Advertising 
A form of commercial propaganda

PERVASIVENESS OF ADVERTISING

The US has about 5% of the world’s population but is exposed to 50% of advertising’s output.
This comes to use via the media 

Print: Newspapers & Magazines

Film

Radio

Television

Computers

Miscellaneous Media

Exposure: 3,000+ commercial messages per day

The Problem of Clutter

    Unusual
    Humor

    Sex

Breaking through the clutter entails creating more clutter

Diminishing returns?

ADVERTISING ECONOMICS 

Advertising accounts for 2% of our GNP

Revenue from Advertising

–       Magazines – 50%

–       Newspapers – 80%

–       Radio/TV – 100%

Media sell Audiences to Advertisers

Advertising Costs

Consumers pay for cost of advertising in the purchase price of advertised products

We pay for the assault on ourselves wrought by the advertising industry

·         Economically

·         Aesthetically

·         Culturally

THE PURPOSE OF ADVERTISING & ITS INHERENT PROBLEMS

General purpose – to foster the consumption of products. 

From a social standpoint advertising may be inherently problematic insofar as:

1.  The consumption of specific products may be harmful

A.  Solution:  Criminalize production

    – this eliminates commercial advertising of the product

B.  Solution: Regulate advertising

    – when and where advertisement may appear

    – what audience may be targeted

 2.  Consumption of products in general may be harmful

Current level of consumption is unsustainable and has socially detrimental by-products

Insofar as advertising encourages consumption - which is precisely its purpose - it can be seen as being socially irresponsible and harmful

However, advertising is merely an arm of capitalist production

    - The aim is to produce a profit

    - Profits require consumption 

The root problem is not advertising but the mode of production which necessitates it and the corresponding demands of consumers who have been shaped by it 

Advertising fosters the consumption of products but most of this consumption is not only harmful but it is completely unnecessary

It is the role of advertising to mask this and to create irrational desires for the advertised products

SALES APPROACH

Indirect - not an appeal to purchase

Purpose:

• Create awareness of the existence of the product
• Create an emotional association with the product
• Fend off the ads of competitors
• Reinforcement

Direct

Many ads present a single product claim as the reason you should buy the product

• Physical feature
• Functional feature
• Consequential feature

ADVERTISING INACCURACIES

Puffery

Claims cannot be tested

• Vacuous claim

• Comparison with an unidentified other

• Comparison of the product to its earlier form

• Irrelevant comparisons

• Questionable survey

• Juxtaposition

While not technically false, neither are they true

Stereotypes & Demographic Distortions

    re: race

ADVERTISING MANIPULATIONS

Create dissatisfaction

We are defective but can be perfected through the product

The normal is transformed into a problem

Idealized image of what we lack is presented

Obfuscation
Sales deal heavily in images and slogans, not meaningful information

Often intend to confuse rather than clarify - not giving a reason to choose but a reason-overriding impulse

Use tactics for rendering a mind incompetent

Information suppression

Passive Processing

Most ads are not actively processed

Advertisers are aware of this and design ads to create unconscious associations and attitudes in us

CONCLUSION

• Pervasiveness and the problem of clutter

• Purpose and the problems of consumption

• Inaccuracies

• Manipulations

Understanding these, we are more media literate and less susceptible to the power of advertising