Advertising

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 virus, once it strikes there is no way we can remove the marks it left behind. It creates this blurry, confusing picture, a "murky picture" as Gossage stated, which most people won't find the genuine truth behind what the product really mean and if its really useful or not. Advertising forces consumers into buying products by manipulation which make the customers buy products they think are good for them when in fact it isn't and they do this by appealing in their innermost desires. Advertisers are aware of the cultural need of acceptance and people's insecurities and takes advantage of these desires to persuade people into buying their products.

There are three significant aspects for advertising: 1) A persuading selling message, 2) prospects for the products or service, and finally 3) at the lowest possible cost (Jefkins 5). The first aspect deals with how to persuade people in believing that the product that is being advertised is absolutely salutary. The second however identifies which target group the commercial or the ad will be advertised to. Finally the last phase deals with the economical issues like how low the products price has to be in order to grasp the customer's attention. 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).

The pearls, ring, and fur coat are all great symbols which represent the woman's most desirable friends and its all thrown away for the new best friend the woman has discovered. The moment the girl throws away all the precious items is the moment where the commercial grabs the viewer's alertness, since this is where the action is taking place. This also makes the viewer ponder why the girl in the commercial is throwing away all her valuable items. The commercial then plays on making the viewer believe that owning pearls, diamonds, and fur coats are not as worthy as owning a new Volkswagen car. The slogan used at the end of the commercial "if only everything in life was as reliable as a VW" authenticate this meaning to the customer. Evidently by analyzing this commercial one will perceive which group this product is being advertised to, which in this case is obviously women. Brennice Kanner in his book "The 100 best TV Commercials" wrote that by showing this woman in the commercial empowered and making these decisions was definitely a side bonus that attracted female purchasers' (105).

An additional example of a company, which uses very interesting slogans, is Coca-Cola. One of the new Coca-Cola commercials presents three little boys sitting together in the desert somewhere in Africa, chatting. One of them asks, "I wonder what it tastes like?" His friend then answers, "My dad says it's like kissing a girl," the little boy then takes a sip from his Coca-Cola bottle; "Is it like kissing a girl?" his friend asks. The boy finally replies, "I hope so." This commercial was able to connect the taste of coke to the taste of kissing a girl, which without a doubt makes the commercial very capable of making little boys directly go to the nearest store and buy a Coca-Cola bottle. In January 17, 2000 a well known magazine titled Advertising Age wrote: "National TV spots--four by brunet and six by Edge Creative--liken sipping a coke to kissing a girl, tasting a snowflake, sharing good times with friends, dancing in a crowd and riding a waterfall, among other pleasures" (53). Coca-Cola created its different commercials taking into consideration the different age groups who will be viewing their commercials, which makes the commercial more effective by grabbing everyone's attention. The previous example of the Coca-Cola commercial illustrates the three different aspects that have been described above. It shows where the persuasion occurs, which age group the commercial is targeted to, and finally deals with the economical issues by showing that even kids from Africa which is considered a third world country can offered to drink Coca-Cola.

Advertisements could have many meanings to people, it could be complex like "activities by which visual or oral messages are addressed to the public at large or to a selected number of people, for the purpose of informing them about, and influencing them to buy, the merchandise featured in the advertising.". Or it could be simple as "Advertising is the means of making known in order to buy or sell goods" (Jefkims 8). In these previous two examples the word fear or the act of playing with negative emotions was never brought up. These meanings are just all about influencing and persuading people, like what the VW commercial does, nobody mentioned