Targeting The Masses

               In the YouTube video, Johanna Blakely: Social Media and the End of Gender, Blakely speaks to an audience at the TEDWomen convention about demographics in advertising. She argues that current, or the “same old,” advertising demographics are inaccurate and that consumers should be grouped based on their likes and interests rather than groups based on things such as their age, race, or gender.  I disagree with her argument, and in my opinion, the job of an advertiser is to sell as much of a product as possible, not to cater products to individual consumers.  In order to achieve that goal, advertisers research different age, race and gender groups to pinpoint a demographic that has the highest interest in their product to aim their ads towards.  If advertisers were to take the likes and interests of an individual consumer into consideration, it would narrow the results to where there would not be a large enough group to target, thus decreasing the effectiveness of the advertisement. For example, if one hundred random individuals were given a surveyed on what kinds of music they enjoy, the percent of those who enjoy a specific genre, such as rap music, could vary greatly depending on what individuals happen to be included, leaving the results ineffective as to what group to target.  On the other hand, if a demographic, such as age, was used, the results would likely find that a higher percentage of individuals in a 12 to 18 age group enjoy rap music than those in a 44 to 50 age group.  By finding a proper demographic group, advertisers can group large numbers of individuals with high interest in their product together and target that group, therefore increasing the chances of successful sales. 

Blakely also states the fact that women statistically spend more time on and are more in control of social media than their male counterparts.  Social media has proven to be a very effective platform for advertising, and considering the fact that women spend more time on social media, advertisers would be stupid not to try to direct their advertisements towards a female demographic through social media, thus providing another reason why Blakely’s argument that erasing gender demographics, as well as other demographics such as race and age, is ineffective, and that what she refers to as the “same old” demographic techniques are still the best and most effective way to advertise products.