January 19th, 2006

Philadelphia Freedom from advertising

I was in Philly last weekend, on a short weekend get-a-way.

While reading the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, I noticed an article titled “Ads nauseum” by John Dvorak, which argues that too much advertising in too many places could permanently scar our culture. The author gives a number of interesting and insightful examples and snippets of information to support this argument, ranging from broadcast television, to print, to online; and even mentions the ominous consolidation of media.

It’s hard to disagree. This premise has occasionally troubled me, since this is a part of our business. Advertising plays an important societal function from informing people about useful (as well as useless) products to informing them on public policy issues. Yet, can there be too much advertising? It does seem to find its way into more and more places, with men’s restroom urinals being one of the more humourus.

But can advertising’s increasing ubitiquity do our culture permanent harm? I’ve taken some comfort because people are becoming more savvy to advertising, even as they become more numb to it. Advertising has also made more and more information available free of charge – and that’s certainly a good thing. And because my company works only with environmentally- and socially-responsible organizations, we’re trying to help solve important problems not being adequately addressed by business, government of other sectors of society.

Dvorak’s article hits one of the main culprits when he mentions the consolidation of media. There are now only six companies that own most of the media in the world. Communications and antitrust laws and policies have allowed this consolidation. Now, these six conglomerates control much of what we see, hear and read in the media — and profit is their number one priority (no Ed Murrows here to save the day as in George Cloonye’s movie “Good Night and Good Luck”).

Addressing this problem will go a long way toward allowing a stronger, more independent media to emerge that is not as dependent on advertising. People will also increasingly invest in technologies and services that allow them to access media and public places free of advertising (Tivo, satellite radio, etc.).