For that elusive ad

Yesterday, my husband, kids and I had a nice family discussion after a few days. My husband and I were busy at our jobs and the kids had some mid-term examinations that they needed to concentrate on. As usual, what turned to be a nice chat by the fireside quickly transformed in to a heated debate (Well, that's the way we like it.. ;-) ). The topic of the debate was the usefulness of advertisements in getting a particular product in the hands of the consumers. My husband and I took opposite teams with each one of us taking a kid as our partner. I took the side recommending that advertisements are necessary for products to reach consumers and my husband took the opposite stance. Well, we started by asking the primary question how companies expected consumers to know that they have launched a new product. Our "opponents" said that the products could go to the shops directly where consumers could see them and buy them if necessary. Well, I told them about my friend's company which had hired a nice New York video production company which produced a great video advertisement for them. Their product was launched to a huge reception thanks to the advertisement. This increased sales a lot for them. Well, after this argument, they switched to the point that a lot of advertisements are a little exaggerated. And we hit back with the point that it is necessary in order to attract the attention of the customer. I've got to go know and I will tell you about the rest of the debate tomorrow.