AdvertisingMedia Literacy

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Make us aware of products Differentiate one product from another Create a need where none existed(Ring around the collar)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3N_skYSGoY

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Some things that advertisements try to do…

We prefer to identify with ads that show us as we aspire to be rather than as we are (Goffman, 1976).

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Basic Premises of Advertising

Ads are very specifically placed in TV shows, newspapers, and magazines to be seen by a target audience. Magazines and TV shows know who watches and reads and they market themselves to advertisers. If it’s in a publication you read, it is aimed at you (even though you may not identify with the product).

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Basic Premises of Advertising

Ads manipulate our cultural understanding of the meaning of symbols, ideas, words, relationships, and images. The name for the study of these understandings is “semiotics”. Advertisers try to invent a link between a product and a desirable symbol, idea, or relationship.

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Basic Premises of Advertising

desire for the products’ results to create an image insecurity that we needed it all along

and just didn’t know it (dandruff shampoos!)

(Dentyne)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAobSJ-i-ck&feature=related

fulfills psychological need brand loyalty

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Why do we buy products or choose one product over another?

Overt means “out in the open” or “obvious” Covert means “in secret” or “not obvious” Advertising has overt goals and covert goals

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Overt vs. covert

“Buy this product.” “Buy this product; you’ll be happier.” “Buy this product; it will help you meet your

goals.” “Buy this product; you will be more

attractive.” “Buy this product, you will be more

successful.”

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Overt messages of advertisements

How do you think people in general are affected when they accept the overt messages of advertisements?

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If we buy these overt messages, what happens?

Covert messages are ones that are under the surface. No one could come out and say them straight out because these messages appeal to parts of our minds that we don’t really talk about: our insecurities and fears.

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What are covert messages?

“You can rely on this product, but other people and other things can’t be trusted.”

“The people who have this product have access to something that you are not fully aware of. Buying it will make you part of this select group.”

(Members Only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za1O4U4LV8I&feature=channel

“This product allows you to break the rules.”

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Covert messages of advertisements

This product makes you better than people “who don’t have it.” (Members Only)

“This product has powers that you do not have. Owning it will give you those powers.”

“This product will identify you with a social group or cause”

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Covert messages of advertisements

“You won’t be able to control yourself with this product.” validates the idea that loss of control is acceptable

“People like you use this product.” OR “People like you don’t use this product.” (in

the case of less affluent people) “This product will give you competence and

confidence. Without it, everyone knows you’re lost.”

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Covert messages of advertisements

How do you think people in general are affected when they accept the covert messages of advertisements?

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If we buy these covert messages, what happens?

Linking products to causes Linking products to cultural needs Creating brand loyalty/lifestyle marketing Using sex to sell

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Some Strategies

“The revolution is about basketball, and basketball is the truth.” Shows powerful young black men playing basketball in Rucker Park. Links civil rights to basketball and to Nike shoes. An extension of Nike’s ad campaign that used The Beatles’ song “Revolution”.

(Nike Beatles Revolution Ad)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztSYJNO4kac

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Linking products to causes

“Keep America Moving.” General Motors tries to make it a patriotic duty to buy a car.

“We’ve come a long way, baby.” Virginia Slims campaign that linked smoking with women’s liberation movement.

(Virginia Slims)http://www.spike.com/video/virginia-slims-youve/2742153

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Linking products to causes

What do you think happens to causes when people accept a link between a product and a cause?

What’s one ad you can think of that links a product and a cause?

Name the product and the cause. Is the link real?

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If we accept these cultural messages, what happens?

“cultural rape” using important religious (crosses, images of Jesus or Moses) or secular ( the Constitution, the flag, Abraham Lincoln) images to sell a product

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Linking products to important cultural images or needs

Mastercard ads that show credit spending being used to build personal relationships (father-child bonding in particular)

Bonding over products: guys become friends because of beer, couples fall in love over diamonds, women build friendships over chocolate

(MASTERCARD COMMERCIAL)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsz3BjKbOMk

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Linking products to important cultural images or needs

Bribing the kids: McDonald’s ads that validate a mother for feeding her kids fast food.

Drug ads showing elderly people with arthritis struggling to play with their grandkids, then enjoying being grandparents once they take the medication

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Linking products to important cultural images or needs

How do you think people are affected when they accept a link between a product and a cultural need?

What’s one ad that links a product and a cultural need?

Name the product and the need. Is the link real?

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If we accept these links between products and causes, what happens?

Tries to promote a link between a certain product or group of products and a lifestyle; kids and yuppies are the biggest targets.

Goal is to create a life-long consumer.

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Brand Loyalty or Lifestyle Marketing

Couture houses create an image through money-losing haute-couture to get people to buy their lower-priced off-the-rack items and accessories.

Product placement in films

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Brand Loyalty or Lifestyle Marketing

How do you think people are affected when they develop brand loyalty or accept lifestyle marketing ideas?

What’s a product that tries to develop brand loyalty in your age group?

How do they do this? Does it work? For whom?

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If we buy these images about lifestyle, what happens?

◦The basic goal is to link the product to a desirable thing and sex is the most desirable thing to many people

◦Some products naturally fit, some it’s a stretch

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Using Sex to Sell

◦Only so many products can be sexualized, so to use this strategy you have to either expand the market to different (younger) consumers or sexualize non-sexual products by taking the product out of the ad clothing, beauty products, gum, beer, cars

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Using Sex to Sell

How are people affected by sexual advertising campaigns?

Who is most affected? Name one product that uses sex to sell. Is the relationship between sexuality and

product realistic?

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Using sex to sell

Who is able to do it? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

We are vulnerable at whatever stage ourneeds are not met.

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Resisting the Ads

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Where are teens vulnerable? Where are pre-teens vulnerable? Where are parents vulnerable? Where are more successful people

vulnerable? Where are less successful people

vulnerable? Where are men vulnerable? Where are women vulnerable?

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What groups are vulnerable at which levels of the hierarchy of needs?

Where are you vulnerable?

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What do you think?

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How are people affected when our vulnerabilities are targeted?