Walking billboards, tall billboards, bench billboards, flashy billboards, moving billboards, 3-d billboards.... We will never be able to run away from a billboard. They will find you and advertise whatever they can. Food, gentlemen clubs, IKEA, cars, malls, SHOE PAVILLION, spas... Billboards stand firm and tall and can be seen from blocks and some for even streets. When we see a billboard, many times we don't mind them. We look at them, but none of them really actually draw us in to completely head over heel for whatever they may sell. But, the point of a billboard isn't to make you want to buy it entirely, but make someone constantly think about it.
Think about it this way: when you see an advertisement with colorful back-grounds and pop out letters, and then there's the exact same size, product, picture advertisement, but very dull and dark. The one that's more colorful captures your eye and that's what billboards do. It goes towards a specific groups appeal. And this months rhetoric is........ seduction. Maybe the word seduction isn't the proper word, but it seems right to me. A billboard tries to seduce you. It takes this ugly, repulsive apple and paints it bright red and it gets our attention. We try it, and it's terrible, but we fell for it.
There are so many billboards that have women in it, and they're half naked and they pick the prettiest ones out there intentionally. Why? Because it seduces the men, while the woman looking at the billboard still get eye captured by either the product, the way she's posing, the creativity, or just sheer repulse of the woman even being there. Either way, it's captivating to many people of both genders. It may not always want us to buy the product, but it makes us look at it more than once and think about it a few times. In many cases, I've heard that they put woman in it because guys think they'll get a girl like that if they do get the product. But, that is pretty much a myth. When a guy looks at a billboard with a beautiful girl in it, most of them won't think that they'll get the girl.
Next time you see a billboard... Remember that product placement isn't everything. It's how flashy and eye capturing it is. They want the audience to remember they're billboard more than the others. Their billboards are their to seem to be one of a kind and knock out any other threatening competitors. We live in America. It's a great nation with a strong sense of pride and strength, but it's also a nation full of people that don't think about what they do or say before they do it. America is a great country that uses rhetoric to very great extents, but many times don't even know or understand rhetoric.
Next time you see a billboard... Remember that product placement isn't everything. It's how flashy and eye capturing it is. They want the audience to remember they're billboard more than the others. Their billboards are their to seem to be one of a kind and knock out any other threatening competitors. We live in America. It's a great nation with a strong sense of pride and strength, but it's also a nation full of people that don't think about what they do or say before they do it. America is a great country that uses rhetoric to very great extents, but many times don't even know or understand rhetoric.
7 comments:
Hey there,
Yup, i have to agree that billboards are in a way the rhetoric of the US. Wherever i go i always see a billboard and regardless if it is funny or not it is trying to communicate to us.
One time i was in Chicago and i saw a billboard about Trojan condoms and well i just smiled because after a long ride from downtown to central city it didn't do any harm looking at an ad of safe sex. In a way, it was funny and in another way it was informative. Well isn't that the purpose of a billboard, anyways good job and keep up the work.
Hey Steve,
Yeah you are right. All billboards are always flashy and very "seducing" like you said. I always tend to be liking the Ipod-Chromatic billboard the most because of how colorful it is. Like you said some billboards make a burger for example look nice, and very tasty but once we eat and see it for ourselves it's the exact opposite. Or yeah like billboards with women they always tend to pick really pretty women to attract ones attention. Great topic to choose from. As well as finding the topics too because for me that would've been really hard to do
Completely off topic: Steve, could you go into your dashboard and adjust your blog title so that either a) the punctuation and capitalization is correct or b) so that it is all uncapitalized/unpunctuated. I am on some "Get rid of the sloppiness" mission today. Thanks.
Dear Steve,
I never really paid that much attention and realize that what you said is true. There are a lot of billboards around and even though we may not buy or be interested in what they are advertising we always seem to look at the billboards. It is because the billboard is really appealing because its big and the colors and images that it contains. Billboards are there to inform us about somehting and some may pay attention to them like for new movies been released, etc.
No wonder I like billboards so much. Specially in a long ride, I enjoy seeing the billboards because it makes me imagine something other than the ride. Maybe that's another way that billboards work though, entertaining those that are bored then make them want what they see, and I've fallen into the trap.
Bill boards huh. Yeahh they are every where. They are in the streets, in movies, and even in my dreams. Well they actually do capture my attention if they are popping out. The funny thing about bill boards is that they are evrywhere. If you mention something about a bil board to a friend most likely he or she might have seen the same bill board.
You mention something about the woman have naked. Well that actually caught my attention. It is funny how bill boards try to persuade a person just to look at it just by knowing what men like. I think is very smart of them because they know they are going to turn to look at them and there is huge percent that they will look at their product and maybe go and buy it.
I must say that this is one kick butt blog. It's really good!
But yea, billboards are so crazy! There was one promoting Monday Night Football and the billboard was made from grass (turf mind you but still!). Or the one from Cingular (or is it At&t) that said "Don't drop Dad" and had an actual stuffed figure hanging from the top of the billboard. It looked so real that it was taken down probably b/c the fire department got one too many calls.
Or, there was this one with huge giant pigeons on top.
But you get the picture, especially when it comes to the half-naked woman holding some product. It's so degrading.
Good job Estef.
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