Advertising
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Advertising is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas,
usually by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of
an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional
mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling, and sales
promotion.
History
In ancient times the most common form of advertising was "word of
mouth". However, commercial messages and election campaign displays
were found in the ruins of Pompeii. Egyptians used papyrus to create
sales messages and wall posters. Lost-and-found advertising on papyrus
was common in Greece and Rome. As printing developed in the 15th and
16th century, advertising expanded to include handbills. In the 17th
century advertisements started to appear in weekly newspapers in
England.
These early print ads were used mainly to promote books, which were
increasingly affordable, and medicines, which were increasingly sought
after as disease ravaged Europe. Quack ads became a problem, which
ushered in regulation of advertising content.
As the economy was expanding during the 19th century the need for
advertising grew at the same pace. In America the classified ads became
popular, filling pages of newspapers with small print messages
promoting all kinds of goods. The success of this advertising format
led to the growth of mail-order advertising. In 1843 the first
advertising agency was established by Volney Palmer in Philadelphia. At
first the agencies were just brokers for ad space in newspapers, but by
the 20th century, advertising agencies started to take over
responsibility for the content as well.
The 1960s saw advertising transform into a modern, more scientific
approach in which creativity was allowed to shine, producing unexpected
messages that made advertisements interesting to read. The Volkswagen
ad campaign featuring such headlines as "Think Small" and "Lemon"
ushered in the era of modern advertising by promoting a "position" or
"unique selling proposition" designed to associate each brand with a
specific idea in the reader or viewer's mind.
Today, advertising is evolving even further, with "guerrilla"
promotions that involve unusual approaches such as staged encounters in
public places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with
brand messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer can
respond to become part of the advertising message.
Media
Commercial advertising media can include billboards (outdoor
advertising), street furniture components, printed flyers, radio,
cinema and television ads, web banners, web popups, skywriting, bus
stop benches, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses,
taxicab doors and roof mounts, musical stage shows, subway platforms
and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in
supermarkets, the opening section of streaming audio and video, and the
backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an
"identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is
advertising.
Covert advertising embedded in other entertainment media is known as
product placement. A more recent version of this is advertising in
film, by having a main character use an item or other of a definite
brand - an example is in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's
character owns a computer with the Nokia logo clearly written in the
top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo.
The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective
mass-market advertising format and this is reflected by the high prices
TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. The
annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is known as much
for its commercial advertisements as for the game itself, and the
average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has
reached $2.5 million (as of 2006).
Increasingly, other mediums such as those discussed below are
overtaking television due to a shift towards consumer's usage of the
Internet as well as devices such as TiVo.
Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of
Web-based advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the
surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives.
E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk
E-mail advertising is known as "spam".
Some companies have proposed to place messages or corporate logos on
the side of booster rockets and the International Space Station.
Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising (see
mind control), and the pervasiveness of mass messages (see propaganda).
Unpaid advertising (also called word of mouth advertising), can provide
good exposure at minimal cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a
friend", "sell it by zealot"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat of
equating a brand with a common noun ("Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex"
= "tissue" , "Scotch Tape" = "Clear Tape", "Band-aid" = "bandage" ,
"iPod" = "MP3 Player" ) -- these must provide the stuff of fantasy to
the holder of an advertising budget.
The most common method for measuring the impact of mass media
advertising is the use of the rating point (rp) or the more accurate
target rating point (trp). These two measures refer to the percentage
of the universe of the existing base of audience members that can be
reached by the use of each media outlet in a particular moment in time.
The difference between the two is that the rating point refers to the
percentage to the entire universe while the target rating point refers
to the percentage to a particular segment or target. This becomes very
useful when focusing advertising efforts on a particular group of
people. For example, think of an advertising campaign targeting a
female audience aged 25 to 45. While the overall rating of a TV show
might be well over 10 rating points it might very well happen that the
same show in the same moment of time is generating only 2.5 trps (being
the target: women 25-45). This would mean that while the show has a
large universe of viewers it is not necessarily reaching a large
universe of women in the ages of 25 to 45 making it a less desirable
location to place an ad for an advertiser looking for this particular
demographic.
Impact
The impact of advertising has been a matter of considerable debate and
many different claims have been made in different contexts. During
debates about the banning of cigarette adervertising, a common claim
from cigarette manufacturers was that cigarette advertising does not
encourage people to smoke who would not otherwise[1]. The (eventually
successful) opponents of advertising, on the other hand, claim that
advertising does in fact increase consumption[2].
According to many media sources, the past experience and state of mind
of the person subjected to advertising may determine the impact that
advertising has. Children under the age of four may be unable to
distinguish advertising from other television programs, whilst the
ability to determine the truthfullness of the message may not be
developed until the age of eight.
Public service advertising
The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and
services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about
non-commercial issues, such as AIDS, political ideology, energy
conservation, religious recruitment, and deforestation.
Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational
tool capable of reaching and motivating large audiences. "Advertising
justifies its existence when used in the public interest - it is much
too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes." -
Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy
Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest
advertising, cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms
for (or aspects of) the use of sophisticated advertising and marketing
communications techniques (generally associated with commercial
enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues and
initiatives.
In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by
the FCC is contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of
public service advertising.
Public service advertising reached its height during World Wars I and
II under the direction of several U.S. government agencies.
Social impact - Regulation
There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by
regulating the content and the reach of advertising. Some examples are
the ban on television tobacco advertising imposed in many countries,
and the total ban on advertising to children under twelve imposed by
the Swedish government in 1991. Though that regulation continues in
effect for broadcasts originating within the country, it has been
weakened by the European Court of Justice, which has found that Sweden
was obliged to accept whatever programming was targeted at it from
neighbouring countries or via satellite.
In Europe and elsewhere there is a vigorous debate on whether and how
much advertising to children should be regulated. This debate was
exacerbated by a report released by the Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation in February 2004 which suggested that food advertising
targeting children was an important factor in the epidemic of childhood
obesity raging across the United States.
In many countries - namely New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and many
European contries- the advertising industry operates a system of
self-regulation. Advertisers, advertising agencies and the media agree
on a code of advertising standards that they attempt to uphold. The
general aim of such codes is to ensure that any advertising is 'legal,
decent, honest and truthful'. Some self-regulatory organisations are
funded by the industry, but remain independent, with the intent of
upholding the standards or codes (like the ASA in the UK).
Critiques of the medium
As advertising and marketing efforts become increasingly ubiquitous in
modern Western societies, the industry has come under criticism of
groups such as AdBusters via culture jamming which criticizes the media
and consumerism using advertising's own techniques. The industry is
accused of being one of the engines powering a convoluted economic mass
production system which promotes consumption. Some advertising
campaigns have also been criticized as inadvertently or even
intentionally promoting sexism, racism, and ageism. Such criticisms
have raised questions about whether this medium is creating or
reflecting cultural trends. At very least, advertising often reinforces
stereotypes by drawing on recognizable "types" in order to tell stories
in a single image or 30 second time frame. Recognizing the social
impact of advertising, MediaWatch, a non-profit women's organization,
works to educate consumers about how they can register their concerns
with advertisers and regulators. It has developed educational materials
for use in schools. The award-winning book, Made You Look - How
Advertising Works and Why You Should Know , by former MediaWatch
president Shari Graydon, provides context for these issues for young
readers.
Public interest groups and free thinkers are increasingly suggesting
that access to the mental space targeted by advertisers should be
taxed, in that at the present moment that space is being freely taken
advantage of by advertisers with no compensation paid to the members of
the public who are thus being intruded upon. This kind of tax would be
a Pigovian tax in that it would act to reduce what is now increasingly
seen as a public nuisance. Efforts to that end are gathering momentum,
with Arkansas and Maine considering bills to implement such taxation.
Florida enacted such a tax in 1987 but was forced to repeal it after
six months, as a result of a concerted effort by national commercial
interests, which withdrew planned conventions, causing major losses to
the tourism industry, and cancelled advertising, causing a loss of 12
million dollars to the broadcast industry alone.
Public perception of the medium
Over the years, the public perception of advertising has become very
negative. It is seen as a medium that inherently promotes a lie, based
on the purpose of the advertisement - to encourage the target audience
to submit to a cause or a belief, and act on it to the advertising
party's benefit and consequently the target's disadvantage. They are
either perceived as directly lying (stating opinions or untruths
directly as facts), lying by omission (usually terms or conditions
unfavorable to the customer), portraying a product or service in a
light that does not reflect reality or even making up realities where
their product has a new rol. It is this increased awareness of the
intention of advertising, as well as advertising regulations that have
increased the challenges that marketers face.
Effects on communication media
Another effect of advertising is to modify the nature of the
communication media where it is shown. The most clear example is
television. Channels that get most of their revenues from publicity try
to make their medium a good place for communicating ads. That means
trying to make the public stay for long times and in a mental state
that will make spectators not to switch the channel through the ads.
Programs that are low in mental stimulus and require light
concentration and are varied are best for long sitting times and make
for easier emotional jumps to ads, that can become more entretaining
than regular shows. A simple way to understand the objectives in
television programming is to compare contents from channels paid and
chosen by the viewer or channels that get their income mainly from
advertisements.
Future
With the dawn of the Internet have come many new advertising
opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner, and email advertisements (the last
often being a form of spam) abound. Recently, the advertising community
has attempted to make the adverts themselves desirable to the public.
In one example, Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie 'The Matrix
Reloaded', which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac
cars were used.
Each year, greater sums are paid to obtain a commercial spot during the
Super Bowl. Companies attempt to make these commercials sufficiently
entertaining that members of the public will actually want to watch
them.
Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people
may like an advert enough that they wish to watch it later or show a
friend. In general, the advertising community has not yet made this
easy, although some have used the Internet to widely distribute their
adverts to anyone wishing to see or hear them.
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