Advertising Manipulations Essay Research Paper Advertising is

Advertising Manipulations Essay, Research Paper

Advertising is defined in the Webster.s dictionary as, .Announcing or praising in some public medium of communication in order to induce people to buy or use the product.. In order for a company to succeed, it is almost necessary for them to advertise their product. Most advertisements are often criticized for encouraging materialistic values and promoting that what one posseses is more important than who one is (Tedlow 4). Advertisers want their ad to stand out so they attempt to do so by using techniques such as humor, ongoing story lines, unexpected dialogue, unusual techniques, attention getting spokespersons, or simply by repeating ads to the extent that it is inevitable for a consumer to remember them (Day 25). Advertising is very common and there are many techniques used to entice consumers; unfortunately, some advertisers go to extremes to persuade consumers which can create social problems. The Federal Trade Commision tries to set standards for advertisements for they do realize a problem exists. In order to determine if an ad is deceptive, they worry about what the message conveys, and not what the claim says (Richards 3).

The main reason for the amount of advertising is profit motivation; an increase in sales means an increase in profit. Advertising took its major turn in the early 1960.s because all products were looking the same so the actual product could no longer sell itself. Therefore, the product was no longer the heart of the message and other methods had to be used for

advertisements to sell the product. Leggy models started selling cars because their sexiness gave the car an advantage; adding more appeal to the customer. Since advertisers were no longer focusing the commercial around the product; a symbol was designed and sold to the consumer in commercials and they then associated the product to this symbol (Boukhari 1). Advertisements are so accessable and abundant because it is the only way for the advertiser to communicate its message to the buyer (Richards 11). Advertising studies show that the average American sees approximately sixteen thousand advertisements -including logos, labels, and announcements- in one day (Day 6). New products, no matter how good they are, will not sell unless the creator can tell people that the product exist, that it is .better. than all the others, and where the product can be found (Day 8).

The promotion of the product is not the only motivation for advertising; almost more important, the advertisement is hoping to promote that company. Advertisers must creatively explain their clients. company.s philosophy. After learning the effects a company philosophy can produce, advertisers. desired results are that the consumer will buy a company.s products because that company.s philosophy appeals to them (Boukhari 2). Also, advertisers want their company.s products to seem different, unique, and stand out from all others, especially when the product can not sell itself. With some products this individuality is

hard to mold, so repetition is used creating a bulk of

advertisements (Boukhari 1).

It was in the 1960.s when advertisers realized the potential profits that targeting children in advertisements could create. Testing by experts showed that children are extremely vulnerable to the persuasive extremes in television commercials. This vulnerability is because children lack skills and experience that are necessary to be able to differentiate between the good and bad advertising messages (Day 70). The American Demographics magazine printed an article where they had interviewed 112 children ranging in ages from eight to ten to .draw what comes to mind when they think of going shopping.. In 30 of the 38 categories of products, the children could recall specific brands that category might offer. One child in this experiment could properly spell the brand name Esprit, including the open .E.. This same child misspelled the words .shirts. and .skirts. by confusing them. When asked to spell .shirts,. he spelled .skirts;. and vice versa (Day 71). Children fourteen years and under combined spend an estimated $20 billion a year. Most importantly, children influence purchases made by parents, grandparents, and others, which totals approximately $200 billion a year. Obviously advertisers saw this opportunity, investing approximately $800 million, creating ads designed for slots during children’s television shows (Day 69).

A major concern of advertisers targeting children is the

effects of the advertisement on children. Advertisers claim that children are not included in their target audience; however,

these products. ads seem to be purposely luring the young. For example, drinking and smoking in commercials are perceived by children as being cool; the ideals portrayed in these advertisements are that drinking and smoking will allow kids to be accepted into the crowd of cool people. This also ties into sex appeal because it is often portrayed that people who drink and smoke get the prettiest girls or guys (Day 87). Another concern with advertisements appealing to children is young children’s health and well being. During Saturday morning cartoons, nine out of ten of the food commercials are advertising unhealthy foods such as sugary cereals, candy bars, salty canned foods, fatty fast foods and junk food. Advertisers do thi