5 Advertising: It is everywhere!
from "(The) Media Is: How the rest of us can make sense of it.
Adam Tyma
Advertising. Is. Everywhere. From the brands we wear to the brands we are loyal to (are you an Apple acolyte? Sworn to Samsung?), we create ourselves and communicate through our cultural construction – which is often created through the brands we consume and are committed to. It’s a vicious circle – and it works.
The idea of this chapter is to give you a BRIEF history of advertising as a form of expression as well as a profession. We will then talk through how it is created and applied to our everyday lives. From there, we have to talk about how we are conditioned by it. I know that we often would rather not think about advertising and the power it has on us (free will and all that), but the reality is that brands have become just as much of a medium as, say, television, and is just as powerful if not more so. After all – advertising is how our commercial media is paid for, right?
The Essentials
- Advertising, at its core, is about selling a product. That is it. It has been around for a long time – longer than we talk about in this chapter. As you dive into how the media works, what you will need to remember is that advertising exists to make money. Media companies sell advertising space so they can also make money. The only one not making any money from advertising … is you (unless, of course, you are in the advertising industry). Advertising creates the messages that sell the products (food, clothing, cars, video games, phones, movies, ideas, politics, trends, cultures, etc.) that you buy. It’s that simple.
How ads might work … a starting point.
When I teach any courses where we talk about how advertising works and why it is the way it is, I talk about soap. Yep – soap. When soap as a cleaning product was first created, the idea was to contain and deliver a cleaning astringent (think lye, witch hazel, etc.) in some sort of solid form (yes, lye can be a solid … and it can also eat through near-anything in a concentrated state. It also can be used to make lutefisk, but that is another story for another time). When you went to the general store or to the soap maker, you were looking for a product that did the job. If it stank? That meant it was high quality. You had off-white or off-white. If there are multiple soap makers, and the goal is to make a profit, this is hard to do when everything looks and smells the same.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you are one of the many soap makers, all making the same thing, and you think “how can I sell more products? It’s all soap.” You change it. You make it green. You make it smell. You figure out the additional costs, mark up the price, and you start selling more. The other soap makers do the same thing. Maybe one smells like roses, maybe one is pink. Fast forward to a soap that claims, through its advertisements, that using the soap will make you as irresistible as chocolate OR transport you through the drain into an Irish glen with nymphs flocking around you. None of this happens. None of this changes the power of the soap or how well it works. It is just different. When everything is the same, “different” sells. This is how advertising works – by appealing past the practical value of a thing and towards the fantasy constructed around that same thing.
This fantasy appeal strategy is nothing new. Though such types of advertising can be traced back to the Roman Empire, when goods and services were advertised by picture and text and were often exaggerated, connected to the Roman gods (to demonstrate virility, for example), and overtly used to distract the masses from the realities of the day (welcome to the Coliseum and gladiatorial combat), it is only since the turn to the 20th century that we truly see it moving from an art and social assumption to scientific studies – constructed, tested, modified, and replicated. During the early 20th century, we begin to see the overt move in advertising from utilitarian messages (this product will do “x” with a little appeal strategy as a minor side note) to overt demographic, psychological, and psychographic-based fantasy appeals. This appeal strategy begins showing the product as it relates to the rich and famous[1] (I often think of how the “beautiful people” are portrayed in both the novel and the film adaptations of The Great Gatsby) and the lifestyles the product is connected to. The people. The dress. The events. None of this has to do with the functionality of the product. In fact, it could be argued that advertising has nothing to do with selling a product and everything to do with getting people to buy into a lifestyle[2]. Fast forward to now and we see, hear, and experience advertisements across all of our media that have nothing to do with what the product does and everything with how the product “can make you be.” It is in these moments where the idea of being literate in our own media creation and consumption is essential … if for no other reason than to keep us a little more sane about the world around us.
A little bit of history
Advertising has been around for a long LONG time. There are examples of it in ancient Rome, where signage was painted promoting the fights in the Colosseum mentioned above. Stories were told in pubs and by town criers to recruit for migration, war, and even to talk about the taxes they were being “asked” to pay. Vital and personal announcements were written in the back page of the news fliers left around spaces, updated by those who happened to be sitting there.
Advertising truly came into its own when the idea of the advertising “firm” or “agency” was brought into being. We start to see the sale of advertising space occur in the 18th century, both in the UK and in the newly-minted US. Though at this time, advertisements were much more utilitarian rather than spectacle, the ads did their jobs. They informed you of a product in sometimes-excruciating detail. You were told what the product did, how much they would cost you, and what the benefits were of using the product rather than not. At the same time, though, there werethe ever-sneaky snake oil sales people. Even while most ads were very straightforward and honest, there were those who would hock their wares from wagons, benches, wherever they could set up a stand. “Tonics” were sold for everything. It was not as though the scam was not known. However – persuasion is a powerful tool, and when buyers did not have much money or much literacy BUT were in pain or discomfort, perhaps that magical tonic that shimmered so nicely in the bottle might just do the trick.
As more and more of our world became mediated, through newspapers, radio, and television, it is not hard to see why advertising becomes a central part of it. Content for newspapers and radios and programming for televisions needed to be paid for and subscriptions or (for newspapers) point-of-purchase sales were not going to be enough. The right combination of product, campaign strategy, imagery, and fantasy became essential to discover and capitalize on. For those that were able to create the perfect ad or ad campaign, this becomes a lucrative and powerful industry. Though there were ad groups, companies, and firms even in the mid-19th century, it was not until the Industrial Age had fully taken root with mass production and increased purchasing power that the age of the advertisement truly came into its own. We saw the culmination of this idea in the AMC television series “Mad Men” and the documentary film Art and Copy. In both cases, we (as the consumers of these products) are shown the history and the trajectory of advertising, both as a commercial product and as an art form.
Fast forward to right now – between being exposed to between 4000 and 10000 ads in a given day, playing video games with brands all over them (hello, any EA Sports game), and Netflix just announcing its cheaper, ad-supported, subscription rate, and it is obvious that ads are here to stay and, as we have previously, are everywhere. We will talk about the implications that this might bring about further on in the chapter.
The process of creating an advertisement (generically)
Before the idea of “advertising” in a modern sense was born, presenting the product or service you were offering was often in graphic or picture form … mostly because literacy rates were not high amongst most populations. As those rates did increase (see discussion above talking about print, etc.), so did the ability to begin developing what advertising was and is even further. As discussed in the previous section, we moved from utility to appeal in how an advertisement was created and put out to audiences. Finding the link between the product, the message, and the audience is the goal here. But the question becomes “how?”
An advertisement, at its core, is a persuasive message. Where in a persuasive speech (think a Presidential address or political candidate speaking to a crowd … why do we go to politics right away?) you are trying to convince an audience that your ideas and your plans are the correct ones to get behind, the advertisement is trying to do the same thing with a product. This can be anything – a physical item, a vacation, an idea, an insurance plan – anything. Regardless of what it is, if the product to you is appealing, then you gravitate towards said product and … if the creator of the product is lucky … you buy into it.
Notice the use of the word “appeal” here. That is exactly what an advertisement is. It is an appeal to an audience’s needs, desires, fears, or beliefs. Depending on the product, the appeal might say “Your life is great! You really need this as a reward” or “Your life is fine … but this would make it better” or “Your life is not great. You are missing something. This is what you need to make it all better”. Notice that none of these appeals suggests that your life will be complete or perfect … just that it will take care of the need for now. Appealing to the need is exactly what an advertisement is doing. Regardless of what the need is coming from, filling that need – that lack of something – is what it is all about. Enter the ad campaign.
Within the ad campaign, the advertising professional works to understand the product, identify the target audiences and market for this product, determine what the connection is or needs to become between the product and the target market, then craft the campaign messaging to make this happen. Earlier, we talked about how persuasion has been studied for a long time. The word “rhetoric” is intimately connected with persuasion. When you study rhetoric, you learn about appeals, five strategies, and other catchphrases. The appeals – Logic (Logos), Emotion (Pathos), and Ethics (Ethos) – are used a bit like a recipe, adding this or that to bring the perfect message together. That comes from about 400 BCE, and though it is developed and nuanced further, it still works. When you develop a message that uses specific appeals to connect with target markets through particular media and persuade them to “buy into” a thing … you have successfully created an advertisement. Create something like the Absolut collection of ads and you have a campaign. At the end of the day, that is the basics of how an ad works.
How Advertising Conditions Us
As we talked about above, there are ads everywhere. While we are developing our media literacy, we need to (unfortunately) remember that every t-shirt we see, every hat, every shoe, every billboard, bus stop bench, wrapper, sticker … each and every one is an ad. All of them. If you think about it, we exchange our voice for access to our favorite brands. “Like this shirt? Awesome! If you are willing to have this little swoosh on it, it might be cheaper for you.” The purpose of advertising is so that you buy a product, whatever that product might be. There is nothing wrong with this. Rather, we need to be aware of this reality. When we are presented with a message, we need to knock the shiny bits off and look at the core of what it is. This way, we know if we truly want to buy what they are selling.
As part of your media literacy process, take a few moments and stop. Just stop and see how many brands and styles are floating around the space you are in right now. When I talk about how “they are everywhere”, your space and my space (not MySpace) are what come to mind. The 360 degree turn you take to see all around you and what is on you and what you are listening to is that space – and it is full of advertising. Every strategy discussed above, every formatting approach, every way to get a message in front of you. We have been brought up to exist in and accept this space – there is no way around it. That is what I mean by “ubiquitous conditioning.” It is more than a bit depressing when you think about it. All of those different messages are meant to sell something (a product, a look, even an idea). I mentioned earlier that, before I got into the college teaching gig full time, I worked for a pretty big retail company (trust me, you have heard of them and have probably shopped there). When we talked about sales, we never talked about selling a product. We talked about helping someone buy into a lifestyle. The products simply helped them attain the lifestyle they had earned. If you look at the trending messages on Instagram and TikTok, in particular, you will see how the algorithm (see next chapters) tracks what you have searched for or looked at, adds that data to the data it has already collected on you and those like you, and churns out custom content … and advertising.
So far, we have talked media history, ownership, and now advertising. As you can see, there is quite a bit to unpack here, and we are only scratching the surface. Advertising has one goal – to get you to buy something. That “something” can be anything. Remember that – it can be anything. Keep this discussion in mind as we dive briefly into the “what, how, and why” of social media (see what I did there?). How does social media fit into the conversation? Start looking for the links, then jump into Chapter Seven and overtly get into those connections.
Resources
- Adbusters – https://www.adbusters.org/ – This is not a non-biased space. The purpose of AdBusters is to discuss the intended/unintended consequences of advertising on consumers – us. They have a definite political lean and interpretation. Still, it is definitely worth checking out.
- Advertising All Around Us – https://mediasmarts.ca/lessonplan/advertising-all-around-us-lesson – This is a great entry point into Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy. This is a lesson for teachers that anyone can use as a way to consider the advertising message that are all around us without putting a particular spin or lean on them.
- Admongo.Gov – https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/Admongo/teachers.html – Though the site is now out of date, AdMongo was and is still a great resource for teachers or anyone else, really. I really recommend going through and checking some of the materials out, just as a way to keep the survival guide moving along.
- I have always found it rather disgusting that this appeal strategy really comes front and center not during the “Roaring ‘20s” but during the Great Depression starting during the market crash of October 1929. ↵
- Here is a fun ad for one of the first televisions: http://www.tvhistory.tv/1939-RCA-TRK12-Manual.JPG and console radios: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/2017-mj-pg97-VintageAd_1929_02_09-large.jpg ↵
