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One quote I’ve been sitting with for a bit from the Herman and Chomsky reading was, “Advertisers will want, more generally, to avoid programs with serious complexities and disturbing controversies that interfere with the “buying mood” (213). This made me think about pharmaceutical commercials.
I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of pharmaceutical commercials and how as a society we have commodified everything down to the health and well-being of individuals. In these commercials, when all of the side effects of the medications are listed, there will usually be a b-roll clip of someone running and smiling or playing with their kids. Usually, the last side effect listed is something along the lines of “potential death” and that juxtaposition to the actual clip being shown helps to appeal more to the buying mood. Since the audio clips describing the side effects are also usually sped up, viewers will pay more attention to the b-roll clip as opposed to the audio. Both of these things help to ensure the buying mood of the consumer, for you do not want the consumer to associate the possible harmful side effects with your product. It is interesting, and quite frankly a little scary, to me how with the rapid development of technology and media convergence, these ads have become even more frequent. We now see these types of commercials on not only TV ads, but also sponsorships on social media or even streaming platforms like Hulu. They are tossed in with our regular scrolls on our phone via algorithms so that they do not interfere with the “buying mood.” I just find the whole idea of the “buying mood” and how advertising and show programs are scheduled around it so fascinating.
That’s all for now,
Aveyourfaveblogger
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