The Future of Advertising

Forbe's article on the future of advertising is, in my view, a little too fantastic (yes, I noticed the contradiction in "a little too"). Indeed, the only idea that really seems viable to me is Mobile Medic, the smartphone diagnose system that has helped recruit medical students in Australia.

I do not like to leave my opinions unsubstantiated, and you may ask why someone who does not have a clue about advertising might dare to criticize ideas posed by professionals as unviable. Well, I may not be an advertising professional, but my common sense tells me that a t-shirt with a screen on it and distracting glasses are not going to prove very popular in the long run.

Why?

Although they may be a novelty at first, as every new ultra-technologic invention is, both Google Glass and tshirtOS defy real-life situations.

First, Google Glass have the potential to be dangerous, at least to me. If some people complain that cellphones, iPods and computers distract us so much that we do not pay attention to our surroundings, imagine having a screen in front of you for as long as you wear these glasses.

Second, the interactive, tshirtOS just does not seem feasible for several reasons:

-How would you wash it? This may sound odd and even stupid, but it's a reasonable concern. They mention it is 100 percent made of cotton. Well, cotton needs to be washed, as do all items of clothing (hopefully, many would agree with me on this).

-They are expensive, not only to produce--they would need thousands, if not millions, of people signing up for the tschirtOS for it to reach an acceptable price--but also because, in order to wash them, people may need to take them to dry cleaners and that costs money.

-They are too distracting. Imagine walking in the street and encountering dozens of screens in front of you, just that they are not screens, they are t-shirts.

Also, let's just think about it. What is the purpose, the goal, of having a t-shirt with a screen telling everyone what we are thinking or whatever we want to display? Of what use does it really is? In my opinion, it's a consumerist idea that is indeed sort of cool, but also cost inefficient and purposeless.

In contrast with Mobile Medic, neither tshirtOS nor GoogleGlass really seem to help society in any way. They do not advance any common, collective ideal, au contraire, both ideas seem to advance narcissism and individualism, even if they are advertised as the latest improvements to social media.

They are cool, they are attractive, but I believe advertising, as any other communication and media, needs to help people and society beyond merely entertaining it.