Friday, April 06, 2007
Effective Advertising
I ride the Washington, DC metro system to and from work every day, along with literally hundreds of thousands--perhaps milions--of other people. In the train cars and on the station walls are some advertisements--a way for the Metro to earn a bit of money without having to raise our fares. I'm in favor of that.
But what puzzles me is some of the specific advertisements that I see. Believe it or not, there are advertisements for attack helicopters and military cargo airplanes. Really. Some places might have an advertisement for the new Nissan model that just came out, but my commute is cluttered with plugs for million-dollar aircraft that could only be purchased by well-funded governments.
Of course, many of my millions of co-riders work for such a well-funded government. But I still wonder how many of that fraction of my co-riders work for the Department of Defense, and among them, how many are responsible for purchasing attack helicopters. I mean, wouldn't the really senior people drive to work? Even weirder, these advertisements pop up outside of the turnstiles at the Farragut West stop, where I get off, along with the other lawyers, lobbyists, and other non-government professionals. DOD people live out in the Virginia suburbs and get off at the Pentagon stop--four stops before Farragut West. Why are these military vehicle manufacturers paying money for this opportunity? Can there possibly be any business generated by such an ad?
Still, they're more fun to look at than the recent rash of advertisements for earbud headphones I've been seeing, sporting the creative and catchy slogan: "They produce lifelike sound."
But what puzzles me is some of the specific advertisements that I see. Believe it or not, there are advertisements for attack helicopters and military cargo airplanes. Really. Some places might have an advertisement for the new Nissan model that just came out, but my commute is cluttered with plugs for million-dollar aircraft that could only be purchased by well-funded governments.
Of course, many of my millions of co-riders work for such a well-funded government. But I still wonder how many of that fraction of my co-riders work for the Department of Defense, and among them, how many are responsible for purchasing attack helicopters. I mean, wouldn't the really senior people drive to work? Even weirder, these advertisements pop up outside of the turnstiles at the Farragut West stop, where I get off, along with the other lawyers, lobbyists, and other non-government professionals. DOD people live out in the Virginia suburbs and get off at the Pentagon stop--four stops before Farragut West. Why are these military vehicle manufacturers paying money for this opportunity? Can there possibly be any business generated by such an ad?
Still, they're more fun to look at than the recent rash of advertisements for earbud headphones I've been seeing, sporting the creative and catchy slogan: "They produce lifelike sound."
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