Advertisements: yay or nay?

Do you hate ads?

How many of us have ad-blockers installed on our browsers, in hopes that the annoying advertisements don't pop up when we want to watch a video or YouTube, or scroll through a page in peace? As it turns out, so many consumers dislike these advertisements that industry players are trying to get rid of them altogether-- at least the worst ones. Many industry players, such as Google, are also working to allow advertisements that are less intrusive to the users; this means that the future for autoplay video ads and pop-up ads are bleak.

Some firms have definitely found a fine balance: PageFair sells technology that serves consumers advertisements even with Adblock (sounds like an annoying technology already, but wait!) but these advertisements would have to be non-intrusive and not disrupt a user's surfing experience. The creator of ad blockers are also embracing this to allow the advertising industry to go on; the famous Adblock now has a feature of Acceptable Ads on Adblock Plus, which allows advertisements to run if they hit certain standards.

From an advertisers' point of view, they have to alter their marketing strategy today to adapt to the world of adblocks and if the marketplace only accepts advertisements that are not disruptive, then the way of advertising will definitely change in form. How will advertisers react to this? How much will advertisements change to be deemed acceptable to society? We will have to wait, watch and see. Oh, and turn on the adblocks-- they push for the changing form of advertisements.

The start of the end to sexualised commercials?

Many commercials in our everyday lives include sexualizing products and services as well as utilizing women to portray certain images of the product. One prime example would be Carls Jr, whose racy commercials often feature scantily-clad women eating the burgers in a sexualized way. One may argue that this is definitely a prime way to get attention of its targeted audience and for Carls Jr, that would be young adult males and in addition, such controversial advertisement is bound to rile up the audience. However, companies often do not consider the consequences of these advertisements-- what are the long term effects of painting this picture of a certain gender? The APA Task Force has found that such sexualisation could lead to negative self-esteem, bad body image; many impressionable young girls would also start to view themselves more of a sexual object than anything else. Thankfully, over the years, this negative phenomenon has garnered enough attention to push advertisers away from this trend. Case in point, Carls Jr has revamped their advertising campaign by explicitly explaining the bold makeover of their advertisements in their publicity efforts. It is not just the effort of one firm though; GoDaddy, who has been known for their racy commercials for the longest time are also stepping away from this trend after public outcry. However, how far is this industry willing to step away from sexualisation of women? After all, it has been proven to grab the attention of the viewers-- which, in spite of many things, is often the ultimate goal of advertisers. Are gender roles really going to be (finally) diversified?

https://www.fastcompany.com/3041434/why-godaddy-is-finally-trying-to-repairing-its-sexist-reputation

http://www.adweek.com/creativity/carls-jrs-super-bowl-ad-here-and-what-surprise-it-stars-almost-naked-woman-162452/

http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/burgers-not-boobs-carls-jr-brilliantly-flips-the-script-by-tearing-down-its-own-smutty-ads/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD0OowNXWTQ&feature=youtu.be