Advertising

               I don’t know a single American that is tired of the continuous stream of ads they see and hear in their day-to-day life. We get them all throughout shows, during the morning commute, and as pop-ups on our internet browsers. They appear on billboards, in newspapers, and well… everywhere.

               But my fellow Americans, we could have it worse. Take a look at this beauty:

If only the building was bigger...

               Advertising in Istanbul can be described in one word: aggressive. That full-building ad is not an uncommon sight in this city, particularly near highways. Skyscrapers plaster their sides with brightly colored monstrosities whenever they get the chance. Construction sites are ripe candidates to have multistoried banners hanging from their skeleton frames. And anywhere you look there’s an overwhelming amount of LED-lit flashy things, scrolling street-side banners, and larger-than-life photographs asking you to spend all your money.

               It’s so bad that any time I see something that doesn’t belong in the scenario, I automatically assume it’s an ad- even if it isn’t. For example, instructions (with photographs) were mistaken for a sales pitch- an assumption I later regretted.

               So yes, there are politicians on TV every five minutes. But you don’t have to deal with 15-story women every half mile.