06-04-2009, 07:38 PM
Quote:Tell that to Madison Ave. Shouting at someone is useless. But incessant whispering works. We learn our values from our milieu, which is why songs, stories, TV, etc. are so important. In little more than one generation, I saw smoking go from a socially required activity to a socially repugnant one. Control the carton network and in a generation you will control the world.Sure, but the problem is not in middle America. The problem is in Kenya, Niger, Bolivia. These are places where modern media has yet to make any kind of inroads. The things that determine the social milieu, in a family planning sense, aren't TV or radio, or whatever, it's women's social networks. If you can get to and convince that peer group, you succeed. If you can't, you can put up all the billboards and whatnot that you like, but they will be largely ignored.
I'm certainly not averse to using advertising to nudge them along. But I would maintain that trying to advertise without first trying to educate is inefficient at best, and ineffective at worst.
-Jester