The Extratextuals

Via Mediaweek, I recently found a survey on consumers’ attitudes towards advertising. Based on an online random survey of 966 Americans 18 years and older from Sept. 5-12, this study is both interesting and truly hilarious. A few highlights:

• Ad people have only marginally more public respect than national politicians and car salesmen, yet less than lawyers, a finding that causes the study’s author to bemoan negative media depictions of advertisers. Awwww. Do you appreciate the irony of an advertiser complaining about poor media depictions?
• One of the charming graphs suggests that 31% see ad people as a necessary evil, and 15% see them as a necessary good. By my math, that means 54% think they’re plain unnecessary, and as many as 85% think they’re evil.
• Another question asked which of the following terms best described their use and attitudes towards the media: “avoider,” “indifferent,” “grazer,” “committed,” or “compulsive.” I find the question interesting since it tells us the divisions the ad industry is making, and that they even think it’s useful to generalize about people’s overall media consumption.
• Only 24% claimed they outright resented advertising, with most simply claiming to ignore it.
• One of my two favorite tidbits comes from a question that asked people to agree or disagree with several statements, including “The Internet helps me make better product choices,” “The Internet has changed the way I shop,” and “I would love to have an ‘invisibility cloak’ sometimes.” I promise I’m not making that last one up. Where’d that come from?! How about “I wish I had a Nimbus 3000,” or “I would love to own a stovepipe hat and have my friends call me Honest Abe” while they’re at it? I’ve seen many silly non-sequiturs in surveys before, but this takes the cake.
• In that same question, though, interestingly for the rationale behind this blog’s focus on extratextuals, the two most agreed-upon statements were “Too many things are overhyped now – movies, products, politicians, and even news” (84% agreed or strongly agreed), and “Everything is a brand now – products; movies; places; people” (74% agreed or strongly disagreed). I’m uncomfortable with the grandpa tone there, though (using “now” to distance from the perfect “then”).
• And, to end with, my other favorite tidbit: respondents were asked whether they described themselves as a “pragmatist,” “idealist,” “skeptic,” “hedonist,” “cynic,” or “geek.” Since when did “geek” become a worldview and a life philosophy? (“Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of person?” “Neither, I’m a geek”).

That said, if anyone thinks ads are all bad – if, in other words, you’re a “cynic,” not a “geek” – check out this wonderful, if banned in the US, ad.

ads ads, surveys