We live in a society today that is being dominated and confounded by commercials and ads. It is a new age - the advertising age - where commercials and ads tell us what a necessity is and what is not. Even the definition of advertising has evolved over a period of time. Starting out as a means to endorse a product and praise it to induce the public to buy, now it is just a means to brainwash consumers by the way of images into purchasing a product over another.
A Compaq computer ad that caught my eye appeared in the E-Week, a weekly magazine for information technology professionals, targeting the new and innovative technologies in today's business and professional environment. The focus of this ad is to introduce business owners to the new Compaq Evo notebook computer that might prove to be a powerful tool in enhancing the capabilities and productivity of their employees and increase their overall performance in and out of the work-place. Throughout the ad Compaq creates an ethos that they are the best in the computer industry, and unlike others, their competitors, they really care what you as the consumer do and how u do it. And that is why they are presenting the "Compaq complete mobility solutions."" For those unfamiliar with this terminology, complete mobility solutions is just another way of saying that they make notebook computers with a wireless network card. In this internet and intranet age we all know that this is nothing different than what other large computer companies have been doing for a while now.
The most important aspect of any advertisement is the image or images that it presents. In this ad the top half of the page portrays a picture of a casually dressed middle-age man sitting at a conference table, sleeves rolled up, quite engrossed in the use of his Compaq notebook computer. The man has a very profound and calm look on his face - as if he has achieved something quite extraordinary.