Advertising on Police Cars

one of the things that divides opinions is advertising, and its never simply black or white. We need advertising so that we know what is out there in the big wide world. Of course there is the overkill side by where giant billboards rule the sides of road, TV ads are louder then shows and every square inch of space on anything has been covered in someones product

Advertising can be clever and interesting, even bordering on being artistic. I actually commend those advertisers who come up with innovative and interesting work that gains attention thru subtlety. Take this advert as an example Nokia Adit has nothing to do with phones but its a good ad.

As a small business owner i need to advertise to compete, however i always question how much is too much? (of course how much is not enough and just a waste of money). The rule of thumb that i have heard is that a potential client needs to see an ad 4 times before they become interested. Unfortunately from my perspective if someone put something in my face 4 times over a short period of time i'd be more inclined to not go with it.

About 2 weeks ago i was watching some late nite TV show and this ad came on for some karate/kung fu place in the same suburb i work in (essentially a competitor for me on some level). Nothing overly exciting about the ad but for the fact that they are doing it and i am not. Unfortunately for this business the ad came on every single ad break so by the end of the show i was watching i just wanted to karate chop the crap out of the advert.

So the question i ponder is, what is good advertising and what isn't...you out there are the target audience what floats your boat?

PS. Watch "the Gruen transfer" on ABC1 when u have the chance