Advertising’s Not Changing, Ask Pepsi

We haven’t been on about Urban Spam in ages. Thankfully, we’re reminded by the ad-led plight by Rob Walker who points to a WSJ article about a Pepsi ferris wheel designed at a new mall to attract attention and other outdoor media. It basically says that if people are going to stop looking at advertising, the advertising industry’s reponse is to make it bigger, brighter:

The Globe, a giant light-emitting diode, or LED, screen, will adorn the center of a 287-foot Ferris wheel that will be visible from miles away… “We don’t want a brand to just put a big sign up,” says Larry Siegel, president of Meadowlands Development. “We want them to bang people over their heads with what they are trying to communicate.”

Advertisers are looking for ways to interact with consumers more deeply. Pepsi’s ad deal includes a 10,000-square-foot indoor area where consumers can immerse themselves in Pepsi trivia and memorabilia. It could, for example, serve as a gallery space for displays on old Pepsi ads through the years.

Walker comments:

Perhaps the idea is that if a brand bangs us over the head sharply enough, we’ll be in such daze that we’ll believe that learning brand trivia and admiring old ads forms of deep interaction.

When and if we come out of it, I expect some new form of banging-over-the-head will have been invented in the interim.

Wall Street Journal