The Advertizing Invasion

Yesterday, I listened to an interesting discussion on CBC radio about the "Ad Pollution" that is going on in our society especially in urban settings. There was a lot of back and forth that boiled down to whether there were rights of INDIVIDUALS that superseded the rights of corporations to get their message out there etc. And as I listened to this discussion I was reminded of a recent car trip to Montreal. The trip involved three fillups on the road and, being a slave of convenience and a holder of the speed pass for ESSO I stopped at one of those stations for each of them. By the end I was tired and quite annoyed by the incessant visual and audio bombardment of ads that starts as soon as you take the pump handle in your hand. I thought back to the great days when we could still use those little do-hickies that allowed us to set the gas flowing and walk around the car testing air pressure and washing the windshield etc. Ironically, these devices were considered safe for about FOUR DECADES before they were suddenly too risky to use just around the time when the TVs were installed at the pump. Is there any correlation? Who knows!

After a bit of imprisoned rumination with my hand welded to the pump handle I started to use the time to think of OTHER ways that the advertizing company could achieve its own purpose without intruding so openly and aggressively on my "quiet time". Wouldn't it be nice, in these days of ever rising gas prices, if you pumped your gas in relative silence and at your own pace and then when that receipt came out it had, printed on it, something like " Thank you for using ESSO. Your tatal bill WOULD HAVE BEEN ___ (fill in a huge and ever increasing number here) but our sponsors (say CADBURY for example) have reduced that by $___ (fill in the cost of advertizing via those infernal TVs) as a token of their appreciation. have a GREAT day!" I think I would rush in to the shop and BUY a Carburys chocolate bar right away. I would do this for several reasons: first I would be thinking of one right at the time I could go in and DO something about it, and second I would FEEL like doing something back for the company that had just reduced my gas bill AND given me some peace at the same time! And after all the cost of the chocolate would be covered by my savings in the gas bill! Who knew that lurking inside me was an advertizing "expert"? Of course I could just switch to another chain that did not (yet) have those TV infomercial machines installed at the pump. That would be quicker and more effective.