To advertise is to; “draw attention to or describe favourably (good or services) in a public medium to promote sales
"Advertising uses powerful psychology and influences our views of the world." Discuss this statement with reference to car adverts produced for television.
To advertise is to; "draw attention to or describe favourably (goods or services) in a public medium to promote sales."(1) It aims to encourage the consumer to buy the company's products.
Advertising takes different forms according to the society in which it operates. Town criers were probably one of the first types of advertising. They would appeal through the sense of hearing. Slowly over the centuries, advertising has progressed and now it is unlikely that a day will pass without you encountering hundreds of adverts. People are bombarded with adverts. They can be subtle, such as a shop name on a carrier bag, something that is taken for granted or multi-million pound campaigns which have commercials on every television channel.
Advertising agencies and companies recognise the awesome power of television and the other media and, in 1999, UK advertising expenditure totalled a record £15.3 billion. (2) Coca-Cola is a prime example of how influential an advertising campaign can be: Father Christmas traditionally wore a blue suit but as part of one of their campaigns, Coca-Cola changed that to red in keeping with the colour scheme of their packaging. Children growing up today will only associate the colours red and white with Father Christmas, not the original blue.
Consumer surveys conducted by companies place those surveyed into stereotypical socio-economic groups using factors such as: age, sex, hobbies, ethnic group, social group and expendable income. This helps companies to decide on their target audience. Once they know the viewing habits of their decided audience they can work out preferred times for commercials, which type of magazine or which radio station to use. For example: Saturday mornings on ITV are devoted to children's programmes; subsequently the commercials are all for products such as "Barbie" and "Action Man". In comparison Classic Fm, a radio station, for example, will advertise the kind of products which would appeal to an expected audience of more mature adults. They may have a more reserved lifestyle and will be more likely to spend money on household goods and recreation rather than up to the minute fashions.
Television uses vision and sound for its impact, making it the most powerful medium. Moving images are used which provides numerous possibilities for camera techniques and special effects to develop an overall impression. Because it reaches the viewer's living room, it invades the home and assaults a captive audience. The power of television advertising raises challenging issues. For example the many toy commercials, referred to previously, cause children to pester parents into buying something they may not be able to afford. Many food adverts promote highly processed fast foods which maybe consumed by people pursuing an expensive, less healthy lifestyle. One form of advertising, subliminal advertising (which has now been banned), flashed an image of a product for 1/24th of a second. The brain therefore, would not immediately register the product in question but a short time later the viewer would subconsciously respond to the idea suggested. This may be an extreme example of what actually goes on psychologically when people are exposed to advertising.
To advertise is to; "draw attention to or describe favourably (goods or services) in a public medium to promote sales."(1) It aims to encourage the consumer to buy the company's products.
Advertising takes different forms according to the society in which it operates. Town criers were probably one of the first types of advertising. They would appeal through the sense of hearing. Slowly over the centuries, advertising has progressed and now it is unlikely that a day will pass without you encountering hundreds of adverts. People are bombarded with adverts. They can be subtle, such as a shop name on a carrier bag, something that is taken for granted or multi-million pound campaigns which have commercials on every television channel.
Advertising agencies and companies recognise the awesome power of television and the other media and, in 1999, UK advertising expenditure totalled a record £15.3 billion. (2) Coca-Cola is a prime example of how influential an advertising campaign can be: Father Christmas traditionally wore a blue suit but as part of one of their campaigns, Coca-Cola changed that to red in keeping with the colour scheme of their packaging. Children growing up today will only associate the colours red and white with Father Christmas, not the original blue.
Consumer surveys conducted by companies place those surveyed into stereotypical socio-economic groups using factors such as: age, sex, hobbies, ethnic group, social group and expendable income. This helps companies to decide on their target audience. Once they know the viewing habits of their decided audience they can work out preferred times for commercials, which type of magazine or which radio station to use. For example: Saturday mornings on ITV are devoted to children's programmes; subsequently the commercials are all for products such as "Barbie" and "Action Man". In comparison Classic Fm, a radio station, for example, will advertise the kind of products which would appeal to an expected audience of more mature adults. They may have a more reserved lifestyle and will be more likely to spend money on household goods and recreation rather than up to the minute fashions.
Television uses vision and sound for its impact, making it the most powerful medium. Moving images are used which provides numerous possibilities for camera techniques and special effects to develop an overall impression. Because it reaches the viewer's living room, it invades the home and assaults a captive audience. The power of television advertising raises challenging issues. For example the many toy commercials, referred to previously, cause children to pester parents into buying something they may not be able to afford. Many food adverts promote highly processed fast foods which maybe consumed by people pursuing an expensive, less healthy lifestyle. One form of advertising, subliminal advertising (which has now been banned), flashed an image of a product for 1/24th of a second. The brain therefore, would not immediately register the product in question but a short time later the viewer would subconsciously respond to the idea suggested. This may be an extreme example of what actually goes on psychologically when people are exposed to advertising.
