Economix wonderfully illustrates the blatant reality of our past and current economy. One of the many comics that stuck with me from Economix was on page 153, panel 3 stating, “The product of commercial television is not programs. If one thinks of making goods to sell, the viewers are not the customers, those who buy the product. Advertisers buy the product, pay money for it. Programs are not what they buy. What they buy, what they pay for, is audience.” This quote is correctly inferring the realties from the supply and demand of today’s advertising. For example, the infamous Doritos® (America’s favorite triangle) and Mountain Dew® (America’s favorite blood sugar spike) commercial collaboration during this past NFL Super Bowl. Most of these commercials, which ranged about 30 seconds long, cost more than $5 million dollars for their advertisers. And don't think Doritos®/Mountain Dew® didn't come prepared with some star power—they brought in Morgan Freeman, Peter Dinklage, Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes who all play a role in making the commercial a success. If you aren’t familiar with this ad it is here àhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNzzJzdgUto. **WARNING**: it is, in fact, very entertaining. However today it is not only television that advertisers use to pay for an audience. Listeners and viewers are “bought” through many different social mediums in our present-day culture. Advertisers have a hay-day with their many avenues to real in their desired demographic. It’s difficult to imagine our economy without such abilities in advertising. Nonetheless, I think this quote from Economix applies to many of this issues we’ve discussed in class. Whether we consider the topic of obesity, body shaming, legitimation of diseases, or our war on drugs – much of this issues have percolated multiple times through advertising in hopes of buying their audience. And indeed the advertisers have succeeded.
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I think this kind of expensive, limited time advertising is so insane. These huge brands pay millions of dollars to advertise to audiences they have already won over, since their product is so well known and successful. I wrote about the topic of brand loyalty and related it to monopolies, which I think could also be talked about here. Buying an audience to hopefully gain brand loyalty is a popular strategy from already successful brands. Supply and demand for these types of products are high, and brand loyalty is only one small aspect of this. Brand loyalty is not exclusive to television advertising either, as you explained. It is in everything we use or buy, from necessities to social media sites.
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