Selling Our Ideals

For years and years, advertisers have been tasked with trying to figure out a way to get people to want to buy a product. This is no easy task, and advertisers’ methods are constantly changing. However, there is a trend in recent advertising that I think lots of people miss. Widely held ideals are exploited by corporations to get us to buy their products. It’s kind of a weird concept, so let me explain.

This idea that corporations use our ideals to make us buy their products is not new, it has been around for years. For example, Whole Foods sells their products by promoting ethical consumption, Nike sells female empowerment by way of running shorts, and many cosmetic and fashion companies sell body acceptance by using “plus size” models. Corporations have figured out a way to market our own widely held ideals to us, and make it seem like they are better for doing so.

The truth is that they aren’t. Companies advertise with one goal in mind: to make money. Now I am not saying that advertising that promotes sustainability, empowerment, or acceptance is bad by any means. However they are just that, advertisements. They are designed to make us want to spend money. The companies advertising to us could probably care a less about the sustainability, empowerment, or acceptance that they are promoting, they care about how much money it is making them.

This method of advertising is an example of companies’ efforts to encode certain ideologies into their advertisements. By doing so, consumers may think that they are buying the “best” product because it promotes certain ideals that they think are important. The success of these advertising efforts is also dependent upon how consumers choose to decode them. Some consumers may totally love the campaign, while others may see right through it and consider it a “scandal.” Nevertheless, these campaigns seem to be successful.

One incredibly successful example of a advertising campaign selling our ideals is Dove’s Real Beauty campaign. The campaign has been ongoing for 12 years now, and has the most watched ad video of all time. How did a company that is known for selling white bars of soap achieve this? By talking to women about their beauty ideals, and using them to sell their beauty products. Also by using “plus sized” models, and women of different ages and races in their advertisements. However, if women actually believed the values that Dove’s campaign promotes, that women are beautiful as they are, many of the products that Dove sells (such as cellulite firming cream) would not still be on the market. The reason that Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, and other ideal-selling campaigns, have been so successful is because they sell brand love. Consumers are attracted to brands that promote the things that are important to them. This love then turns into brand loyalty, and companies have customers for life.

Now I may just be ranting about nothing, because who knows if ads can actually change institutionalized ideals in our society, but it’s a place to start, right?