Introduction :

- advertising is the means by which goods are promoted and marketed in industrial societies;
- advertising researchers have different opinions on it : that it persuades people to buy things
that are often not needed, or that it is part of the mechanism by which capitalist societies are
preserved, or that it is simply another cultural resource, almost an art form to be discussed and
analysed by ad-consumers who tend to become increasingly sophisticated about advertisers'
claims;
- as consumers are changing it is also argued that advertisements are changing, becoming a
feature of post-modernity;
- in the 20th century, advertisements attempted to persuade consumers of the utility,
efficiency, or reliability of the product;
- now advertising tends to associate the product with a life-style on the assumption that
consumers are more interested in style than in the utility;
- written tets have been replaced by visual images, and seriousness with playful irony;
!evelopment :
"# $he "dvertising %onsumer : a &ossibly 'anipulated "d-%onsumer
- advertising's foundation and economic lifeblood is the mass media;
- and the primary purpose of the mass-media is to deliver an audience to advertisers ( )ust as
the primary purpose of television programs is to deliver an audience for commercials *;
- in ads women are shown almost eclusively as housewives or se ob)ects;
- the housewife, pathologically obsessed by cleanliness and lemon-fresh scents debates about
her husband's +ring around the collar+;
- the +new woman+ in the commercials of the recent years is generally presented as the
+superwoman+ who manages to do all the work at home and on the )ob with the help of a
product (of course, not of her husband or children or friends *;
- the +liberated woman+ in the commercials of the recent years owes her independence and
self esteem by the products she uses;
- psychologists have discovered that a man's hidden desire for power leads him to buy the
petrol whose publicity emphasi,es its power property;
- they also discovered that people who feel they should clean their teeth more often choose a
toothpaste which removes their guilt feelings by promising protection with only one brushing
a day;
- some combinations of colours sell a product better than others : blue attracts men; red
attracts women; and transparent packages sell some products best of all;
- the phrases +a holiday chocolate+ and +a sunshine drink+ ( though they say little of the
products they describe * help to sell them by raising pleasant ideas in your mind;
- adolescents are particularly vulnerable, because they are new and ineperienced ad-
consumers, and the prime target of many advertisements;
- adolescents are in the process of learning their values and roles, and developing their self-
concepts;
- most teen-agers are sensitive to peer pressure and find it difficult or even -uestion the
dominant cultural messages perpetuated and reinforced by advertising;
- the person who is a slave to fashion is often also a slave to his or her own emotions -
emotions that can be manipulated by the fashion advertising industry;
- on the most obvious level, society ( and especially teenagers * learn )ust the stereotypes from
the advertising messages that proliferate in the mass media;
- advertising creates a mythical world in which no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor,
struggling, or disabled ( either physically or mentally *, a world in which people talk only
about products;
.# $he "dvertising %onsumer : a &robably Informed "d-%onsumer
- advertising is an over /00 billion dollars a year, and affect all of us throughout our lives;
- we are each eposed to over 2000 ads a day, constituting perhaps the most powerful
educational force in society;
- the average adult will spend one and a half years of his life watching television
commercials;
- but the advertisements sell a great deal more than products : they sell values, images and
concepts of success and worth, love and seuality, popularity, and normalcy;
- advertisements tell us who we are and who we should be;
- in a maga,ine advertisement ( or any other form of print * there are two ways that
information is communicated : through the tet and through pictorial and designed elements;
- we can eamine the tet to determine what appeals are being pressed and what means are
used to lead the reader0viewer to desire the product;
- whether or not advertising ( and other tools of persuasion * are leading us to higher levels of
development is -uestionable;
- one thing is -uite evident : knowing the strategies used by the people who work at creating
and shaping our desire is important;
- knowing the strategies used by the ad-creators we can make more rational decisions and
avoid manipulation;
%# $he "dvertising %onsumer : a !esirously Info-'anipulating "d-%onsumer
- when we deal with advertisements we should be concerned with some or all of the following
matters :
a*# the general ambiance of the ad, the mood it creates, and how it does this;
b*# the design of the ad, if it uses aial balance or some other form, and how are the basic
components of the ad arranged;
c*# the relationship between pictorial elements and written material, and what it tells us;
d*# the spatiality in the ad, if there is a lot of +white+ space, or if it is full of graphic and
written elements ( that is if it is +busy+ *;
e*# $he signs and the symbols we find, and what role these signs and symbols play in the ad;
f*# the figures ( men, women, children, animals * in the ad, what can be said about their facial
epressions, poses, hairstyle, age, se, hair colour, ethnicity, education, occupation,
relationship ( of one to the others *;
g*# $he ad's background, where the action in the ad takes place, and what significance this
background has;
h*# 1hat action takes place in the ad and its signification (this is called the &23$ of the ad*;
i*# 1hat theme or themes we find in the ad (the plot of an ad may involve a woman and a man
drinking, but the theme might be: )ealousy, faithlessness, ambition, or passion*;
)*# the language of the ad, if this provides info or generates some kind of an emotional
response, or both; what techni-ues are used by the copy writer ( humour, alliteration,
+definitions+ of life, comparisons, *;
k*# $he typefaces used and the impression these typefaces transmit;
l*# $he item that is advertised and what role it plays in its culture and society;
m*# sociological, political, economic, or cultural attitudes indirectly reflected in the ad ( an ad
may be about a pair of blue )eans, but it might, indirectly reflect such matters as seism,
alienation, stereotyped thinking, conformism, generational conflict, loneliness, elitism *;
%onclusion :
- advertisements are designed to persuade and create temptation and desire;
- in the beginning advertisements were plain statements that such and such a product was sold
at such and such a place at such and such a price;
- in time, persuasive techni-ues have become more and more effective, thanks in part to
psychologists who have analy,ed the motives and tested the reactions of millions of shoppers;
- the advertising copy- writer knows that some words mean more that they seem to mean and
he can benefit from the associations which cling to certain words;
- advertisements inform as well as persuade, stimulate trade, and help maintain full
employment;
- however, the claims of advertisements should not be accepted without careful and critical
reading and )udgment;