1. Advertising and Commercial Culture
Chapter 11

2. “You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements
“You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.” — Norman Douglas

3. Culture Influenced by Ads
Shift from agrarian, small-town life to urban, consumer-driven lives
Promotes and sustains capitalist economic system
Influences our desires and needs as consumers
Pays for the mass media industries

4. History Advertising used in antiquity
First newspaper ads in America, 1704
Most U.S. magazines advertising by mid-1800s
N. W. Ayer the first U.S. ad agency
Established in 1875
Space broker for newspapers
Wrote, produced, and placed ads

5. “The American apparatus of advertising is something unique in history…
“The American apparatus of advertising is something unique in history….It is like a grotesque, smirking gargoyle.” —James Rorty

6. Advertising Proves Worthy
Advertising helped sell products quickly after the Industrial Revolution.
Helped manufacturers guarantee prices on products sold to retailers
Built “brand recognition”
Packaging
Created demand for branded, “quality” goods

7. Medicine and Department Stores
By 1900 half the ads were for patent medicines or department stores.
Many patent medicines were dangerous and/or frauds.
Problem led to advertising self-policing.
FDA created in 1906
Advertising eats the “newshole.”
Today more than 60 percent of the space in large daily papers is consumed by ads.

8. Subliminal Advertising
Term coined in 1950s
Hidden or disguised visual messages
Fool people into buying products
Few examples actually exist.
“Drink Coca-Cola” in frames of movies
Sexual activity in liquor ads
No more effective than regular ads

9. Regulation Better Business Bureau Audit Bureau of Circulation
So publishers don’t lie to advertisers about their numbers
Four “A”s
Self-regulation
FTC
If advertising lies about product
FCC
If broadcast lies about product
Postal Inspector
Mail fraud
Others
E.g., each state’s agencies

10. The Power of Mega-Agencies
“Besides dominating commercial speech, a $500-billion-a-year industry, these four companies… — ...Omnicom…Interpublic…WPP…and… Publicis — also hold incredible sway over the media.” —Stuart Elliot

11. Market Research
“assesses the behaviors and attitudes of consumers toward particular products”
Demographics
Psychographics
Focus groups
Values and Lifestyles (VALS)
Auto industry uses heavily
See chart on p. 400

12. Ad Agency Structure Market research Creative development
Media selection
Media buyers: choose and purchase the types of media best suited to carry a client’s ad and reach the target audience
Account services
Account executives: responsible for bringing in new business and managing the accounts of established clients

13. Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
Famous-person testimonial
Charlton Heston for the NRA
Plain folks
Volkswagen
Snob appeal
Bentley
Bandwagon
Everyone does it
Hidden fear
Home security products
Irritation
Jerky camera

14. Association Principle
Product associated with some cultural icon or value
Used in most consumer ads
Disassociation corollary: Responding to consumer backlash, major corporations present products as though from smaller, independent companies, i.e. Saturn.

15. Questioning Advertising
The Truth, a national youth smoking prevention campaign, works to deconstruct the images that have long been associated with cigarette ads.
Recognized by 80% of teens in 2006
Ranked in the Top 10 “most memorable teen brands”

16. Advertising as Myth
Three common mythical elements found in many types of ads:
Ministories featuring characters, settings, and plots
Stories involve conflicts, pitting one set of characters or social values against another.
Conflicts are negotiated or resolved by end of ad, usually by applying or purchasing product.
The product and its users are the heroes.

17. Political Speech vs. Commercial Speech
Political speech is protected under the First Amendment.
Lobbying (PR)
Political campaigns
Commercial speech is far more proscribed by case law.
Fee-based communications
Intended to cause money exchange

18. Key Advertising Concerns
Schools
Health
Tobacco
Pharmaceuticals
Alcohol
Puffery
Ads featuring hyperbole and exaggeration
Advertisers killing news stories
The end of consumer reporting?
Advertising and the Internet
Interstitials and Spam

19. Key Advertising Concerns
College students targeted by alcohol ads
A national study released in 2006 demonstrated that “young people who see more ads for alcoholic beverages tend to drink more.”

20. Product Placement
Placing ads in movies, TV shows, comic books, video games
Coca-Cola on American Idol
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Should the FCC mandate that the public be warned about product placement on television?

21. Advertising, Politics, and Democracy
“The era of consumer resistance and control has begun.”
—Yankelovich Partners, marketing services consultants, 2004