19 years old, and way too smart.
July 2nd, 2010 | Published in Opinion
Everyone likes to think that advertising doesn’t make you buy something and that we all have a free mind. I certainly thought I did.
I’d like to think of myself as an intelligent 19 year old girl and one who turns her nose up at ridiculous over-the-top American reality shows.
Instead however, I crave my weekly dose of MTV’s The City a show about the everyday events of up and coming designer ‘Whitney Port’ and her constant battle to win the approval of ELLE magazine and the rest of the fashion world.
Shortly after watching this week’s episode, I had my daily fix of ELLE.com. ELLE more than any other magazine has delved into television as a way of enhancing its brand name positively – not through the conventional ‘above the line marketing’ I’m studying at University, but through media cross-pollination.
They reel you in through their prime time television slot, dot-com phenomenon (which incidentally is mentioned in the show as many times as the word ‘fabulous’) and the real life walking (in their Christian Louboutin shoes) brand ambassadors.
This week, I fell deep into the trap, and I bought a pair of new boots, not because I need them in the hot weather we are currently experiencing, but because ELLE.com told me summer boots are fast becoming this season’s fashion favorite and you, Kirsten Collis, need to buy this £80 pair from La Redoute that ‘ticks all the boxes’.
What did I do that for?
I am currently studying this stuff at university, and learning about it on a daily basis – I should be able to resist! But nope, I still happily fall at the feet of brands that are able to connect with me in a clever, personal and memorable way.
What ELLE has done is to create a desire for a lifestyle I didn’t even know I wanted. Good advertising can create desire, even if it is totally irrational.
As a savvy marketing student, I thought I was immune to such tactics. But they still got me – I’ve got the till receipt to prove it.
Kirsten Collis (on work experience) – Manchester University Business School.
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