Difference between revisions of "Advertising" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
Line 59: Line 59:
  
 
==Ethics of Advertising==
 
==Ethics of Advertising==
Because of the potential impact on society, advertisers face a number of ethical dilemnas. The International Chamber of Commerce suggests maintain transparent, accessible identities so that consumers will know exactly who is advertising what. The ICC also suggests that advertisers protect data on consumers, and that their messages are not perceived as pornographic, violent, racist, sexist or otherwise offensive. <ref>http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives/1998/new_international_code_covers.asp</ref>
+
Because of the potential impact on society, advertisers face a number of ethical dilemnas. The International Chamber of Commerce suggests maintain transparent, accessible identities so that consumers will know exactly who is advertising what. The ICC also suggests that advertisers protect data on consumers, and that their messages are not perceived as pornographic, violent, racist, sexist or otherwise offensive. <ref>[http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives/1998/new_international_code_covers.asp New international code covers ethics of on-line advertising] Paris, 19 April 1998 Retrieved from International Chamber of Commerce website November 30, 2006 </ref>
  
 
There are a number of advertising practices deemed illegal. One such practice is the 'bait and switch.' The bait and switch involves advertisements for tremendous savings on a product but when consumers inquire about the product, they are told it is sold out. More often than not, consumers will spend money on a similar item with no discount.<ref>http://rubak.com/article.cfm?ID=13</ref> Some advertisers steal ad space or deface their competitors ads. One current problem brought about through technology occurs when companies pay for online advertisements based on how many people click on them. Unethical companies will continuously click on their competitors' ads in order to quickly exhaust their competitors advertising budget. This practice is known as click fraud. <ref>http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_RPNDVNN</ref>
 
There are a number of advertising practices deemed illegal. One such practice is the 'bait and switch.' The bait and switch involves advertisements for tremendous savings on a product but when consumers inquire about the product, they are told it is sold out. More often than not, consumers will spend money on a similar item with no discount.<ref>http://rubak.com/article.cfm?ID=13</ref> Some advertisers steal ad space or deface their competitors ads. One current problem brought about through technology occurs when companies pay for online advertisements based on how many people click on them. Unethical companies will continuously click on their competitors' ads in order to quickly exhaust their competitors advertising budget. This practice is known as click fraud. <ref>http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_RPNDVNN</ref>
 
  
 
== Criticism and Regulation==
 
== Criticism and Regulation==

Revision as of 23:14, 30 November 2006


Billboards and street advertising in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, (2005)

Advertising is the business of drawing public attention to goods and services, and is performed through a variety of media. It is an important part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion.

Commercial media can include wall paintings, billboards , 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, posters, chicken niblets, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.

History

In ancient times the most common form of advertising was by word of mouth; however, commercial messages and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii. Egyptians used papyrus to create sales messages and wall posters, while lost-and-found advertising on papyrus was common in Greece and Rome. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient media advertising form, which is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. For instance, the tradition of wall paintings can be traced back to Indian rock-art paintings that goes back to 4000 B.C.E.[1]. 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.

A print advertisement for the 1913 issue of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Edo period advertising flier from 1806 for a traditional medicine called Kinseitan

As the economy was expanding during the 19th century, the need for advertising grew at the same pace. In the United States, 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 such as the Sears Catalog, at one time referred to as the "Farmer's Bible". 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 more tempting to consumers' eyes. 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.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV. Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of advertising: the consumer tunes in for the advertisement, rather than it being a byproduct or afterthought. As cable (and later satellite) television became increasingly prevalent, "specialty" channels began to emerge, and eventually entire channels, such as QVC and Home Shopping Network and ShopTV, devoted to advertising merchandise, where again the consumer tuned in for the ads.

Marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and led to the "dot-com" boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising revenue, offering everything from coupons to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st century, the search engine Google revolutionized online advertising by emphasizing contextually relevant, unobtrusive ads intended to help, rather than inundate, users. This has led to a plethora of similar efforts and an increasing trend of interactive advertising.

A recent advertising innovation is "guerrilla promotions", which 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. This reflects an increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via product placement, having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social networking sites (e.g. Myspace).

Types of Advertising

Paying people to hold signs in public places is one of the oldest forms of advertising such as the 'board guy' pictured above
Transit advertising is combined with experiential marketing using pedapods in Australia

Covert 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 Tom Anderton owns a computer with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo. Another example of advertising in film is in I, Robot, where main character played by Will Smith mentions his Converse shoes several times, calling them "classics," because the film is set far in the future. Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie The Matrix Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac cars were used. Similarly, product placement for Omega Watches and BMW cars featured in recent James Bond films.

Commercials

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).

Virtual Advertisements

Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through computer graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank backdrops[1] or used to replace local billboards that are not relevant to the remote broadcast audience[2]. More controversially, virtual billboards may be inserted into the background[3] where none existing in real-life. Virtual product placement is also possible[4] [5]. 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".

Word of Mouth

Unpaid advertising (also called word of mouth advertising), can provide good exposure at minimal cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat of equating a brand with a common noun ("Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex" = tissue, and "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly) — these are the pinnacles of any advertising campaign. However, some companies oppose the use of their brand name to label an object.

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.

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. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of their required Public Service Announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.

Impact

File:Smithwick's ale billboard NYC May 2005.jpg
Billboard, New York City, (2005)

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 advertising, a common claim from cigarette manufacturers was that cigarette advertising does not encourage people to smoke who would not otherwise. The (eventually successful) opponents of advertising, on the other hand, claim that advertising does in fact increase consumption.

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 truthfulness of the message may not be developed until the age of 8.

Ethics of Advertising

Because of the potential impact on society, advertisers face a number of ethical dilemnas. The International Chamber of Commerce suggests maintain transparent, accessible identities so that consumers will know exactly who is advertising what. The ICC also suggests that advertisers protect data on consumers, and that their messages are not perceived as pornographic, violent, racist, sexist or otherwise offensive. [2]

There are a number of advertising practices deemed illegal. One such practice is the 'bait and switch.' The bait and switch involves advertisements for tremendous savings on a product but when consumers inquire about the product, they are told it is sold out. More often than not, consumers will spend money on a similar item with no discount.[3] Some advertisers steal ad space or deface their competitors ads. One current problem brought about through technology occurs when companies pay for online advertisements based on how many people click on them. Unethical companies will continuously click on their competitors' ads in order to quickly exhaust their competitors advertising budget. This practice is known as click fraud. [4]

Criticism and Regulation

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. Recognizing the social impact of advertising, Mediawatch-uk, a British special interest group, works to educate consumers about how they can register their concerns with advertisers and regulators.

File:Wrap advertising light rail.jpg
iPod advertisement wrapped around a train. Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, (2005)

Public interest groups 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.

File:Utomhusreklam i Lund.jpg
Billboard in Lund, Sweden, saying "One Night Stand?" (2005)

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 neighboring countries or via satellite.

Naturally, many advertisers view governmental regulation or even self-regulation as intrusion of their freedom of speech or a necessary evil. Therefore, they employ a wide-variety of linguistic devices to bypass regulatory laws The advertising of controversial products such as cigarettes and condoms is subject to government regulation in many countries. For instance, the tobacco industry is required by law in India and Pakistan to display warnings cautioning consumers about the health hazards of their products. Linguistic variation is often used by advertising as a creative device to reduce the impact of such requirement.

Future

Technology has provided both opportunity and threats to the advertising world. The internet is an entirely new frontier for advertisers. Other advances, such as TiVo pose problems for advertisers as users are able to record programs for later viewing enabling them to fast forward through commercials. Additionally, as more seasons or “Boxed Sets” come out of Television shows; fewer people are watching their shows on TV. However, the fact that these sets are sold, means that the company will additionally receive profits from the sales of these sets. To counter this effect, many advertisers have opted for product placement on TV shows like Survivor.

Another significant trend to note for the future of advertising is the growing importance of niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet and the theory of The Long Tail, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach narrow audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provides advertisers with audiences that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for companies marketing products.

Bibliography

  • Bhatia, Tej K. 2000. Advertising in Rural India: Language, Marketing Communication, and Consumerism. Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Tokyo Press: Japan. ISBN 4-87297-782-3
  • Graydon, Shari (2003) "Made You Look - How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know", Toronto: Annick Press, ISBN 1-55037-814-7
  • Johnson, J. Douglas, "Advertising Today", Chicago : Science Research Associates, 1978. ISBN 0574193553
  • Klein, Naomi (2000) No Logo . Harper-Collins, ISBN 0-00-653040-0
  • Kleppner, Otto, "Advertising Procedure", Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1966.
  • Leon, Jose Luis (1996) "Los efectos de la publicidad". Barcelona: Ariel, ISBN 84-344-1266-7
  • Leon, Jose Luis (2001) "Mitoanálisis de la publicidad". Barcelona. Ariel, ISBN 84-344-1285-3
  • Mulvihill, Donald F., "Marketing Research for the Small Company", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 16, No. 2, Oct., 1951, pp. 179-183.
  • Wernick, Andrew (1991) "Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression (Theory, Culture & Society S.)", London: Sage Publications Ltd, ISBN 0-8039-8390-5

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  1. Bhatia (2000). Advertising in Rural India: Language, Marketing Communication, and Consumerism, 62-68
  2. New international code covers ethics of on-line advertising Paris, 19 April 1998 Retrieved from International Chamber of Commerce website November 30, 2006
  3. http://rubak.com/article.cfm?ID=13
  4. http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_RPNDVNN

External links


Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.