It’s a mad, mad world of advertising

As a college student, many of us are rather unaware of the constant stream of advertising in media that we're bombarded with every day. Everywhere we look, company branding and recognition is ever increasing and will continue to do so as advertisers seek narrower audiences in today's market.  At what point do we begin to experience over-saturation, or where does it begin to significantly affect aspects of our lives?

One medium in particular has become particularly crowded with a large volume of advertisements.  Television has become largely dictated by advertising companies, and it's evident by the ratio of programming to commercials.  Take into consideration that many shows are only 22 minutes long, which leaves eight minutes of that half hour block that are filled with promotions and advertisements.  This doesn't seem like much at first, but people that watch multiple shows in one day have to add those eight minute segments together.  After two hours of watching television, the advertisements, themselves, could be added together to have filled one of those half hour slots.  For those that watch football on Sundays, nearly an hour of each game broadcast is devoted to commercials.

One of the more socially acceptable avenues for businesses to advertise through is the clothing market.  Certain companies have a very strong grip on particular sport teams or the entire sport, and as such, every time people don their favorite team's jersey they are inadvertently also promoting that brand.  Clothing brands are instantly recognizable by their emblems, and, anymore, are also sparks for stereotypes.  Bands, colleges, teams, products, companies, internet sites and more can all be seen in one sitting here on campus, let alone throughout the day in a busy city.

Lately, advertisers have begun to exploit the virtually infinite space that the internet has available.  Because it doesn't have a concrete space, there is less worry about where or when they throw their advertisements at consumers.  If you play Facebook games or use search engines, you are well aware of the clutter that greets you each time.  A slightly disconcerting fact that many are unaware of is that companies like Google now have the technology available to access your webcam's microphone to listen to you and anything going on in the background that it can pick up.  This could allow advertisements to display what you were just talking about, new music depending on the artist you're listening to, or even things that coincide with the television sounds.

Advertising firms are good at what they do, and it shows on a daily basis.  They get our attention in every way possible, whether we choose to give it to them or not.  People are almost zombie-like in their media digestion in the United States, where advertisements do not faze them anymore.  While there is nothing wrong with this, it's important that we take the time to look around and see how much we advertise for companies through our lifestyle, and how much we ingest that we are aware of.  This is especially important to do while we still have the ability to be cognizant of it, as Google will not be the only company that develops that technology.