The majority of adverts on the television only have white people in, this is because the majority of people in Britain are white and companies will think that white people won’t want to use the same products that a different coloured person is using. This is an example of stereotyping because for a lot of people it wouldn’t matter what coloured skin the person advertising has, just how appealing the product looked.
A lot of adverts are continuous and are in a soap opera style, for about two months they will show one advert and then have the continuing advert on the next two months after that and so on. Adverts do this because like a soap opera it builds up tension and leaves you wondering what will happen next so people will watch the advert and pay attention to it because they are curious. An example of this is the Gold Blend adverts which were continuous with the same two characters for over a year.
Many companies advertise free gifts with their products. Companies do this because people are more likely to buy the product because it seems like we are getting a good deal and getting more for our money. A shop that regularly advertises ‘buy one get one free’ offers is Iceland. I think they do this because once you are in the shop you are likely to purchase additional items which will in turn increase their sales.
Advertisements appeal to our senses too. A lot of companies have to convince people that their food tastes delicious. They always have a person smelling the product and they have an expression on their face that says ‘that smells lovely’, which will make us think it must taste nice because someone else has approved it. For example in the ‘Bisto’ advert there is a little girl smelling the product smiling and saying ‘ahh Bisto’.
Advertisements appeal to our concerns, for example ‘sure’ deodorant adverts make out that if you don’t use their product you will end up the smelliest person in the country. They do this by making the people that are using their product happy, fresh and confident and the people that are not, sad, smelly and socially unacceptable. This makes us think that we are not as good as others and we need to improve by buying the product.
Another common technique used by advertisers is to compare two different people one that is using the product being advertised, who is usually happy, pretty and enjoying themselves. The other person will be using something else and will look sad, disappointed and lonely. We all obviously prefer to be the happier person so we buy the product.
Adverts have to appeal to a certain audience for their products to be sold. Companies have to schedule their adverts at the best time they think their target audience will be watching. For example you will mainly find toy adverts on in between childrens’ programmes because the toy adverts are aimed at children and they are the one’s who will be watching the television at that time. Although the children aren’t the one’s who would buy the product, their parent’s would, advertisers have to make them appeal to parents too so a lot of adverts make out the product is good for your child or healthy or educational and will keep them busy for hours.
Another example is adverts, which are shown in between sports programmes. Companies know that men are more likely than women to be watching the football so it is unlikely you will find make up adverts in between the football because men are less likely to be interested in these products. It will be more likely to see beer or shaving foam adverts because these are products that will grab mens’ attention.
There are a few advertisements with celebrities in them to make the product more appealing. For example Jennifer Aniston advertises hair products and Michael Owen advertises cereal. They use celebrities because people recognize them and admire them. A lot of people are likely to buy the cereal that Michael Owen advertises because he is a very well known footballer who is talented and skilful. The advert is trying to say if you buy the product you can become as famous and talented as Michael Owen. Celebrities are admired by a lot of people so people would want to use the same product they are using.
Companies spend a lot of money advertising. One advert could cost over one million to put on the television. But on the other hand the company will probably make a profit out of advertising because millions of people are likely to see the advert and buy the product/s being advertised.
Many companies own more than one product, for example the Coca Cola Company also own the drinks Fanta and Sprite so there isn’t a competition between the products. Another example is Walker’s crisps who also own the crisps Monster Munch, Quavers and several other crisp products so their buyers have a whole range to choose from which brings in more money but also more pretence of competition.
There are some adverts which have to be banned because they are illegal or indecent. For example all cigarette adverts have been banned from the television because it was basically encouraging people to kill themselves. Alcohol adverts aren’t allowed to show the great effects of their products because alcohol is also a product that can kill people or lead to addiction and adverts may encourage people to do this.
There are so many places in the media to advertise. I think the most powerful place to advertise is on the television because you can see and hear everything and everything is in motion like in real life and not still like in posters or magazines. People can relate to it and are more likely to pay attention to them.
I think one of the worst places to advertise would be on the radio because we can’t see what the product looks like or what colour it is so we wouldn’t recognize it in a shop. Public transport is also a good place to put up adverts because people travelling would look and see their surroundings making advertising more cost effective. But on the other hand you couldn’t reach a target audience on the tube because of the diversity of people.
Advertising is a good way to inform people what is available to buy and if there where no adverts we wouldn’t know what to buy or we would end up buying the same products and not trying anything different. But on the other hand adverts can encourage us to buy things that we don’t need because they make the product look or sound really good and a lot of the time the product isn’t as good as advertisements make them out to be. For example ‘Oil of Olay’ face cream claims it can give you younger looking skin which would appeal to a society which places great importance on youth.
Stacey palmer.
