Sciences Participating with Arts & Culture in Education

Speed Culture in TV Commercials: the Pursuit of a Faster Modernity

Illustrated by STEVEN GEE

If you are reading this on your computer, laptop or phone, it means you are part of a new culture based on speed, in which technology plays a crucial role. Nowadays, it is obvious that computers with high RAM, quick sophisticated cars, and instant communication devices like the Internet are a necessary part of our lives. These fast gadgets continuously surround us and direct our society towards a constant and addictive quest for even greater speed.

This addiction to immediacy in our daily activities is so prevailing that it triggers our imagination and leads to design that feeds this addiction. Our dreams about the future rely on a speed mentality whose main motto is: “the faster the better”. Many science-fiction films portray such fantasies by focusing on technological advancements that should be possible in a near future. For instance, the 2004 science-fiction action film I, Robot features mass-produced robots and accelerated cars that help people accomplish their daily tasks faster. Similarly, in 2011, Corning Incorporated, an American manufacturer imagined a day “made of glass” based on a highly computerized technology of interactive glass screens that would allow us to purchase products, cook, drive, and communicate much faster.

The temporal immediacy that drives our world helps us overcome physical constraints and barriers like distance and cultural differences when it comes to traveling and communication, respectively. Our globalized society increasingly shares a desire for quickness that is deeply steeped in our human nature; indeed, people hate to wait. This explains why it is not a rare reaction to feel irritated when our computer bugs or when we are stuck in traffic. But we may still ask ourselves: what is the real reason behind our aversion to waiting and how come we value speed so much?

Although our reactions are very complex and there is no simple answer to this question, TV commercials certainly have a great influence on our perception of the world and they exhibit a large impact on our behavioural approach to the different promoted products. Advertisements take advantage of our inner desire for quick services and exploit it to a further extent. This makes us believe that speed is a necessity and that we cannot live without the new faster iPad or Xbox 360.

Thaï Express, Boost, Speed stick, Minute Rice are common brand names with connotations of instantaneity. This naming technique is often used by advertisers to create an illusion of extreme fast services that are said to be provided by the different products. Obviously, rice is never ready in one minute, but naming products in this way is very effective for it alludes to promptness and subconsciously reaches our expectations.

TV commercials are the key vehicles through which speed is promoted, so it is crucial to look in detail at their structure. The very format of the advertisements - the 30-seconds time restriction - creates a sense of urgency, because advertisers cannot present realistic time spans. On a visual level, TV commercials often include the objects, people or animals that we commonly associate with rapidity: joggers, cars, planes, running dogs or wild horses. They often emphasize accelerated objects when compared to their real-life velocity and use quick shot changes to make instantaneous transitions from one place or situation to another (Gottschalk, 1999).

One of the most powerful techniques used to promote haste is the narrative structure of advertisements. Commercials usually start with a sad or unhealthy person who experiences speed through the consumption of a product and immediately feels satisfaction. When two opposing story segments are put one after the other, viewers automatically make a connection between them, although this connection may never be explicitly stated (Gottschalk, 1999). This method is frequently used in commercials about all sorts of medicines where relief comes in a matter of seconds or shampoo commercials where hair becomes voluminous, smooth, and shiny all of a sudden.

Advertisements also often force us to react quickly by giving out orders like “Be fast, this is your final chance” or “Visit us! 50% off this weekend only.” Those threats become even more effective when they are backed up with catchy promises of great rewards for immediate reactions (Gottschalk, 1999). In a 2011 Netflix commercial, consumers are promised one month free if they only subscribe to the offer: “Start your free trial TODAY!” Other advertisements simply remind us of the negative sensations linked with waiting; they present slowness as a negative contrast to speed in order to underline the positive and desirable value of fast services (Gottschalk, 1999). “Tired of waiting?” Of course we are, because people commonly associate waiting with boredom. And this is what does the trick.

Advertisements are everywhere and they are clear indicators of our capitalist reality; they shape the future by controlling consumerism and they transform our perception of the world through the fast pace imposed.  We start to expect our transactions and processes to take place at a speed comparable to what we witness in TV commercials. We want everything NOW, not later, NOW!

There might be then merit to slowing down our society’s pace. While the pursuit of speed enhances technological development, it is important to stop for a moment and simply take the time to think wisely about the complicated future we face. As Stephen Bertman suggests in his 1998 book Hyperculture: the Human Cost of Speed, “the faster we go, the less we truly see”. To the scientific mind, this statement means that the depth of our understanding is inversely proportional to the velocity at which it is attained. It is crucial, therefore, to reflect again upon our society’s true needs and leave more space for judgment in a world where we are continuously bombarded with advertisements.