Advertising In Advertising

Advertisements R Us In her essay, Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin talks about the Coca-Cola company’s targeted market based on an advertisement from 1950. Melissa Rubin is an English major at Hofstra University. She proclaims that “they include text and images that reflect and appeal to the ideals, values, and stereotypes held by the consumers they wish to attract.” Rubin points out that the potential audience portrayed in the Coca-Cola ad from August 1950, is mainly caucasian males, blue collar workers, businessmen and servicemen in uniforms.

The Commerce Clause grants Congress the power “[t]o regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.” Despite its silence as to the effect of that affirmative power, federal courts have recognized the Framers’ wish to create a unified national market and have found a dormant congressional authority in it. Since the landmark case of Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), that dormant authority has limited state regulations that burden interstate commerce, even in the absence of congressional regulation. Congress has the power only to restrict the scope of permissible state regulation but it does not absolutely preclude states from affecting commerce. "[T]he states retain authority under their police powers to regulate matters of 'legitimate local concern', even though interstate commerce may be affected." A challenged statute is upheld if its effect on interstate commerce is merely incidental. On the other hand, a state regulation that is facially or practically discriminatory will be defeated unless it shows a legitimate local purpose that cannot be accomplished by any less discriminatory alternatives.

By adding historical context into her writing, Rubin explains the attitudes and conditions that were present during the 1950s, and how Coke used these attitudes and conditions to promote their product and symbolize it with optimism and energy, as well as target their product towards the highest valued group of people at that time. For example, Rubin points out how the vast majority of people in the ad are white males dresses as service men, blue collar workers, and business men. Also, Rubin points out that because of the war this was the largest, and highest valued group of people in America. By including this information into her writing, it helps support her claims about how Coke uses the ad to effectively promote its product to the most profitable demographic in the

Advertisements work in such a way that we grow to envy those we are not; they exploit our perceived flaws by displaying a person who is the living and breathing version of who we wish to be. John Berger in his book, Ways of Seeing, explains that publicity works by convincing his reader that advertisements use envy to entice the public to buy products: “Publicity persuades us...by showing us people who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable” (131). Though Berger published his book in 1972, his arguments about envy and publicity still hold truth, perhaps now more than ever. Furthermore, the more present advertisements are in our everyday life, the more envious our society becomes. With the power of envy, those who fall under its spell become choiceless, and therefore powerless. Berger also argues in his book that there is a correlation between the number of advertisements we see and the less freedom Americans possess. However, Berger believes that capitalism hides this powerlessness with the illusion of choice: “Publicity helps to mask and compensate for all that is undemocratic within society” (149). This idea Berger has relates not only to the advertisement of products, but also to present-day politics. Withheld information creates power using envy which is used in both advertisements and the US government. As more envy is created with modern day technology, and we become more immersed into social media, the further we stray from democracy.

Our modern world has faced a new wave of evolving demographical numbers, lack of representation in the media and the establishment of minority’s relevance in the consumer market. Although our society strives to include diversity in the media, the push for diversity often fails with commercials, by using a stereotypical approach. These “advancements” result in the backward notion of defamation marketing and limit the minorities to fulfill this stigma. Thus, the accepted normative perception follows these individuals or groups throughout their lives, which justify discriminatory actions against them. Therefore, the stereotypes found in commercials go further than just insulting the ethnicity or race, they install the inferior mentality and damage racial relationships.

One such example is the tobacco industry aiming at African Americans. Tobacco advertisements in the 1950’s and 1960’s were all about the normality and inclusion of smoking cigarettes, white people sitting comfortably in their middle class homes, surrounded by friends and families, these advertisements were designed to target the average 1950’s person. This technique had proven successful in gaining white consumers to buy certain brands, such as Camel, this audience desired and looked up to these images of nice, comfortable lives that the people in the advertisements were living.

The author of this document was Jacques Barbot. He was born into a Protestant family around 1650 in Saint-Martin, France. Barbot’s family business was maritime trade, so he was bound to continue the family name in commerce. Barbot and his younger brother were both involved in commercial trade when they were young, his brother being a part of the African slave trade. The Barbots moved to England in 1685, after the religious tolerance of Protestantism in France was ended. In England, both brothers opened up a commercial firm. After the shipwreck of their first slave-trading voyage, the Barbots bought the Albion-Frigate in 1698 and went on

Before African American cigarette ads, the only ads consisting of Negros were racist advertisements of black cartoons. Ads that emphasized the work of blacks promoted cleanliness. They illustrated ideas that if it could clean blacks than it would do wonders for others but the ads never depicted the characters as human like (Lang). All ads marketed the idea of dehumanizing the African American people. It was not until the tobacco industries began marketing the black community

For example, Coca-Cola used a new form of advertising using catchy songs such as “Things Go Better With Coke”, according to The History of Coca-Cola. “The vagueness of the word ‘things’ let Americans identify Coca-Cola with whatever they wished. In fact, the original jingle was so versatile that other popular artists of that time were able to match the lyrics to their most popular things” (The History of Coca-Cola). With these cunning new advertising methods, more people bought Cokes and business was booming. “Few realize that Coke marketed assiduously to whites, while Pepsi hired a ‘Negro markets’ department. Put more bluntly, Coke was made for white people. Pepsi was made for black people. Over the course of the decades and the seemingly limitless growth of the soft drink industry, the companies have expanded their marketing departments and launched myriad campaigns to discourage the idea that either appealed to a specific race” (TheAtlantic.com). “Coke's recipe wasn't the only thing influenced by white supremacy: through the 1920s and ’30s, it studiously ignored the African-American market” (The Atlantic.com). Not all change in the market was good, as in the 60s we also saw segregation in marketing. The drink business was definitely

The world of advertising is an intricate mix of psychology and determination, with advertising companies using their vast supply of resources to create the most appealing representation of their product or service. Unfortunately, people nonchalantly skip ads on YouTube, walk out of the room when commercials come on, or put ad-blocking software on their computer so they don’t have to see them altogether. All anyone wants to do is watch what they want, when they want it, without interruptions; eagerness is a completely natural trait, of course. Humans are inherently impatient and selfish; people want to benefit as soon as possible. However, these are examples from the world of technology. Short videos and pop-ups can easily become irritating for anyone, but what about a fixed picture for a product? There will always be an ad in a magazine, as the distributors need money to sustain themselves. Static photos should be planned with caution, as they are a permanent fixture for the product being advertised. For reference, in this essay, an advertisement for the Palm Centro2 phone will be examined. The advertisement has one side titled “chaos” and the other “order”. Below chaos, there is an arm with short notes written in marker. It even goes as far as to write reminders on the fingers as well. In opposition, below order is a picture of the product. Under the two photos, there is a few other Centro2s that differ in color to the one shown below order. On the bottom, it says the

Douglas Kellner separated his cultural studies perspective into three parts: political economy of culture, textual analysis and audience analysis. Mountain Dew uses a cheap joke to convey humor and also pay for a popular entertainer. Domination over subordination is conveyed in this ad through gender and race. Audiences didn’t relate enough and affected people in a negative way since the television ad got banned, but didn’t harm the company itself. Cultural studies perspective articulates how the commercial touched on stereotypes of marginalized groups and how self-aware society is on them due to the outrage.

Philosophy branch which streamlines, protects and guides the concepts of being correct or incorrect is referred as Ethics. People learn this concept from their parents who got it from their parents and it is a chain. However philosophers claim that it is people’s belief which decide ethics along with human intuition. An individual at singular level conscientiously decides what is right and wrong and define a limit of pushing ethical behaviour and morality in being. Moral acceptability of any action can be judged from the points if action is understood by an individual well, the consequences of that action on public, fair treatment of action with all people respectfully and the way action is being performed, the motivation of people for it.

Beauty products appeal to people to enhance their physical appearance, no matter the age of the person. Lancôme Paris has been in the business of marketing make-up, perfumes, and many more products for 80 years (Lancôme Paris, “Youth Activating Concentrate”). As mentioned by, Lancôme Paris tries to provide its audience credibility for the company being in the beauty industry for almost a hundred years. Through looking at the printed Lancôme Paris ad that Lupita Nyong’o appears as the spokesperson for advertising Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate Serum, which had appeared in an issue of Glamour magazine. This Lancôme Paris ad uses the needs for affiliation, attention and prominence to persuade women who are insecure about their appearance that this product will make them look youthful and attractive in society.

Advertising teaches consumer which brands are the best; with clever jingles and humorous skits, and bright attractive billboards companies convince consumers that their products are superior and deserving of their dollars. When the same logic and practices are applied to race, one race can be perceived as superior and more deserving of opportunities than others. For instance, past American commercials primarily portrayed white features as attractive and desirable leaving other ethnicities vastly underrepresented. Early twentieth century cartoons depicted African-American or blacks as uneducated and low-class. Definitions of black are harmful, evil, and disgrace; whereas, definitions of white are good,

The youth of America are being targeted every day. Advertisements are being thrown their way, making them have to act responsibly in making decisions. In the past, Big Tobacco, which is made up by tobacco companies, have targeted their advertisements toward the vulnerable youth, denied their products being unhealthy, and blamed the consumer for selling their products. Now Big Food, which is made up by food companies, are doing the same actions as Big Tobacco. Targeting unhealthy products towards the youth of our nation puts a major decline on health and an incline on obesity/obesity related diseases. Many children who are obese throughout their childhood are more likely to develop obesity-linked diseases and become obese adults.