My family and I recently took a trip down to San Fransisco. Upon entering the city, you can already see the numerous huge billboards off the highway advertising things from Coke to insurance; you can't miss these billboards. It only gets worse once you enter the city. I've always known that there are many ads in San Fransisco, but I never really noted how much there actually were. I actually paid attention this time, and I noticed that on the streets there were literally ads on every corner or even more. This especially rings true in Union Square where there are already so many stores to shop at. It was overwhelming seeing so many ads, especially since one of those circular ad holders can hold more than one ad.
Even in the mall, they have ads everywhere. I know they usually have some ads in malls, but I felt that it went a little overboard in the Westfield San Fransisco Centre. I remember an ad holder on the ground floor near the food court that was advertising eating vegetables and the movie Labor Day. Are people really going to notice an ad in a mall where everybody is too busy shopping, especially in a mall as big as that one? I only noticed it because I was eating, so I guess it's strategic to put an ad near the food court where people sitting down. Everyone one of the many directories they had had an ad on the back of it. But even though I took a glance at what they were advertising, I don't remember what they were trying to sell. If I was actually paying attention to the ads and can't recall a single ad from there, how do you expect the ordinary shopper to remember them? I'm not saying that ads in malls are bad, but I question how useful they are.

I didn't start to notice just how much media is advertised in San Fransisco until I started studying media. Image what it must be like for the people who live in San Fransisco. I wonder how they don't get annoyed with all these ads. I guess they don't really notice it since they've been surrounded by them for such a long time and probably have gotten used to them.
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