Advertisements have become a big part of our lives without us noticing. When you start to pay attention. A major source of advertising is on iPhone apps.
If you go on the app store, there are plenty of free apps that are very tempting to download because they’re free. Most of these are small games that get old quick or they’re the free version of another app. The thing about advertisements on free apps is most of the advertisements are advertisements for other apps. If it’s just a small free game, chances are it will get boring very quickly. The goal of the advertisements is to get you to download one of their other apps.
If it is the free version of another app, there will be an excessive amount of advertisements. The goal is to get you hooked on their game, but then ruin your fun with constant advertisements popping up. All these advertisements popping up say something like, “Having fun? Play ad-free with our full version.” These will pop up after you lose the game, finish a level, etc. The makers of the game want you to get so fed up with these advertisements that you break down and buy the full version of the game.
I can see exactly how this style of advertising can be profitable. Now that so many younger kids have their own iPod Touch or use their parents’ iPhones or iPads, they have access to these apps. A lot of the games are geared towards kids. When a little kid is having fun playing a game and they see a brightly colored pop-up telling them that they can play ad-free or to check out their other game, they’ll probably click on and maybe end up buying it.
One game that’s been very popular lately is Candy Crush. In this game, you have to match up groups of the same color candy with a certain number of moves. It’s more fun than it sounds and it’s extremely addicting. A tactic that the advertisers use on Candy Crush is that you get a maximum of five lives. Every time you lose a level, you lose a life and you have to wait a half an hour to get a new one. . . unless you pay in the app store. They also have a pop up ad every time you finish a level telling you to buy their other game in the app store.
App creators have created a big web of apps and advertisements all in an attempt to get you to pay them. Which makes me realize that they don’t care about entertaining their audience at all, just getting their money.
Thanks Alanna. You make some interesting points in this post. I am particularly interested in the point you make about kids using these electronic devices. The advertising that you address seems particularly geared to kids who not only get hooked on these games, but impulsively will download the next game once they get bored. I do have one question. Do kids have the ability to purchase the full, ad-free, version without their parents authorization? You seem to suggest that they do. If this is true, then what you have identified appears to be a predatory form of advertising. I seem to remember a news special last year that discussed this very issue - how game manufacturers use "bright colors" to attract kids to continue downloading new and different games. People had issues with this because it strikes many as manufacturers preying on kids ignorance.
ReplyDeleteThere are some technical issues that I want to point out to you. First, look at your second sentence: "When you start to pay attention." This is not a sentence. Second, you mix up your pronouns in this sentence: "When a little kid is having fun playing a game and they see..." The pronoun "they" cannot replace the singular noun "a little kid." Third, I recommend you try to write with a pronoun other than "you" in your penultimate paragraph. Why choose "you" when you can just write in the third person. Sometimes it gets awkward to write in the second person, especially considering it is rarely necessary. Finally, look at this sentence: "It’s more fun than it sounds and it’s extremely addicting." What are the antecedents for all of the "its" you use? This is really vague writing. Try to avoid the pronoun "it" if you don't have a specific antecedent.