Have you taken a good look at the roadsides lately? If you have not, it’s time you do. The remaining bit of greenery is covered with the ugly billboards of unscrupulous companies. The Colombo metropolis, which is considered a tiny area, is covered with a staggering 1200 hoardings. Well, it doesn’t give us the real picture, as many other signages, on buses, bus halts and shops, and the illegal hoardings are not included in this figure.
Recently, I was driving down Thurstan Road and was met with an awful sight – they have landed a hoarding every 15 meters and converted it to a street of hoardings, hiding behind them, the picturesque university grounds. I don’t understand a few things; what kind of moron would want to destroy the natural beauty of this landscape? Would you deprive everyone of this experience, just to sell a few items? Aren’t marketers supposed to be more community-centric? Apparently, they are not – they never were and nor will they ever be. I am convinced that marketers would do just about anything to sell, even their souls. Recently, I happened to be at CH during a soccer match and it took quite sometime to find out the score - a well known company had built the scoreboard in to a gigantic hoarding and the result was obvious, the last thing you could read was the score! The place was over branded with signages. Imagine, you go jogging in the eve, after a hard day’s work, to get rid of the redundant protoplasm, and be in shape and feel all healthy. But you end up getting brainwashed with more unhealthy propositions. I am not saying that sponsoring activities at a sports club is bad. Surely you can and you should, but contextualizing your sponsorship should be given a lot of thought.
So, why do marketers contribute to visual pollution?
One answer is straight forward; they will brand even hell, if they can sell a few toffees. But here’s something you never thought of – it will still sell those toffees in a subtle way. When anything (almost anything) happens, marketers find novel ways to sell things to people. We had depletion of the ozone layer and it became a selling point for a lot of companies. So is global warming, now. For instance, the Carbon-offset credit card is a nice link between credit cards, people and global warming. You are guilty of flying once in awhile, using a PC everyday and driving a car to work, so you better ought to have a carbon offset credit card! Why not make people guilty for breathing? That way none of us could have just an ordinary credit card!
Once the visual pollution reaches a tipping point, there will be a new breed of offers from clothing brands to radio stations. I can already think of a few creative expressions. A radio station might tell you why you need to see with your ears! A brand of clothing may say that the only thing that remains beautiful, is your body, and that since you can’t be naked, you need to buy their brand of clothes. The beauty of marketing is that almost everything is an opportunity.
Visual pollution affects us in many ways. First, it affects our mood; when we are stuck on the road, the pretty sight of greenery and the beautiful architecture of some buildings, have a soothing effect by negating the frustration. When the day starts all wrong, chances are, people will continue with it and if it happens every day, making people restless and stressed out – they end up spending more on healthcare. By the way, what is the point of maintaining nice gardens within the prime city area if the authorities are allowing companies to cover them up with self serving advertising material - especially if Sri Lanka is desperately trying to woo tourists back in to the country?
In this CSR era, this type of behavior from companies, should not be accepted. One might suggest that self regulation is the answer to unethical marketing. I think self regulation doesn’t really work, and worse, it has become a mere tool of self promotion. Remember, deep down, we are all marketers, we can connect anything..
Recently, I was driving down Thurstan Road and was met with an awful sight – they have landed a hoarding every 15 meters and converted it to a street of hoardings, hiding behind them, the picturesque university grounds. I don’t understand a few things; what kind of moron would want to destroy the natural beauty of this landscape? Would you deprive everyone of this experience, just to sell a few items? Aren’t marketers supposed to be more community-centric? Apparently, they are not – they never were and nor will they ever be. I am convinced that marketers would do just about anything to sell, even their souls. Recently, I happened to be at CH during a soccer match and it took quite sometime to find out the score - a well known company had built the scoreboard in to a gigantic hoarding and the result was obvious, the last thing you could read was the score! The place was over branded with signages. Imagine, you go jogging in the eve, after a hard day’s work, to get rid of the redundant protoplasm, and be in shape and feel all healthy. But you end up getting brainwashed with more unhealthy propositions. I am not saying that sponsoring activities at a sports club is bad. Surely you can and you should, but contextualizing your sponsorship should be given a lot of thought.So, why do marketers contribute to visual pollution?
One answer is straight forward; they will brand even hell, if they can sell a few toffees. But here’s something you never thought of – it will still sell those toffees in a subtle way. When anything (almost anything) happens, marketers find novel ways to sell things to people. We had depletion of the ozone layer and it became a selling point for a lot of companies. So is global warming, now. For instance, the Carbon-offset credit card is a nice link between credit cards, people and global warming. You are guilty of flying once in awhile, using a PC everyday and driving a car to work, so you better ought to have a carbon offset credit card! Why not make people guilty for breathing? That way none of us could have just an ordinary credit card!
Once the visual pollution reaches a tipping point, there will be a new breed of offers from clothing brands to radio stations. I can already think of a few creative expressions. A radio station might tell you why you need to see with your ears! A brand of clothing may say that the only thing that remains beautiful, is your body, and that since you can’t be naked, you need to buy their brand of clothes. The beauty of marketing is that almost everything is an opportunity.
Visual pollution affects us in many ways. First, it affects our mood; when we are stuck on the road, the pretty sight of greenery and the beautiful architecture of some buildings, have a soothing effect by negating the frustration. When the day starts all wrong, chances are, people will continue with it and if it happens every day, making people restless and stressed out – they end up spending more on healthcare. By the way, what is the point of maintaining nice gardens within the prime city area if the authorities are allowing companies to cover them up with self serving advertising material - especially if Sri Lanka is desperately trying to woo tourists back in to the country?In this CSR era, this type of behavior from companies, should not be accepted. One might suggest that self regulation is the answer to unethical marketing. I think self regulation doesn’t really work, and worse, it has become a mere tool of self promotion. Remember, deep down, we are all marketers, we can connect anything..
Tough law enforcements may be the only way forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment