Final Thoughts on European Advertising

For the most part, the advertisements I've seen in Europe have been pretty much like that of the United States. They are located in a lot of the same places, and they try and sell a lot of the same things. However, there is a big difference in content. The censorship in American advertising is very strict compared to Ads I've seen throughout Europe. For example, when I was in Zurich, there were advertisements to help stop the spead of aids that had people in very promiscuous positions. They were so shocking to us that we actually stopped in the middle of the street and took pictures of them. The people around us looked at us like we were from a different planet. Immediately thought to myself that you would never see that in the States. I think one of the major themes that I have discovered while traveling though Italy, and the rest of Europe, is the overal lax mentality of most Europeans about things Americans make a big deal out of. I think a lot of the time things become a big deal in American because we make them a big deal. It is almost as if the problems we have wouldn't even be an issue if people didn't make a big deal out of them in the first place. Another example of this, is advertisements seen on Italian television. You'd never guess how sexy a woman can be when trying to sell you a chocolate bar. I do realize we use sex appeal in the States to sell things, but in Europe the advertisements are much more riskue. My final thoughts on advertisements in Europe are concluded with different ideas of sex, and how society takes them in. Those are the biggest differences I've seen between the US and Europe. I'll miss the ads i've been around over the past two months. They were definitely entertaining!