Advertising and Promotion

Advertising and Promotion

Advertising is a form of commercial mass communication designed to promote the sale of a product or service and it also sends messages on behalf of an institution, organization, or candidate for political office. Advertising can be found in cultures from thousands of years ago dating back to 3000 BC in Babylonian times. Back then they only used graphic signs and word of mouth from town criers to promote their product to the people. Today we still use word of mouth of radio and TV personalities along with more advanced forms of media to communicate with the public.

Societal values are both created and reflected through advertising. I think advertising reflects on societal values more than creating them. Most advertising appeals to emotions, specifically the emotional need for love and belonging, prestige and self-esteem. Advertisers of clothing may associate the product with a lifestyle that the consumer wants to be identified with. For example, Ralph Lauren Polo provides a lifestyle of wealth and prestige. People that buy that want to be recognized with that standard of living. Personal care and perfume products suggest the message that their product will allow the consumer to experience love, acceptance, and sexuality. Other personal care products such as shampoo, deodorant, make-up all play upon the fears of the consumer and exaggerate the rejection that results from not using that product. These examples are reflections of how society already acts and how they have always been. The creating comes into how they will advertise the product to influence the consumer's buying behavior.

Research shows that adolescent girls are influenced with the standard of beauty. They have become dissatisfied with their own bodies, and may develop eating disorders to attain a thin figure. Again this is a reflection on societal values because advertising reproduces these beautiful and extremely thin models in a glamorous way. They are seen in every type of media. Rather than use informational advertising to influence and discourage these adolescents of the skinniness of these models, advertisers remodel and use it for consumer advertisement to re-emphasis their view of beauty in order to sell their product. Although some in the media industry are to be praised for their continuing efforts to reflect sensitive, diverse, and uncensored images, others still incorporate images that convey destructive images. Women's bodies are used as objects to sell products, men and boys are portrayed in aggressive and stereotypical ways, and depictions of physical and sexual violence are puffed up. These messages are imitated and carried out through society by the people that view these images.

Advertising promotes a materialistic way of life by leading people to believe that happiness is achieved by purchasing products. The idea that advertising creates consumer culture in which buying exciting new products becomes the foundation of the society's values, pleasures, and goals is considered debatable. Advertising campaigns cannot create value. If value does not exist then the campaigns will fail in its initial purpose which is to mimic with the value system of the proposed audience.

In my qualitative research, I have observed that females do most of the shopping and are brand conscience of some products. Products purchased for need purposes are not considered for their brand. They are considered for their price first and quality/brand are considered second. For the younger age group 15-25 it is observed that they are more brand conscience of their products. They purchase products more for what is new and fresh on the market. The men have their women purchase most of their need products and are not aware of anything. They just