With such a stark difference in, well, everything, the ads in the US were predictably extremely different from the ones we are used to seeing in Singapore. It was sort of like a jump scare every time I went on YouTube or when I was on the metro — because well, they’re not exactly known for their subtlety.
Many ads in New York were very in your face. While many incredible insights have come from the Land of the Free, the ones you see day-to-day are not particularly, for lack of a better word, good.
I personally spend a disproportionate amount of time on YouTube and was forced to sit through unskippable ads just to get to the video I actually wanted to watch. But it was interesting, compared to the ones I have to power through in Singapore as it gave me a little peek into the world of advertising in the US.
For one, they are extremely hard sell. The ads there get to the point and drown you with all the information ever. While it is the most cost-efficient way of doing things, it was a lot to take in. I understand that they are maximising their media budget (those YouTube ads don’t come cheap) but many a time, it seemed to lack a clear message. The only main takeaway is: BUY THIS PRODUCT.
The way we do things in Singapore, or well, in TMRW, is to have a clear message. Be it a tagline or a strong visual — it’s about selling an idea and then the product, rather than simply the product.
They also use celebrities (and only celebrities, with no clear idea behind the ad) to push their products — which I have always thought to be a bit lazy. Leveraging on star power instead of letting the product speak for itself, it’s more of a cop-out really.
We don’t see much of that in the local advertising industry. The first reason is that we don’t have celebrities that are that influential and the second being money. Well, I guess they have neither of these issues in America because more often than not, a celebrity would be used as the focal point of an ad.
And lastly, we have to consider the specific set of circumstances that people live within in New York. A lot of ad space was actually dedicated to injury lawsuits or to market the best thing money can buy, religion. The ones for injuries always featured the lawyer’s face, a slogan that roughly translates to “trust me” and their number in big blocky characters. Whereas for the religious ones, it ranged from a simple verse to condemning sinners to eternal damnation.
Honestly, these ads only served as entertainment to tide me over during rush hour — or any other time in the day considering how bad the traffic always was in New York. They were always so interesting to look at, and also absurd.
It was nice to be able to see the ads that were marketed for the everyday person rather than just the ones that made it to Cannes. All in all, it was one of the best takeaways from working remotely from New York City.
Joyce Ng