Communications Advertising Outline

Television as the Great Advertiser

What problem(s) did television solve?

Desire for escapism

Social connectoras part of emerging "closed" society

Exigencies of an industrialized society

Mass advertising pushed by commercial interests that shape mass media

systemsÐ'...

1. Need to sell and to distinguish brands from one another

Media companies rely on advertising to support them

70-80% of revenues for a newspaper comes from advertising

2. But branding and marketing pushes for "fragmentation"

Began w/ rise of Marketing/P.R. in early 1900s

Advertising focuses on specific markets (e.g., housewives, athletes, etc.)

U.S. Census gave marketers info about various social groups

Fragmentation speeded up by suburbia

Rise of "demographics" as scientific study- I.e. most coveted zip code in U.S. ? 90210

Marketers' world starts to infect the rest of society Ð'- a world

of "lifestyles"

3. TV perfectly fits marketer's model Ð'- targeting specific audiences

Nielsen ratings to understand who's watching

Use of statistics to help understand audiences- influence of scientific discoveries about human behavior

TIME OUT: How are statistics used to understand viewing audiences?

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(Average)

Most of human behavior falls into this normal distribution

As a result, we don't have to test entire population to understand

behavior!

A.C. Nielsen Market Research Company:

Since 1950

Estimates watching habits

Based on sampling procedures- monitoring people's homes with TV

System used: Rating