Advertising Photography

We've all seen it. That picture in the ad of the fruit that looks so fresh and plump and ripe you could almost reach out and take a bit. That's advertising photography. Or that big juicy, fresh hamburger, steaming on a soft bun, looking so delicious that it makes your mouth water. Thats advertising photography too. What about that happy couple so in love, enjoying their coffee? That's dvertising photography. Or those beautiful, sexy people all looking so smart, smoking their cigarettes? That's advertising photography. It is all advertising photography. And it is designed to make you buy things, make you do things, designed to make you feel things.

Advertising photography is very manipulative. Advertising photography is very cynical. Advertising photography is visual fiction that is designed with one purpose in mind, to influence you. And most advertising photography is designed to influence you to part wit your money. Oh, sure there are the public service campaigns that use advertising photography to maybe affect your thinking about a subject or to get you to do something for your health, but this advertising photography is in the minority. Most advertising photography you see has a lot of thought and money behind it in order to make a sale.

Advertising photography is designed to move the merchandise off the shelves. Advertising photography exists to make the cash register ring. And advertising photography will use any tricks it can to accomplish its goals. Pictures sell products. And good advertising photography sells a lot of products. It doesn't matter to the advertiser if the advertising photography is misleading. It doesn't matter to the advertiser if the advertising photography makes you want a product that is bad for you. It doesn't matter to the advertiser if the advertising photography sells products that are environmentally unsound or unsafe. It only matters to the advertiser that the advertising photography sells you the product. It only matters to the advertiser that you buy the product either now or later, but that you buy.

We are all so accustomed to looking at photography now that we don't stop to think that the advertising photography that we see is not a casual thing. The advertising photography we see is not candid, even if it appears that way. Our minds are trained to accept as fact something we see with our eyes and advertising photography takes advantage of that fact. But that is what is so cynical about advertising photography. The advertisers using advertising photography are taking advantage of you and they are fully aware of it. In fact, it is planned and carefully orchestrated.

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