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sunandaC

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Advertising has been attacked by critics who charge that it goes beyond selling products or ideas to exert a powerful influence on society. According to this view, advertising in its many forms is so pervasive and so persuasive that it has the ability to shape social trends and mold personal attitudes. This influence is unwanted, intrusive and often detrimental to society, say critics.

Defenders respond that, in addition to the economic benefits to improved competition, lower prices and more product choices, advertising promotes freedom of speech, as goods and services. Furthermore, advertising is actually influenced by society because it acts as a mirror in reflecting certain societal changes. For example, advertising must continually adjust their language and illustrations to conform to changes in socially acceptable practices.

This ongoing debate over the proper role of advertising in society is entirely separate from the ethical issues of deceptive or fraudulent advertising and it boils down to one basic question: Does advertising help or hurt society?
 
Advertising has changed in its culture, largely due to the switch from informational to a more expressive conceptual way to communicate with consumers. This switch has offered the audience less cognition about products and more sensory orientated heuristics about positions and branding of companies. Previous to the 1970s consumers were exposed to informative ads that helped them make decisions by exploring the positives of products and the negatives of competitors. Post seventies, informational ads were not as effective, as consumers were becoming more aware of deception in the government due to the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam war, they then associated that deception with media and advertising, forcing advertisers to change tactics. With change of the types of ads came emotion and heuristically approached messages. This style of advertising carried through the nineties and into the two-thousands, with the introduction of the Internet, mediums mixed, video became easily available with interaction, this changed the strict lines between informational and emotional advertising.
 
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