Advertisment surrounds us wherever we go: on the bus or in trains, newspapers and magazines, on our TV sets and computer screens. Everywhere, someone tries to sell us a product or service.

You might ask yourself: Do these advertising campaigns really work? They most probably do, because otherwise, these companies would not go around spending their hard earned millions on advertisment. However, their tactics and ad campaigns seem not to be working their magic on me.

Whenever I see a TV ad that is full of wit, humor and style, I seem not to remember the product’s brand most of the time. For example, those eye-catching car ad campaigns just seem to mesh together into one. They look like a bunch of glitz and glam as these ad campaigns for various companies compete to create the most artsy looking one. It could be because the people behind these ads are graduates from art colleges, and do not have business degrees. Therefore, what is the point of having the best looking car ad if it does not sell the product at the end of the day?

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Over the passing years, the nature and essence of advertising has evolved a lot. Manufacturing companies typically use what seems to be your typical nuclear family as the avenue to promote their goods. Husband might comes home from his job to a warm meal cooked by his housewife with 2-4 children, neat and groomed, hurry in to fetch his slippers and a pipe. But my, things have changed a lot! Nowadays, a typical family consists of its members hurriedly throwing a ready-made meal into a micowave oven. Current ad campaigsn now focus on their product’s speed and convenience, at a day and age when we are all pressed for time.

Social concern is also a factor in the way ad campaigns are being regulated. For one, UK does not allow junk food and carbonated drinks advertisements to be shown during the time of children’s programs. This prohibition has also includes ads for burgers and potato chips, owing to the alarming rate of obesity among children.

Christmas has now become a stressful time for moms and dads, as they are under extreme pressure from their kids to buy the coolest toy or the newest must-have gadgets. This is why ad campaigns for these products run from as early as a couple of months before Christmas. These items are usually expensive and are filmed in such as a way to make them look real and larger than life.

The future of ad campaigns, as I predict, could be very much similar. Focus has always been on style. Substance seems to have taken the back seat. In fact, most ad directors go on to movies later in their careers. Shooting for ad campaigns is a means, and not the end, for a director’s career path. As of now, I have forgotten the names of the products they have flashed before my eyes.