So *you’re* the BadRep goon? ;) I also thought the GBS thread on current media with 50s assumptions was brilliant, if depressing. It was also great to see a discussion of feminism on a popular majority-male forum which didn’t dismiss sexist ads as harmless. Maybe there is hope for our species after all.

@Rob – but would you therefore classify any example of advertising which isn’t promoting public awareness of some issue as “bad” advertising? I wouldn’t go that far; certainly there are bad adverts (see above for a few choice examples) but good advertising is able to inform, persuade, and entertain as well, sometimes even regardless of what it is promoting. On the other hand some ads are boring, prejudiced, or scary. There’s an entire range.

Perhaps it is, and perhaps it’s that I’m materialistic, but it’s rare the “persuasive” element of any form of advertising takes hold with me. If I see an advert for Bright And Shiny New Thing, very often I will have wanted Bright And Shiny New Thing before seeing the ad, but be unaware that it had been released for sale at the time. The ad makes me aware of it, so I go and buy it, because I want Bright And Shiny New Thing for some other rational reason, not because the bright colours and witty slogans have “made” me want it for some reason other than it being the next installment in some manner of episodic tale, it fitting together nicely with Worn And Well Thumbed Old Thing, it being the perfect thing to go in that corner of my flat, etc.

It’s also important to bear in mind that there are many forms of advertising. Articles in various publications and word of mouth are also, like it or not, forms of advertising used to sell products. As Miranda said even Bad Rep itself is a brand to some extent. Advertising can also be used to inform people of their entitlements, persuade them to help others, or warn them of danger (though there are certainly bad examples of this latter one, both in selling and in a certain series of mini-cab ads mentioned on this very blog a while ago).

I don’t think advertising, branding, or marketing are things which are evil in and of themselves. Very often they are used badly or for purposes which we may rightly disapprove of, but they are not in themselves negative. In any case, advertising is something which is endemic in our society, and perhaps in any post-industrial society, so we had better hope it can be used for good.

Off the top of my head, some examples of positive advertising: Charities, public health campaigns (drink-driving, salt consumption, smoking cessation, and signs of stroke all being recent examples), and generally any sort of awareness raising for good causes and ideas (TfL’s cycling safety ads, promotion of things like all the recent marches, etc).

I’ve seen some excellent advertising from charities such as Amnesty.

Twitter is also how BadRep itself advertises to readers; like it or not, the design of our logo is arguably part of a brand. A fun brand, but nonetheless, one could argue that we do use basic marketing strategies to hold the attention of people long enough to make them visit our site…

It’s a broad view of advertising as we obviously don’t run this site for profit. But things like the NHS chlamydia testing campaign which is run in tube stations in inner London areas are excellent examples of advertising used to educate and reach people.

(a) They’re obviously aimed at men.

Combined with:

(b) That they present sexual stereotypes more offensive about men than about women.

The Goldstar advert to which there’s a link (not actually reproduced in the post) is especially strange in this regard. The message seems to be that women are grownups (concerned about relationships and raising families) while men have their development arrested in adolescence (concerned only with drunkenness and sex). This is remarkably similar to the negative view of men Valerie Solanas expressed in her SCUM Manifesto.

Your positive attitude to advertising astonishes me. Leaving aside classified ads, I can’t recall a single instance, in my 64 years on this planet, of taking anything useful from them.

Classified ads are another matter, I will admit. I have turned to them for making me aware of things — not least in applying for employment.

My assumption is (and, I think, has always been) that slick-looking adverts are (at best) misleading. The slicker they seem, it’s always seemed to me, the more sinister a game they’re attempting to play with me.

Perhaps this is a generation thing, I am (as I’ve said) 64. Over those years, adverts have taken on an increasingly slick appearance, something which has increased by suspicion of them.

On the other hand, rather than a generation thing, it may be that I’m paranoid.