by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) Ever thought about the relationship between a window and a mirror? They are both made out of glass which in turn is made out of sand. Mirrors are opaque and therefore reflective whilst windows are transparent and provide a view. The reflective nature of mirrors is achieved by applying a reflective coating to glass. You are probably wondering where I’m going with this. The question on many people’s lips is, is advertising a mirror to the soul or a window into the aspirations of the soul?
There’s no denying how pervasive and intrusive advertising has become. The last reliable stats on the number of adverts consumers are exposed 
to on a given day pegged the number of exposures to 3000. This was before social media took over. Today the number is anything north of 4000 impressions a day. In other words 4000 external influences are brought to bare on the beloved consumer a day! Astounding. Do these 4000 daily impressions influence society or do they merely reflect society?
Very often advertisers are accused of being the world’s biggest con artists and manipulators. Some even believe we cunningly embed subliminal enticements in ads just to nudge consumers in the direction of supermarket shelves. We also get accused of pursuing aspirational value way beyond reality.But what fun is aspiration if it doesn’t stretch people beyond the imaginable? The world isn’t shaped by realists and pragmatists. It is shaped by dreamers. Economies aren’t built by reductionist thinking, but by ambitious expansionary visions. After all, Leo Burnett once said “when you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you wont come up with a handful of mud either.”
Aspirational communication needs to be distinguished from indefensible puffery that is meant to mislead the consumer. That’s just irresponsible. Consumers look to advertising for entertainment, education, amusement and inspiration. If you accept that advertising is an art form, you will grant it creative licence to imagine the unimaginable. So for the most part advertising serves as a window into what is possible and what we aspire to.
We’ve all fallen prey to perfume and cologne ads that make us feel invincible and [supposedly] irresistible to the opposite sex, or those car ads that promise to imbue us with infallible magnetic powers. It’s not to say that these ads stretch the truth. They merely offer inspiration and impetus for us to work towards attaining aspirations we already have.
Many adverts are based on current realities, human truths, habits and trends. For example, the desire to have a girlfriend is not ignited by seeing an advert for Axe deodorant, but the impetus to get up and make a move on a girl might well be as a result of your new found confidence, courtesy of a deodorant can.
Humour often works brilliantly in adverts if it’s based on current affairs. Think Nando’s advertising. One of the most awarded ads of our time, the Zimbabwean dollar ad, was based on the reality of the time. These are all examples of how advertising acts a mirror by reflecting our current reality.
In conclusion, it matters not whether advertising is about reflecting reality or reflecting our aspirations. The important thing is that advertising must create desire and inspire us to take a step closer to those aspirations. Anything short of this is wallpaper. I shouldn’t be disparaging towards wallpaper. It has rescued many a bad paint job.
Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) is a Unilever-trained Chartered Marketer with lots of blue-chip marketing experience. He’s currently MD of Draftfcb Joburg. Mokoena contributes the monthly “The Switch” column to MarkLives.com.
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