There has been an alarming trend in advertisements over the past few years. I first noticed it with "cable" ads. Not infomercials. They were for things like hair removal products or cleaning supplies. The person who needs the product apparently can't function in the real world without it. A new example is the digital recorder for people too stupid to write out a shopping list. "Milk, butter, eggs," the housewife says. Then she listens intently at the store.
Lately, this trend is moving to more mainstream products. Carl's Jr. and Popeye's are both running commercials with stupid customers. Beer ads have done this for years, but I think the wink and nod was that the guys are drinking. But now it's fast food and laundry detergent and cars. Why should I buy a product if it's meant for stupid people?
This also seems to be a trend with a lot of the books I'm picking up. I know cozies are supposed to be fairly easy to figure out. But I see it with different genres. The author waving his hand at the reader to say, "This is the clue." Worse, the long explanations of things. "Here's what I think is a hard word so I'm going to explain it ad nauseum, because I'm sure you don't know it and can't figure out how to look it up on your own."
Am I being overly sensitive/critical or are you seeing this too? Do you feel as if you're being talked down to? How do you avoid it in your own writing?
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3 comments:
As someone who works in advertising, who reads Ad Week, I can tell you that you are correct. Have you ever heard of the movie "Idiocracy"? Not the greatest film, but it has a brilliant concept:
all the lowest common denominator people (people who watch Jerry Springer in their trailer) keep having baby after baby, while the well-educated & cultured folks have fewer and fewer kids, so in the future, we are a nation of idiots. I think we are well on our way.
Your post reminded me of an ad I was ranting about the other day:
This woman acts like drying off a few wet dishes from her dishwasher is such back-breaking work that, THANK GOD, now there's this (probably polluting) chemical liquid you can put in the machine that leaves your dishes dry at the end of the cycle. How f'ing lazy do you have to be?? Seriously. By the time I get a chance to put my dishes away, they've usually air-dried anyway, so that woman in the ad can't be THAT busy.
And yet, we both know many smart savvy people. But the lowest common denominator does seem to win out. Sad.
I rarely agree with Janeane Garafalo, but I do agree with her in that most media these days is basically someone jingling their keys in people's faces, cooing, "Who's a pretty girl? Who's a pretty girl?"
Yes, at the very least Americans are growing lazier, stupider, cruder, and poorer in all things. Yet, none seem to notice or care.
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