Are we in a recession? If you look around, along the roadways and plastered on tall buildings in cities, the signs of a recession are clear. Marketers are capitalizing on the recession by offering "stimulus packages" to promote products. Borrowing language from bureaucratic semantics concerning the recession is just one more clever way for marketers to grab the attention of worried consumers; offering a false sense of camaraderie and solidarity against a corrupt government. These offers and deals are invading our minds and world views one billboard, magazine advertisement or television commercial at a time. It seems everywhere you look, the message is "spend to save".
As consumer confidence wanes, marketers jumble to reach the targeted publics with messages that fill what worried Americans are searching for; products that align with values and companies who care for their consumers. With an economic recession, comes a redefinition of what matters in people's lives. Consumers are less likely to make quick thoughtless purchases and focus more on the value and longevity that the product promises. These signs are tapping into these value systems to make a sell. Messages such as Wal-Mart's "Save money. Live Better." or Home Depot's "You can do it. We can help." has been traded for "More Saving. More Doing." In this way, advertisers are reaching out to consumers and using those same "helping hands" to dig into the consumers pocket and make a sale.
Marketers are surprisingly open about the various tactics they employ to dazzle a consumer into making a purchase. A common tactic that is used by large corporations is humor. The aforementioned "stimulus package" lingo that can be heard and read in advertising outlets contains a bit of crass humor, poking fun at the recession. Using humor to distract the consumer from the harsh realities of recession, in my opinion, is not funny at all. Barkley, a reputable marketing agency remarks on humor in advertising during the recession; “Right now, people are rethinking every purchase, from an impulse item at a grocery store to a high-ticket item like jewelry,” said Brian Brooker, chief executive and chief creative officer at Barkley. “We’re trying to help people overcome anxiety so they’ll go ahead with the purchase.”
Advertising is undoubtedly necessary in a recession for companies to stay afloat and offer competitive prices to consumers in need of good deals. However, spending money on advertising is not always easy for companies who are struggling. Often times, the large corporations are the ones that are able to advertise aggressively while the smaller businesses have to cut costs and one of the first costs cut is the cost of advertising. This final project is a visual testament to the signs of the recession; the big, ostentacious and bright billboards touting “Smart Values for the Savy Recessionista” to the cheaper pluck-letter signs and lastly, images of the smaller businesses who are losing out to the “big guys”.
Most of the images are ones that I have taken. They comprise a collection of photos of large scale billboards, small business advertisements, failed advertising attempts all having to do with the overarching theme of saving money, yet spending it at the same time.
The final collage layout is fitting because it pushes the viewer to look closer at the images, just as consumers ought to look closer at the advertisers messages that invade physical and social space daily. The photos are shown in one big pile, to emphasize how we are inundated by messages and images like these everyday and how they all tend to pile together into one message “spend”.
By taking a step closer to study the images and examine the pile, the viewer must put forth effort to read the messages and that causes them to think more about what is being said or shown instead of having the words plastered over a billboard, unable to avoid. In this layout, the viewer has the choice to read the message and allow the words to enter the mind. The layout lends the viewer control over what permeates their mind, whereas in reality, the message is force-fed. Still, the poster is large and demands attention, just as the large billboards do.
This subject matter is simple in nature, but I expect the dialogue surrounding criticism of big business and the downfall of small companies as a result of a cut in advertising dollars, will be complex. The reality of the recession is clear; just check the signs.
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