Human Drama

 

Reading through TIME Magazine's website I came across this picture from Monday of a beaten Tibetan monk. Aside from the inherent deep sympathy and burning need for a more global perspective in our nation this picture inspired in me, I also had to wonder if this was the future of shock appeal in advertising. I tend to think it's a definite possibility.

Let's examine the idea. Sex appeal, while showing more and more of the human anatomy, is perhaps not deluding consumers as much as it used to. Aren't we learning that sex appeal is just that-an appeal? That it doesn't promise product quality or value? Sad to say, human pain and drama is a rather untapped source for such shock value that will most likely be leveraged in the near future. 

And it's sort of inevitable, though, I think. As our globe is shrinking daily thanks to the exponential growth of technology, the ordinary world citizen is becoming more and more aware of the world, of the lives of other humans, and of the suffering of those humans. This fact can produce two things: people care or they do not care. However, the presence of human drama is still shocking to anyone, whether they do anything about it or not:we're all human, after all. So we'll all look up and stare at the violence. Would using human violence to fuel ad-power illicit feelings that the company being advertised is a world-sympathizer and reputable or would such advertising disgust or frighten consumers? Or would consumers even doubt the validity of that company because they use human suffering to sell their product? Unless of course that company was the Red Cross and the product were volunteer hours to make a difference... 

We'll see about it soon enough I imagine.