Ad Elves

When was the last time that you purchased something you needed?

When was the last time that you purchased something you truly didn’t need?

When was the last time that you bought something you really couldn’t afford?

When was the last time that you, an intelligent consumer, bought something, anything, that you still can’t explain why you did so?

Every day that we go out into the world or simply peruse our own online world, we are potential consumers. The more idle time we have at our disposal, the more likely we are to flash the plastic and thus see our potential realized. At times we can justify our purchases as necessary and at times not but as long as you buy, the ad elves laugh til they cry!

I like to imagine that there are tiny little ad elves that sit in wait for unknowing people to be tricked into consuming. These elves aren’t helping the shoemaker make the shoes. NO! These are moderns ones, elves 2.0 if you will. These elves are hired by the shoemaker to help sell the shoes. These elves work throughout the night creating campaigns that target niche and mass audiences alike in crafty, barely intelligible ways.

Whenever you buy, Ad Elves laugh til they cry!

Every time a bell rings an angel gets his/her wings, but every time a credit card is swiped, an ad elf throws a party. And you know what, it is warranted. It is no mistake that you went out and bought a pack of Coors during halftime or added that end-capped bag of chips to your shopping cart or upgraded your HDTV to the 3D one. We are all predictably irrationally predictable.

Sure, you influence the types of ads you get but the hard-working elves are more than happy to craft specific messages to attempt to further influence your behavior. Ad elves create detailed, labor-intensive campaigns that use data analytics and massive amounts of research to effectively deliver ads that will reach, repeatedly, the target audience. But the game doesn’t end there. Making consumers aware of the product or brand is important, but if it doesn’t cause action, i.e. purchasing, then it was a failure.

And so, I like to imagine that when all the hard work literally pays off, the ad elves throw a party. They take a momentary reprieve and celebrate. They revel in the beauty of the creative, the brilliant strategy and targeted reach because if they don’t, they become sad elves and no one wants that. A sad elf is, well, just sad and after the work these elves put in, they deserve to reap the rewards.

The next time you buy something, anything, just know that somewhere there are ad elves celebrating away, not at your expense, just out of pure happiness. Isn’t that nice? With the Super Bowl later today, and all the funtertaining ads that these elves had made for us, there is no time like the present to be a responsive consumer and give an elf his/her stripes. Now that is worth celebrating!