coolbeans, 4/05

In class on Friday we discussed how many times the ads that are featured during shows are targeted to the audience that would be watching the shows that are featured. The broadcasting agencies make a lot of money from selling airtime for the advertisements and the products make a lot of money from the advertisements because it helps get the name of the products out to the public. It is very rare to see a company that is able to sustain itself without the use of advertising because if nobody knew about what a product was then they would not know to purchase it. It makes a lot of sense why a company such as Mattel would purchase airtime on Nickelodeon because a lot of kids watch Nickelodeon and the target age for Mattel toys are kids. Nickelodeon and Mattel rely a lot on each other in order to make money off of each other. It seems as if advertisements are a necessity in order for our economy to be functional. A lot of CMC theorists seem to view advertisements as control mechanisms, but aren’t they kind of necessary? What would happen if advertisements were made illegal? The shoe designer Christian Louboutin, does not create advertisements for the shoes because of his belief that the quality of the shoes should speak for themselves. Because of this, the shoes are not nearly purchased as much as a highly commodified brand such as Steve Madden. The company however is still able to survive because the shoes are priced at $700-$2500 a pair. Therefore, in order for a company that does not advertise to make as much profit as a company that advertises a lot, the price of the product must be raised much more. If advertisements disappeared altogether then would everything have to be priced double what it is now in order for the companies to stay afloat?