An overload of advertising

I kept a journal of all the advertising I saw in one day, and the results socked me. Even though we talked in class about how much we see, I never really realized how much is out there. Whether it be driving in my car, going to get lunch with a friend, or simply watching TV after a long day at school, I was exposed to advertising while doing almost everything.
The day started off with my radio alarm clock trying to sell me tires for my car. They were good year tires. I realized that the time that I woke up in the morning was the morning commute, and this is the time that radios have the most advertising because people are in their cars. I do have a car, and will need tires down the road, but this did not apply to my life right now.
The next time I was exposed to an ad was not long after getting out of bed. When I was driving to school I saw countless bill boards. I cannot even remember all of them. I saw one for teeth whitening, one for adding a deck to your house, two for water parks, and one for a law firm. Most of these things I would never buy, but they must have the money to put up the bill boards, so the companies do get people to buy their products. Teeth whitening has a wide range of people that the product could be targeting. Any where from young adults, to middle aged people. Adding a deck on the house, is only for people who own a home, and have the money to do that during the recession. Water parks have the widest range of targets. Water parks attract young kids, their parents, teens, and day camps in the summer. Having a big sign with splashing water while driving in the heat is a great way to get people to think about taking a day trip.
After I got to school I saw advertising for our school in general. There are hand outs in the SUB that give people reasons to come to Kutztown. Since I am already a student here, I am already bought, but the incoming Freshman can get sold by these hand outs. Other ads in the SUB were the posters for the bank on campus, PSECU. The posters said to switch banks, and get no surcharge at an ATM on Kutztown's campus. I already have an account with them, so again their ads must be working.
After school I went home and watched some TV. I was watching re-runs of What I Like About You, on the family channel. The ads on this channel were for sneakers, Wal-Mart, JCPenny, go-gurts, and much more. The reason why these things are advertised on this channel is because children watch this channel, and so do families at large. ABC knows that children need sneakers, and that the mothers of the viewers want to save money with Wal-Mart. This is a very good idea, and the ads target the viewers of the station.
I am sure that these are not the only ads I saw during the day, but they were the most noticeable. This really was an eye opener as to how many ads Americans are exposed to everyday. This influences what we eat, wear, where we spend a mini vacation, and where we go to college. All of this was learned from one day of observation.