Exploring the Main Concepts of Advertising

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

Viktor drives a 2013 Dodge RAM. He realized he was wasting up to $1,000 in gas money a week so he did a little car research. Two days later, he was driving down the freeway on his way home from work. He glanced at a neatly placed billboard of a 2016 Prius with excellent mileage. The car fascinated Viktor. He bought the car right away and traded in his gas chugging truck. Viktor was happy and ready to use the money he will save on a vacation.

Over the last few decades, American culture has been forever changed by the huge amount of advertisement the people are subjected to. Advertising has become such an integral part of society, many people will choose whether or not they want to buy a product based only on their familiarity with it rather than the product’s price or effectiveness. Do to that fact, companies must provide the very best and most convincing advertisements as possible. Those companies have, in fact, done

We live in the age of consumerism; we are constantly surrounded by advertisements in our everyday environments. Through television, print, billboards, radio, the Internet and countless other mediums, it seems as though we cannot escape ads. We have become so accustomed to advertisements that most of the time we are unaware of the impact they can have on us. To help us become more aware of the effects of advertisements and consumerism, activist groups like Adbusters has helped bring more attention and awareness to how information and meaning gets generated and transmitted in our society today.

In the Hunter/Gatherer section of Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan talks about what it takes to accomplish the task of developing a meal on his own; consequently, the people of today’s society are so used to the abundance of food that they have no idea what all is involved in establishing a full meal. Americans take this great abundance of food for granted, which causes an increased craving for more. This is where the world of advertisement has been the strongest. One of the easiest ways to reach people is through their food; therefore, major food industries try to lure people in at all costs just to buy their products. The Fast food industry is the

The aim of advertising commercials is to win the interest of different groups in the society. Art Markman who has a PhD and is a professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas writes in his publication “What Does Advertising Do” that the most powerful effect of advertising is to create a good feeling about a product by surrounding it with other things that consumers like (1). The commercial tries to convince the people that its consumption has been embraced

Naturally, some people will cite the way advertising affects us as proof of its negative effect. Internally, we when discover how it actually affects us, we are uncomfortable because it reaches us in away we do not like to be reached. Advertising reaches past our thinking mind, and speaks to something beyond logic, something more animalistic. We accept the “semi nude images” and “fast cars” (source F) that plaster billboards as ridiculous, yet still something is evoked by these images and messages that goes beyond “rationality” (source F) - we want them. Advertising focuses on targeting our vulnerabilities (source E) and forcing us into action. This primal drive, this bypass, can prove upsetting and many may point to this as a way of the corporations to manipulate us into habits

Advertising is a staple in the American Free Market Economy: it is used by companies to persuade consumers to purchase certain products, as well as to educate consumers about the benefits of their product. Dozens of varying advertising techniques are used by marketing companies in an attempt to coerce potential buyers into purchasing products. These advertisements come in many forms, in such a quantity that they are now a typical part of American day-to-day life. Advertising is so vital to the prosperity of a company and the promotion of the company’s products that marketers across the United States are spending billions of dollars for the ideal product positioning and consumer exposure to their products. A majority of the consumer demand in

Companies are in the business of maximizing profits and must advertise in order to reach the consumer base. However, advertisements should not surpass certain limits. In Alan’s The Justification of Advertising in a Market Economy, he argues that to advertise, does not include a moral right to deceive, mislead, harass, or to create or foster insecurities or self-defeating values” (341). It is evident that advertisements play a major role in our lives. Digital Marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 Ads a day! (Simpson, 1). Even though everyone is affected by advertisements, there are certain groups who are most vulnerable. Advertisements portray the ideal woman as being perfect which results in women having to change their weight, size, hair color to name a few in order to fit the role. Women and young

We are a society not just surrounded by marketing but immersed in it. We pass billboards as we drive, endure commercials as we watch television, scroll past ads on websites, and promote particular brands in our choice of clothing, cars, and home décor. The depth of analysis and research that goes into each ads design, placement, and medium should be considered. A billboard for “The Loosest Slots” is placed near the casino’s exit along the highway to entice drivers to stop and play. Commercials for toys are aired on children’s satellite and cable television channels specifically so the child knows what to request their parent’s buy them. Ads on websites are based on our previous search histories so the items we are being shown are items we are

It is hard to turn on the television without seeing marketing advertisements. Some ads are good and helpful while others are unethical and annoying. An individual will see advertisements for food, sanitary products, prescription drugs, and lawyers, to name a few, but this list could go on and on. All of these companies are trying to get you to use their service or purchase their products. A marketing campaign tries to sway the consumer by trying to satisfy a want or a need that through research they have identified (Bethel University, 2011). Personally, there are numerous needs of mine that have been met, and my decision to go with a product has been based at times on their advertisements. In

The advertising industry has infiltrated not only into people’s daily lives but also into every aspect of society. When people wake up in the morning, the first thing they hear on their radio is the latest coffee flavor from Dunkin Donuts. Before people go to bed at night, the last thing they see on their television is the latest bleach improvement on the toothpaste tube. Most people pay no attention to these advertisements as they drive by the H&M billboard on a random trip to the mall. As a result, those same people fail to realize the mind games advertisers have been playing on their subconscious minds for the past thirty years. Those same advertisers have basically taken control of people’s lives without them even having the slightest idea.

The research in consumer behavior and psychology shows that the brand related information determines the probability if the customer will select a particular brand (Mitchell 100). Companies have learned to play with the psychology and emotions of consumers and have succeeded in attracting even those consumers that were not motivated by the traditional advertisements. Companies these days are focusing on the basic psychological principles to understand how to plan and execute the advertisement.

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.

Advertising is a persuasive communication attempt to change or reinforce one’s prior attitude that is predictable of future behavior. We are not born with the attitudes for which we hold toward various things in our environment. Instead, we learn our feelings of favorability or unfavorability through information about the object through advertising or direct experience with the object, or some combination of the two. Furthermore, the main aim of advertising is to ‘persuade’ to consumer in order to generate new markets for production.