The stuff you can’t bottle: advertising for the global youth market
By King Adz (Jacana, R295)
Advertising – a field that can capture your imagination, or make you want to gouge your eyes out.
We all have those TV or radio ads that make us smile or want to mimic them almost every time we hear/see them. Then there are those that make you want to grind your teeth and change the channel.
And how irritating is it that the truly spectacular ones are always banned for some reason?
Well, this book is about the ads that are targeted at young people, and would want to make us believe that this particular arena of advertising is where the real gold lies. The gold guarded by a fire-breathing dragon, that is. The dragon being the bitter-sweet majesty of youth itself, fraught with its depressions and emotions of discontent; the seemingly endless struggle to figure out one’s place in life while attempting to manoeuvre the labyrinths of love – the youth are a species of human unkindly plagued by the present.
This, as you can imagine, makes the arena of youth-specific adver- tising particularly tricky, as young people’s tastes and interests switch as frequently as pimples on a teenage face beset by acne.
One may be tempted to ask how difficult it could be really to just put something witty together, throw it in a melange of inconsistent colours and slap a brand on it for this bewildered crowd.
This book, however, aims to do three things: prove in lucid detail that youth advertising is in an imperious league of its own, relate how the youth market’s role is pivotal in driving economies, and dissect the elements that make for good youth-focused advertising. And it does not scrape the surface in doing so.
Advertising campaigns behind personalities, like rap legend Jay-Z, and powerhouse brands like Levi’s, Vans and Nike are a few of many touched on in this 342-page book.
Aside from the multitude of campaigns looked at and the grand scale at which some were rolled out, what really grabs the eye is the commentary from the marketing/ advertising firms and individuals behind them. So not only do you have the authors of this book saying, “Hey, this is what works”, you also have the people who are making these ads work saying, “Hey, this is why it works.”
Staying true to its main principle – that is, that the youth are always on the prowl for something new, while at the same time creating and transcending it – the book looks at various platforms and mediums of advertising, how they were used in the past and where they seem to be headed.
This title is for businesses and entrepreneurs who should be looking to part the youth and their money. – Tshepo Tshabalala