Friday, 20 September 2013

Advertising & You Written By Hira C.



It is too simple to say that advertisements are merely just marketing tools to sell products and services, although that was originally the main idea. The earliest advertisements were important but not a major source of income because most manufacturers produced similar goods and there was no need to promote or compete between the products. Since technology advanced, goods were packed, labelled  and designed which then also led to brand-labeling. Advertisements were then necessary to use when competition grew between the new brands. At one point, ads were just information for goods and services, now socialization is used as a tool to advertise. Socialization is the lifelong process of creating and adapting to norms, customs, and ideologies, providing a way for people to use skills for participating within the society.  



The two dimensions of the advertisement business today are money and social values. In order for the advertising agency to achieve their goals, they must first get consumers to pay attention to the message of commercials that pay for so much of the media we receive. Demographics have to be studied in order to know what kind of consumers to attract and which commercials to attract them with. If advertisers are going to spend money on each minute of an ad, it has to be eye-catching. Commercials are produced that are noticeable and motivating for the viewers to spend money. And indeed do they pay attention to every second you watch something on TV to know what you like. It takes serious skills, time, and money to understand how to get to peoples desires and manipulate them. Ads work like persuasions that make people believe if they know what product they want, they will find happiness. Human symbolism plays a big role in commercials by making people feel good about themselves and their life with more products as a way to fill some kind of void. Some commercials may represent need of social acceptance, sexual attraction, and self esteem. In this way, advertising acts as a social conditioning for society, the process of training people to respond in a manner generally approved.


Commercials have an effect on viewers’ perception whether subliminal or not. Subliminal perception refers to the perceptions of messages about which we have no awareness. Subliminal messages in videos and advertisement can influence behavior in major changes in attitudes or behavior. For example, people who are subliminally exposed to an image of a Coke can and the word thirst, do later rate themselves thirstier and they actually do drink more when given the opportunity. However, they don’t particularly care if they drink Coke or something else. If our motivation to carry out a behavior is already high and the appropriate stimuli are presented subliminally, subliminal perception may have at least some effect on our behavior.


Advertisers must sell themselves in order to sell their product by using certain social media language and expressions. The language and tone are coaxing, exaggerating, informal, and somewhat sarcastic seen on ads today. This kind of social media language proves that advertisers tempt people into giving into their desires. Advertisers know what consumers want and they sell to them without having them think about it. It’s a never-ending cycle in which tactics are used to keep this kind of mentality inflicted on viewers.


Advertisement makes people avid consumers so that the economy is steady and prosperous by using people and their desires as tools. Production of advertising caused discontentment in people making them believe what they have is not enough. The idea that ignorance is bliss applies to when people consume a product, when in reality the product consumes them. 

Written By,
Hira C.

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