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Last updated17:27, March 13 2017

Michael Bradley

The MasterFoods ads appealed to Cas Carter's parental guilt.

In the last two years they have had six companies go into liquidation and the liquidators' reports for these companies show deficits of over $16 million. How often do you notice advertisements in a day?

Between ad blocker, ad free radio and recorded television, I've been doing my best to avoid them.

That, as well as a natural phenomenon called ad blindness - a coping mechanism where consumers naturally block out the over 5000 advertisements we are said to be exposed to daily.

SUPPLIED

Business columnist Cas Carter.

The brain is a fascinating thing. We can be blind to almost all those ads every day, until we need to see them.

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For example, I hadn't seen an ad for paint in years, until my house needed painting and thenDuluxandResenemagically appeared.

Those messages were always there just waiting for me to need them.

So why then did the Masterfoods ad 'Make Dinnertime Matter' jump out at me?

Because it got me right between the guilty parent eyes.

The ad that has just been re-released asks couples who they would like to have dinner with. They discuss celebrities from Mandela to Bieber but are then shocked to see how their young children reply to the same question.

The kids just want to have dinner with their family.

The ad was originally released alongside an Australian survey that showed our trans-Tasman neighbours recognised the benefits of dinnertime.

Seventy eight per cent said a home-cooked dinner with family delivers more emotional connection than a hug.

This ad went viral. Even the ad agency creatives said it changed their own behaviour and made them go home for family dinners.

For years we've probably been ignoring Masterfoods "Why cook when you can create" product ads.

What marketers like those at Masterfoods, are realising more and more is that to cut through all the advertising clutter they need to make it matter.

Instead of focusing on the food they're highlighting the rituals and emotion around breaking bread together that we are losing like sitting around the table chatting, instead of looking at screens.

They're showing that who you eat with is as important or more important than the meal itself.

It plays right into the issues we all face being time poor and having more distractions than ever before.

But it also evokes parental guilt and asks 'are we denying our kids the rituals we had when we were young?'

It shows that the next generation has the same values we grew up with, or wished we'd grown up with.

The 'Make Dinner Time Matter' ad has since been cited as one of the top 10 most inspirational ads, because it changed the way some people looked at the world.

Ads might be annoying but they have the potential to change our thinking. And if more took on some of societal issues, our natural ad blockers might start to fail.

Advertising can play a huge role in shaping society the images and messages we're constantly consuming shape how we view ourselves and what we aspire to.

We know ads can promote unhealthy behaviour: childhood obesity, underage smoking and drinking, not to mention over thin models and eating disorders.

But just as easily, they can have a powerful influence on us while still marketing their products.

There's no reason why for-profit and for-good can't overlap, and the billions of dollars of advertising spend each year can't also invest in positive change.

We all hate being marketed too and millennials even more so. Perhaps it's time for advertisers to 'Make Commercial Breaks Matter.'

The Masterfoods 'Make Dinner Time Matter,' campaign will run in Australia and New Zealand across TV and online channels throughout 2017.

I wonder if you'll notice it?

Cas Carter is a marketing and communications specialist.

-Stuff

Read the original here:
Cas Carter: Do you suffer from ad blindness? - Stuff.co.nz

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