Y'see it's not the "subconscious noticing" that's at issue; it's the effect it has on you. Maybe you're a very different person to me; but a 12-foot billboard with an image of a semi-naked supermodel has a very different effect on me than any angle between any two walls you care to mention (however clever the builder).
Here's a classic example of that manipulation which was successful on me recently. Sainsbury's supermarkets in the UK are currently advertising their "financial services"; in particular low-interest loans. Quite what a grocery chain is doing in the banking industry is a mystery to me. Anyways, in the ad, our hero is made to feel embarressed by his lack of a refrigerator. "Nip down to Sainsbury's", says our celebrity-chef endorser, "take out a loan and get yerself a fridge". Sure enough, our hero is at the shops, but before he can take out the loan he sees a classic-car for sale - a snip at 9 thousand quid! Guess what? He impulse-buys 9 grands-worth of credit and gets the flash car. Ridiculous right? Who'd fall for that bollocks? I mean; just *who* is that ad aimed at? *Who* are these people who impulse-buy 9 grand of debt at the supermarket? And are there enough of them to warrant a whole marketing campaign?
So i'm sitting there thinking about that mp3 player i want to buy, and i'm thinking i'll need to use my credit card. But y'know? it's *only* 350 quid! What the hell! At least i'm not like the guy who borrows 9 thousand.......
Y'see, the advert is aimed at me. That's who.
And that's actually a pretty unsubtle one. Like it or not, advertising has a psychological effect on those who consume it. I believe without question that this effect can be lessened simply by being aware of it. I believe without question that those who passively consume commercial media are vastly more damaged by it than those who strive to consciously analyse the effect it has on them. If you disagree then that's cool. But from *my* point of view; you can see that guerilla-ontology in the form of advert-subversion is a valid and potentially powerful strategy, right? It forces at least some of the people seeing the advert to consider it more deeply. Perhaps even to consider commercial media more deeply. It provokes debates like this.
And yes; attempting to examine the adverts that fill your daily environment "can lead to aggravation". It can make a person cynical and neurotic from time to time. Personally that's a price i'm willing to pay in order to assert some kind of control over the way i'm being manipulated by smug marketing execs in offices i'll never know the address of.
And of course you're right when you say "If sales go down, the ad budget will decrease along with the other cost-cutting measures, and eventually, may disappear altogether". Advertising alone does not create consumerism. I never said it did. In fact, it's pretty self-evident that it doesn't. However, advertising clearly does fuel it, and may well be one important factor in our metamorphosis from industrial capitalism to brand consumerism. Importantly, advertising can influence the decisions made by consumers when faced with two competing products. So while people don't decide to buy soap because of advertising, they can be convinced to buy *more* soap by advertising, and they can be convinced to buy a particular brand of soap. So from the point of view of an individual soap company, a good advert *does* make people buy soap.
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