Well if there are any of you following my blog, I was unable to post a blog a day while I was in Wyoming visiting my parents. I was able to set up a wireless network for my parents house and after some very interesting set up able to post one quick blog yesterday. But to my defense I did send messages to Twitter, so I was thinking about blogging. Anyway enough explanation, I am having too much fun getting into the habit of posting everyday that I am going to stick with the 30 day blog challenge.

Being back in Wyoming really changes your perspective on current advertising and I started thinking while I was back there that advertising has lost one very important thing and that is being direct and to the point on what the advertisement is for. Let me explain. One of the best things about advertising is the imagery that it creates in your mind. However there is definitely a place for advertising that doesn’t leave anything up to the imagination, it tells it like it is. Best place to see what I am talking about is take a drive to any small western town. You see old, faded signs that say Food, Gas, Eat at Joe’s, OK maybe not the last one, but you get my point. I saw this a lot on our trip to Idaho earlier this summer as well driving through some of the small towns of Nevada.

What would happen if advertising went back to the way it used to be and all we had were signs that were direct and to the point. What if Best Buy’s signs all the sudden just said “Electronics”, or Applebee’s just said “Food”? I think an interesting thing would happen to our current society. I think what would happen is the neighborhood diner would make a come back, you would go down to the Johnson’s Diner, not the Chili’s. I think you would go to Gibson’s Electronics, not Best Buy. I think this is one thing that large corporate advertising has taken away from our society, along with franchises. What if your menu still looked like this?

I was thinking about this most of the weekend and the thought really went 180 degrees on me while I was on the flight home. We have become a cookie cutter shop society and elaborate as the advertising has become for the large chain’s of stores, I think we really haven’t gone away from a sign saying “Food” or “Gas”, we just now see it as Domino’s and 7-11. And there you have it the true power and evil of branding.