Advertising, maybe I am just a little jaded

[ricktas]

Is it just me, or is the advertising in society getting a bit much?

I am the first to like a funny advertisement, but I am also probably the last to be influenced to go out and buy something based on an advertisement. Up until recently ads usually consisted of TV/Radio/Newspaper, and more recently the internet. These I can deal with. I notice them if I want to.

But recently I have seen a huge rush on social networking, often by photographers, to setup a photography page for themselves and then try and get everyone they know, and everyone that knows the person that they know, to comment or "like" their page.

This sort of viral advertising is what annoys me. I think I have maybe one photographers facebook page that I have 'liked', the rest I ignore, cause often it seems to be just a race to get more 'likes' than the next photographers page.

Am I the only one that is over it, and just want to use social networking to keep up to date with a few friends and relatives, and not be bombarded with rubbish to play some stupid game, or 'like' someone's page cause they want to get to 5000 likes by next week? If anything, this approach turns me off considering them or their products for my money if I wanted to buy something.

*rant over*

[ameerat42]

*rant just starting*
*promoting to a 4-**** generalisation*
Well, as far as I can tell, it pays to become an IGNORAMUSS, and a bad speeler, if that means igNAWing all the hype that's dumped upon us daily. (And to think we used to beseech for only bread!)
And I've given up 4-giving trespasses like disseminating misinformation, overcharging for utilities, 58 months interest free, and safety cameras are good 4 u.

Well Rick. You kicked off a trend, I think. Now I'll go back to being a lance-corporation.
m.

[etherial]

No it isn't just you. I agree. It is all getting a bit out of control, but it comes from greed.

I often wonder why my local store, servo, butcher, baker, bank etc needs to make a profit. What happened to community, isn't it enough for everyone to have a job and contribute and earn a living? This whole bigger is better, maximise profits, think about the investors etc will be our down fall in the long run. Sad really.

[Ms Monny]

I know someone, who is quite big in the business sector, and she is all over facebook. So much that she is making pages and pages of different social groups and then asking everyone and everything to 'like' the pages. Every day I see her becoming friends with at least 5 different people!! It is a very sad time indeed when people just are so up themselves and have their heads you-know-where that they don't see what is happening around them. Community is everything and we are slowly losing it!! I use facebook to be in contact with friends and family - and I mean friends!!! Not someone who I knew in school but wasn't friends with them then as they bullied me and couldn't give two hoots if I ever existed!!!

No, I don't buy off of facebook nor do I play the games!

[MarkChap]

Nope you are not alone, I have a few pages of other photographers that I like, only because I like their work and like to see what they are producing.
I don't go in for these "help so and so win this or that by liking the page and then liking the photo" annoys the heck out of me

[Allann]

Yes and No. I have a personal and photography page, but I don't push people to like it. I do however believe that to receive work, word of mouth is a very strong advertiser, people's "word-of-mouth" these days is social networking, whether we like it or not. I have received many jobs from people that found me via a google search and/or facebook or similar social media. Business these days doesn't just come walking in of the street anymore. People will google and if you don't appear on the 1st or 2nd page then bad luck, you miss out.
Once you have a client, then your work will speak for itself and bring in more work or not.

Rick can I ask, how do people know you are a photographer? advertising maybe? business card? flyer? building/vehicle signs? all forms of advertsing, all things we are use to, the world changes and technology is a new medium the younger generation uses.

[CherylB]

Totally agree .... it is just getting more and more out of control! The problem is, companies have to generate more and more revenue, so the marketing types have to find more and more avenues to get their "product" out there. Print newspapers are struggling, the internet versions are devising more and more devious ways to disrupt the reading of articles, TV advertising is a mug's choice - with the multiple ways in which programs can be either recorded or obtained from an alternate source, paying the TV stations obscene amounts of money for a 30 second slot has to be a loss-making excercise these days! So, the marketers have to find other ways to be in our face - the "social" sites! Isn't that where everyone "socialises"? So, a few brand names here, a few more brand names there - hey presto! Clicko bingo!

Yep, I'm over it!



Please visit my facebook page and "like" it so that I too can be an obnoxious turd and have millions of "likes" that totally pander my self-esteem needs!

[Tommo1965]

its a sign of the times ....people have always been up themselves...now they can realize their true worth by using these social networks to plague us with their importance.

I use it...but at arms length to keep up with overseas family matters ...thats it for me, facebook Im afraid is a pet hate....Ive known some quite serious family upsets caused by a casual cutting remark on those few lines of text,

I love the net..forums such as these are of great worth to me..I can post my work and get feedback..I can comment on others work and hopefully contribute to the photographic community in my small way......I also see huge benefits in image hosting sites such as flicker, smugmug etc...to be able to display ones work to my friends and family is certainly a incentive to produce more work.... but Facebook is a line that I rarely cross.

but at the end of the day..everyone to their own ...

[snappysi]

I think i am the last person on earth that doesnt even have a face book page....... what ever happened to having " real" friends....

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day Ricki

Yeah mate - I'm sick of it too
I regularly get bounced-messages from "friends" inviting me to view their latest Fb page - & if I follow it up [rarely] Fb says I need to become a member to view their page
Buga that - I don't want to get involved with that

So it's back to the quill pen and AP
Regards, Phil

[moonshine]

I don't make purchases from companies or people when i don't like their advertizing.

[ameerat42]

I think i am the last person on earth that doesnt even have a face book page....... what ever happened to having " real" friends....

Uh-uh! Don't jump the q, snappysi. I DIDN'T have one long b4 u, and I still don't.

Once, people who had an "imaginary friends" grew out of it. Now it appears that if you don't, you can grow into it and still be "scoially" acceptable.

[wanderer51]

I think i am the last person on earth that doesnt even have a face book page....... what ever happened to having " real" friends....

Uh-uh! Don't jump the q, snappysi. I DIDN'T have one long b4 u, and I still don't.

Once, people who had an "imaginary friends" grew out of it. Now it appears that if you don't, you can grow into it and still be "scoially" acceptable.

Ahh...well that makes three of us in this world that don't have pages on so called 'Social Network' sites....but I do sometimes have my face in a book (the ones with paper pages!) and there are a lot of birds around my space here to do the tweeting. *

* The closest I could find to a bird...but I guess chickens are birds also....even if they don't tweet.

[davidd]

Maybe they should have a 'Don't Like.." button as well, you could use that more often.

[Patagonia]

I remember about 15 years Ago I took a guided tour through Moscow, the underground stations had fabulous paintings and sculptures of workers, farmers, army men, etc...our guide said it was all Comunist Propaganda. Then he showed us loudspeakers in front of many buildings around the city, he said in communist times they broadcasted propaganda every morning...then he showed us huge and spectacular buldings made for the workers, propaganda once again...I will not continue , All the group commented on the "regime" propaganda, that it was unacceptable in western countries, trying to manipulate people!!!

Frankly, I could not find any difference with our normal reality.

regards

[ameerat42]

[QUOTE=Patagonia;846230...Frankly, I could not find any difference with our normal reality...regards[/QUOTE]

Well put, Patagonia. I think a good dose of solitary wandering around Patagonia would be a good thing.

[alextdel]

Maybe they should have a 'Don't Like.." button as well, you could use that more often.

We should also have buttons that indicate ...


All images copyright -me, not lifted from the web.

[ving]

meh! its only you rick

[tcdev]

I recevied an email the other day with a special discount offer - but only if you "like'd them on Facebook"!

Unfortunately, it seems that Facebook & Twitter have reached critical mass, and aren't going to disappear anytime soon. Our only hope is that 'they' eventually become so greedy that using it gets so annoying that people start leaving in droves...

[arthurking83]

I'm just hoping that 'Arnie' is about to appear from the future to destroy this virus, sometime in the next few hours.
Afterall it is supposedly Judgement Day tomorrow.

I got the shades ready, and I'll pinch my brother's harley to speed up the process a little.

here's hoping!



(yep ... I'm also one of those Neanderthal Troglodytes that happily lives in seclusion from the social virus that is Twitbook)