Advertising Essay Examples

History of Advertising

The earliest form of advertising was simply people receiving information about goods and services by word of mouth from traders. Word of mouth advertising was used throughout the centuries and still is today, but something was introduced in the 15th century that would revolutionise the way of life. In the 15th century the printing press was introduced. In Europe printing was introduced in the 15th century, that movable type was reinvented by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany. From there printing spread to Italy, France, and England, where it was introduced by William Caxton. In England the first printing press was located at Westminister....show more content...

Bill posting was a popular and cheap way of advertising. Many people in big towns were employed into sticking posters onto walls around the towns, often covering other ads. Also another way of advertising was to use people to carry posters around all day. These people were called sandwich–board men. As competition increased, advertisers began to experiment with different ways of printing adverts. Advertisers wanted to attract the most attention so people would buy their product. A few ways of attracting attention were to have a striking first line, bold headlines, or repeated claims were all favoured devices.

Even so, it was not until the latter half of the 19th century that advertising really began, not only to grow far more rapidly, but also to take on its now familiar forms. Several factors contributed to this sudden expansion. The Industrial Revolution had begun to concentrate production into fewer hands because machines could mass–produce in less time. Correspondingly, the producers need to advertise their products because the machines were very expensive and needed to compensate for them. A rise in general income and literacy had led to an increase in the circulation of the newspapers, which in turn made them far more attractive as an advertising medium. Get

Advertising and its Appeal to Society

Today we live in a society that is being dominated and confounded by commercials and ads. A new age, which could be referred to as the advertising age where commercials and ads tell us what is a necessity and what isn't. Howard Luck Gossage in his book Is There Any Hope for Advertising? Stated that there are ads and commercials everywhere around us in which there is no escape. "I like to imagine a better world where there will be less, and more stimulating advertising. I suppose all of us would like to see this come to pass, it would certainly clear away some of the confusion from advertising's murky picture and make it easier to comprehend" (7). Ads and commercials have flourished everywhere like a...show more content...

Presumably the most popular aspect for advertising is the first aspect since advertising is all about using the right statements and pictures that would grasp the customer's attention. It essentially aims to cause the customer at least look at the article to see a picture or a name of the product, which is being advertised.

One way to persuade and plunder the customer's attention is to use catchy slogans, characters, symbols, and icons with which the advertisers use to identify and advertise their products. Volkswagen has been one of the most famous car companies that have been known to use catchy slogans and different symbols. For instance, in 1988 Volkswagen made a commercial that generally says that a car is more precious than diamonds to a girl.

"In the commercial a song titled Everyone's going through changes is played in the background as a young lady emerges from the household and slams the door. She pulls her ring off and posts it through the letterbox, then storms down the street ripping off her pearls, slinging a bracelet past a cat, abandoning her fur coat over a parking meter. Poised over a grating into which she is about to dispose of her car keys, she has a change of heart as she considers what she'd be throwing away. Perked up enormously, she drives off in her VW. Super: If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen" (Kanner 105).

Advertisements Essay

We see advertisements all around us. They are on television, in magazines, on the Internet, and plastered up on large billboards everywhere. Ads are nothing new. Many individuals have noticed them all of their lives and have just come to accept them. Advertisers use many subliminal techniques to get the advertisements to work on consumers. Many people don't realize how effective ads really are. One example is an advertisement for High Definition Television from Samsung. It appears in an issue of EntertainmentWeekly, a very popular magazine concerning movies, music, books, and other various media. The magazine would appeal to almost anyone, from a fifteen–year–old movie addict to a sixty–five–year–old soap opera lover. Therefore the ad...show more content...

In addition to the beautiful looking imagery, the ad also uses some clever words to entice the reader. Jeffrey Schrank's "The Language of Advertising Claims" explains wonderfully the most common techniques that advertisers use in their ads. In the advertisement for the High Definition Television by Samsung, three of Jeffrey Schrank's techniques are used: the "Weasel" claim, the "Unfinished" claim, and the "Vague" claim.

The claim that is most apparent is the "Weasel" claim. A weasel word is one that appears to be pretty significant and meaningful but if analyzed further really don't mean much at all (Shrank par. 9). The High Definition Television advertisement claims that it as a flat screen that is "virtually distortion and glare free" (Entertainment Weekly). The ad doesn't say that the TV has no distortion or glare. Instead what is says really has no meaning since virtually can be interpreted in many different ways. The ad does give the impression, though, that the television has no distortion or glare.

Another claim that is used is the "Unfinished" one (Shrank par. 10). An example of that in this television advertisement is when it says that the picture on these TV's is "bolder, brighter and more exciting" (Entertainment Weekly). It doesn't, though, say

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Effects of an Ad Advertising is the marketing of an idea in ways that encourages and persuades audiences to take some sort of action. In most cases, the action would be to buy a product or service while other are simply to raise awareness. Whatever the case may be, money is poured into advertising every day. Marketing agencies try various ways to convince people to buy their products using different persuasion techniques. After first examining an advertisement, one could analyze how each detail in the ad was specifically designed to affect its audience in a way that convinces them that they need what is being advertised. One would also be able to notice the values and important aspects of a culture through its advertisements. For...show more content...

Words like "help," "feel," and "faster," are used in this ad to subtly make readers believe that NyQuil will cure Mom's illness quickly when, in fact, they really only say that the products might make her symptoms briefly subside quicker than another indistinct method of treatment. This subtle method of advertisement is actually very common in all types of ads. Another technique used to attract attention of audiences is the adorable image of a mother and daughter playing dress up together. When someone sees this image, they are expected to feel strong, loving emotion for the seemingly deep mother–daughter connection in the photo. This mode of persuasion, pathos, is used to play on the emotions of viewers who see this ad. By using pathos in advertising, advertisers are also showing the main values of a culture. This NyQuil ad illustrates that one major value of American culture is a strong family bond. The heartfelt image of a mother and daughter cheerfully playing dress up together, the bold words, "Don't let a cold take away dress up Mommy," and the direct addressing of "helping Mom," in the descriptions are all contributing to one major ideal. This entire ad is created on the basis that most Americans place strong value on a deep, loving connection between mothers and their daughters. In conclusion, various methods of advertising

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Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people's habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society. In the business market, the main and...show more content...

The problem of such purchasing is that the natural satisfaction of needs is replaced by the artificial. A good example is the marketing of milk products in the Third World. In the 1970s the multinational food company Nestle advertised powdered milk for babies as an alternative to breast feeding in countries such as Kenya. The attractiveness of the product was enhanced by the positive image of development, modernity and technology that businessman projected to mothers. In this case, however, the results were tragic, because the product required sanitary conditions that were not available in those times. Therefore, many infants who were fed in this way faced illness and even death. Far from offering a diversity of choices for the satisfaction of needs, advertisement offers only one message: "purchase a commodity." Since advertising must create new demand, it must also continually produce unsatisfied costumers. Those customers are more likely to look for products to fulfill their happiness, even though they do not reach that point. Mander writes that "the goal of all advertising is discontent,...an internal scarcity of contentment." Advertising plays on our fears, insecurities, and anxieties, always reminding us that our lives could be better only if we buy this or that. The purpose is to make us slaves of commercials, and as slaves, do as they please. This is the reason for its existences,

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Controversial Advertising Essay examples

Introduction

Advertising texts and images seem to be the most visible and ubiquitous icons of consumer society. The Advertising industry indeed has simultaneously become one of the most powerful and apparently most uncritical institutions of today as well as this, people seemingly have accepted billboard advertising as an usual part of their environment. Nevertheless there sometimes develop certain advertising campaigns undergoing general ideas about what ads are supposed to show and they hence provoke controversial public debates. So called controversial advertising has often been claimed to somehow subvert conventional advertising's practice by the audiences, justice, advertisers, companies, advertising industry's self regulating...show more content...

(Compare Vogel 1997) Subversion in that case characterises an aesthetic act of infiltration, that indeed redefines certain subsystem–conventions, but that nor threatens the subsystem's existence neither really concerns the entire order of society.

In order to answer the question, how far advertising can be subversive, I therefore suggest to differentiate two notions of subversion. Referring to Vogel, I assume subversion as a mainly aesthetic presumption on its low–level. Considering the notion's political connotation, even on this stage the aesthetic redevelopment at least has in any way to be able to reflect the own subsystem. Otherwise it only can be regarded as system's extension. As high–grade subversion I suggest to assume the recruitment of a subsystem in order to entirely destroy it. In its most extensive perspective that second meaning includes revolutionary subversion as the intentional destruction of the entire society.

Since nobody would seriously claim the advertising–industry's contemporary intention was to destroy capitalist society, the second definition of subversion can be neglected, in order to investigate, how far controversial advertising campaigns contain subversive potentials. It is hence necessary to analyse if and how controversial advertising manage to reflect the subsystem of advertising by challenging its rules and aesthetic conceptions.

Commodifying or