HOW EFFECTIVE IS PERVASIVE ADVERTISING?

I was recently on a boat ride on the Ganga at Varanasi, nostalgically looking at the ghats—the most beautiful riverfront one can see for miles. The view was marred by bright advertisements of guest houses, sari shops, and travel companies. Almost every boat had an ad painted on it—a jarring interruption in my spiritual sojourn that sent me back to where I came from.

- ANURADHA GOYAL

Our urban landscapes back home are full of advertisements. Once upon a time, we recognized taxis as black-and-yellow and autos as green-and-yellow; but now they sell all visible space on their vehicles to advertisers. The same goes for buses or metro trains. On bus boarding stations, you sometimes struggle to read the name of the station, hidden somewhere between advertisements if not overwritten by them. Our night skies are lit up with neon and backlit signage.

Coming to digital real estate, you open any screen and are bombarded with ads of all kinds. Even e-commerce portals, whose primary job is to sell products, are full of ads of other products. When you search for a product you want, all you get is their competing ones that have paid the portal to put them on top.

Once, out of frustration, I wondered if the only place left for advertising was our foreheads. Instantly, a reel popped up on my mobile. A popular comedy influencer was selling casino games. So we have made our craft, talent, and personalities all available as advertising real estate. I got my answer—no place is unreachable for the advertiser.