Advertising and contemporary culture - Research Paper Example

? Advertising and its relationship to some aspect of contemporary culture/culture group Advertising is a mode of communication used to manipulate a target audience into taking a certain action. This communication may be commercial, political or ideological in nature and may use either mass media or new media. Mass media includes newspapers, television, radio and mail whereas new media includes SMS, blogs and websites. Advertising also involves a sponsor who is the person who pays for the advertisement. All of these factors work together in an attempt to sell a product, service or concept to a target population through branding. Branding is described as forming an image associated with a certain product in the mind of the consumer. It involves gender studies, semiotics and effective mediums of advertising. Contemporary culture refers to the existence of different genres of something within the same frame of time. When we talk of contemporary culture, we talk about the different ethnicities, religions, societies and economies that exist today. With the world growing smaller due to increased mediums of communication, it seems that the advertiser’s job would be easier. However, it has gotten all the more difficult since not only has the market become more competitive but finances have become limited and while sponsors ask for maximum cost efficiency, designing campaigns that are targeted yet effective has become a challenge. Mass campaigns are cost effective but the message might be suitable for one market and outright offensive for the other. Thus, advertising’s relation with contemporary culture has never been as important as it is now. Mediums of advertisement are very important in reaching a target audience and advertising industry sees a greater variety of audiences in the contemporary culture which can be accessed better through suitable means of communication. For instance, senior audiences respond better to human bill boards than any other form of advertisement since this is the mode of communication that they have been using throughout most of their lives. On the other hand, middle-aged audiences respond most to television campaigns and printed ads since this is what they have grown up with. Younger audiences respond most to television campaigns as well as new media which have not only pushed the advertisers to come up with new ideas but also increase budgets so that maximum number and types of medium can be used. These include covert advertising which overlaps with branding, mobile bill boards, ads on facebook and twitter, polls, consumer generated-advertising and celebrity branding. digital branding seems to be quite effective across all ages and is widely used in sport events, shopping malls and restaurants (Aimdigitalvisions.com) For example, Tom Cruise is seen using a Nokia phone and wearing a Bulgari watch in the movie Minority Report. This is an example of covert advertisement that was aimed at movie audiences which were predominantly under 35. Similarly, popup, advergaming and emails are also a popular medium of advertisement among the younger lot. The effectiveness of a medium of communication is not just measured by the age of a target audience. It has a lot to do with the size of an audience as well. Crowdsourcing is a very popular approach when the target audience is huge, the ad is supposed to be ‘most-buzzed-about’ (Elliott) and has to be reached within limited finances. Google, Hershey’s, Microsoft and Mini Cooper have adopted this approach. Global advertising is aimed at a much larger audience with a view to expand globally. For this reason, advertisers rely on advertising researches, look for ideas that have the potential to travel (Global Marketing Management) and increase the companies’ pace of implementation. The most important factor in such campaigns is to give an image of one voice. The advertisement campaign of IBM is a clear example of this. Another aspect of advertising industry’s relationship with contemporary culture is based on how it affects genders. Not only does the gender affect the type of advertising that has to be used, it also symbolizes and sometimes even directs a society’s perception of men and women. Two types of marketing communication claims exist, subjective and objective (Koc). The subjective claims are ones that have no reality such as when the consumption of a certain product results in a certain feeling or emotion. An example of this would be advertisements of juices and fabric softeners. This type of communication is most effective with women as the idea of farm-freshness of fruit or softness of fabric appeals to them in spite of them being non-tangible. On the other hand, objective claims involve putting forward solid, tangible benefits of a product such as certain specifications of a new laptop, phone or camera. This type is most effective with men. Therefore, the gender of the target audience dictates the type of communication claim used in advertising. Another aspect of this relationship is the evolution of relationship between men and women over the period of time and how it affects advertising. Contemporary culture takes pride in strong, independent, fun-loving women and open, confident men. It also takes pride in friendship between men and women in a non-sexual way. Thus, advertising campaigns show women and men riding bikes, driving sports cars, conning and partying together. Campaigns of Pepsi, Gillette and Hugo Boss are examples of this. In the developing world however, the idea of women as a homemaker is still very strong and so we see international brands making ads according to local sensibilities such as the campaign of Maggi noodles and De Beers’s diamonds in India. Certain trends are found across the world regardless of ethnicity. The fact that most voiceovers are done in male voices and that the presence of women in the ads seem to decrease exponentially with increasing age are few of those trends and their international prevalence shows certain gender based relations of advertising to contemporary culture. Advertising is not all about in-your-face messages. Subtle messages and the use of signs and symbols are a very important part of advertising. The study of signs and symbols is referred to as semiotics and this comes most in use when we talk about branding. Advertising uses existing signs and symbols to engrave in the consumer’s mind a perception of their product. For instance, Pepsi has been using a signature curvaceous shape of its bottles and it always involves top female models with provocative gestures in its advertisement campaigns. Unknowingly, a large part of the male population consumes Pepsi in an attempt to be able to touch the women in Pepsi ads. If it were not the reason, Pepsi wouldn’t be employing skinny super models to sell a high calorie beverage. Similarly, certain perceptions are engraved in the human mind and continue to be a part of contemporary culture. Most of the high-end, luxury consumer brands employ men and women with pale skins although the black population is a large part of consumer market the world over. In spite of this, they are not met with as much criticism as they gather profits through these campaigns reason being that since ages, pale skin has been a sign of wealth and health. These luxury brands send out a message that consumption of their product is a sign of aristocracy by selling pale skin. On the other hand, the increasing appearance of black models in make-up brands is an example of advertising industry’s adaptation to contemporary culture where women of every color are gaining confidence and the wish to look good. The idea is to suggest these associations to the consumer and leave it to them for interpretation (Beasley). Advertising industry is constantly manipulating the sensibilities of contemporary culture the world over but has met its share of criticism. The advertising industry is often blamed for manipulating the feelings of inadequacy in a target population, even creating them by converting wants into needs. Another criticism has been the invasion of privacy and aesthetics that has come with the constant bombardment of products and ideas from all sides and has seeped into places like schools and hospitals. Advertising industry is often blamed for exploitation of children and women from creating feelings of inadequacy, as stated earlier but also using underage models and using women as props. The use of new media is seen as a lucrative approach of advertisement but there is growing faction of the users of this media that sees advertisement as invasion of their privacy in the form of spam and trash text messages. Although the advertising world is constantly under criticism for its antics, the fact is that the relationship between advertising and contemporary culture is a very strong one which is symbiotic in many ways and parasitic in others. Gender, age, human psychology and ever-increasing mediums of communication are all part of contemporary culture and the advertising industry plays upon these factors to sell their product, service or idea in the most effective way possible. Bibliography Aimdigitalvisions.com. aimdigitalvisions.com. 23 August 2010. 1 May 2013 . Beasley, Ron. Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising. Berlin: Walter deGruyter GmbH & KG, 2002: P.12-13 Elliott, Stuart. " "Do-It-Yourself Super Ads"." 8 February 2010. New York Times. 4 May 2013 . Global Marketing Management. 2004. Koc, Erdogan. "Impact of gender in marketing communications: the role of cognitive and affective cues." Journal of Marketing Communications (2002): 257. Read More