How advertising has changed in 30 years & What $50 million used to get you.

This cute character was known as Spuds Mackenzie and was the most recognizable living figure in the mid-80s. Budweiser spent $50 million on ads, products, videos, giant blow-up figures and you name it. Now, the media landscape has changed. People will take photos like these and share them all over the internet. What looks like a photo shoot for tens of thousands of dollars is now done by a photo hobbyist or Youtube star. The “Spuds” ads were eventually pulled and the more current “drink responsibly” campaign was adapted. But why you may ask, after having such an adorable figure running your company that caught on so well all over the world? Kids around age 12 like to experiment and start pushing the limits. Word got out that many kids were idolizing the cute idol, wearing shirts, buying products as kids are the most susceptible to advertising. Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, “the force has a strong influence on the weak minded”. Kid’s minds aren’t weak but they are not fully developed and urge for a sense of self thus latching onto popular items in pop culture to feel accepted as psychologist Michael A Britt, PH.D says in episode 258 of his podcast episode titled, 5 Reasons Why You’re addicted to your Phone.

Advertising budgets have changed significantly as well, with a large portion being focused online from mobile apps to websites, to video content and social sharing. It is the perfect media landscape and consumer reward system to create a vicious cycle of advertising success. The large firms including Verizon, Procter, and Gamble, JP Morgan, Disney, Loreal spend over $1.7 billion per year on ads. Most of their ads now go to digital but it is very close to the market spending of TV advertising. In fact, with TV ad spending decreasing year over year, it is was predicted that digital advertising would surpass TV advertising in 2018 (eMarketer) and the results were actually far greater and faster for digital spending. It was 2017, not 2018 that proved to be the year that digital ad spending surpassed TV ad spending, ahead of market predictions. The most popular ad spending is for mobile and is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years.