exposed to advertisements? Now, as mentioned earlier YouTube displays ads at the start of every video (should they follow YouTube's guidelines and be monetised), which means that some users of the site are seeing some sort of promotion four or five times in one sitting. That's only at the start of the video. YouTube also displays advertisements within videos as long as they exceed ten minutes. Any video exceeding the 10-minute minimum of YouTube's monetarisation policy can have up to four ads in it at any time. Now, if a user watches six 10-minute videos that all have four ads within the video and an additional mandatory ad from YouTube at the start of the video, (and if we do the math), they're being barren to an estimated thirty ads. In one hour. Surely, that is just too many advertisements for products/sites/people we usually don't even remember, almost as if the marketing area is a battle between companies.
From my examples of Kim Kardashian proving people want to promote as many of their products to you as possible to both YouTube and its creators exploiting monetisation rights, it should be considered that perhaps we are shown too many advertisements. Especially if many of those ads aren't remembered an hour after they're shown.
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