Advertising

• The typical person sees 250 commercial messages daily and more than two million of them by the time he or she is twenty-five years old.

• Studying advertising and the strategies used by advertisers helps us to become more critical, insightful, and selective consumers.

• When it comes to commercial ads, for the most part, skepticism is a virtue.

Advertising II

• In broad terms, advertising uses promotional techniques to persuade people to purchase products or services.

• The American Marketing Association’s definition is “any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.”

Some Defenses of Advertising• Defenders of advertising claim that it provides

many benefits:1. Employs a large workforce of writer and

producers.2. Informs consumers about health and safety

issues.3. Informs consumers about new treatments for

medical problems.4. Proponents of advertising claim that advertising

stimulates competition and fuels our mass-consumption economy, raising the standard of living for everyone.

Criticisms of advertising

1. Advertising is intrusive

2. Advertising demeans and corrupts culture, making citizens materialistic. By encouraging consumers to measure their worth solely by what they have rather than who they are, undermines society.

3. Advertising is a manipulative, deceptive process.

• College students usually say that advertising does not influence their decisions.

• However, studies show that ads can increase sales of certain products.

• Most Americans see ads as something thing they can easily tune in and out.

• Advertisers want us to believe that. They want to subtly influence us.

• The majority of things we buy- toothpaste, toothbrushes, and so forth are pretty much the same. They share the same marketing techniques, manufacturing techniques, and use the same technology. The only difference may be how it is presented.

Strategies used in advertisements1. Humor2. Catchy Slogans and Jingles3. Fears of Rejection and Hopes for Acceptance

and Approval4. Emotive Words5. Weasel Words6. Fine-Print disclaimers7. Puffery8. The Promise of Sex9. Enviable situations10. Enviable People11. Compliments

Political Ads• Political advertising, truthfully and honestly

made, can be important to democracy.• The high costs of ads can limit political

competition to the wealthy, or people who promise to compromise their integrity on certain issues to get campaign contributions.

• Images and text can be designed to appeal primarily to emotions rather than to reason.

• Political ads can appeal to bias, fear, hostility, and prejudice.

How effective is advertising?• Please get in your groups, look at the handout

and determine how many jingles you can match with a product or company.

• If time allows, work as a group to think of one ad that you have seen for each of the following strategies:

1. Humor2. Catchy Slogans and Jingles3. The Promise of Sex4. Enviable Situation5. Enviable People