AD+adverting-Final+Draft

AD adverting Ricardo Hedman Escuela Internacional Sampedrana A normal conversation between two students in a adless world: “Hey, Jay what’s up?” “Not much, Carl” “Jay look at my new iPod” “IPod?,” Jay said with amusement, “where did you get that?” “My parents bought it for me” “I really like it maybe I could get one if you tell me where to get one” said Jay. Another student approaches and asks “Hey where you get that?” amazed by the IPod. “Apparently he doesn’t know,” said Jay in a sarcastic tone. “I really don’t, guys,” said Jay. A world with no advertisement would be chaos. If advertisement would have been present in their world they could have seen an advertisement of Apple, not annoying Carl with questions. An advertisement lets us know about things most of the time even before the whole of the world knows about. That way the previous discussion would have been of what color of IPod do you have? or what songs do you have? etc. Advertisement is a very controversial yet justifiable topic. Let’s start with the definition of what advertisement is in order to be in the same page. An advertisement is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience to take some action (Wikipedia, 2010). Knowing what it is we can tell that it can be able to influence us in many ways, but especially in two ways in a good; lets us know about services and products we need, and a bad way; creating a form of dependency to it and the type of products advertised. Another arguing point is that advertisement has an exceeding limit into where it advertises and this can be a problem for children. This is a big problem because you don’t want products like guns or alcoholic beverages advertised to your children. Advertisement is a way of life we have learned to live with in our daily basis and it gives us options for products and services that we need to satisfy our needs. There are certain benefits in advertising for our lives. Freedom of speech is one of the rights that most people have around the world. Advertisements are used to express ways of how people feel. “Yo quiero Taco Bell” (Taco Bell, 1997) an advertisement that showed what you wanted, in this case you wanted Taco Bell. This was an ad by Taco Bell that meant “I want Taco Bell” and it shows us how through these little sayings people do define what they really want. With ads you can also experience different feelings or at least it gives you the idea of how you should feel toward the product or the idea that’s being advertised. Coca Cola had an ad that said “Open happiness” (Coca Cola, 2009), and its ads included people with smiles on their faces and how it showed that it felt good to open a Coca Cola. There was also a pre-Christmas advertisement experiment that was being done by a few supermarkets and high street retailers and it responded in this way. “ The key results include the fact that there was strong correlation between motivation and strength of emotion, and that motivation levels were good predictors of eventual sales”(   Issue 496, pp.41-42). This indicates that people is indeed affected by ads and their need for having them. Sometimes advertisement can get out of hand, meaning that they exceed on their limits. There are techniques in advertising that make a person want that person consume the product or service, an example would be “Do you Yahoo?” (Yahoo), which makes people want to use Yahoo since it’s a way of looking at your emails, sending emails, etc. In between these techniques we find visual, audio and audiovisual advertising. This happens exclusively with beauty products like cosmetics which ensure that people will look beautiful. Most of the time advertisements are about the context, something that is catchy that will make you eventually buy it. There was an advertisement by the beer Budweiser in which it included the phrase “wassup” and it’s a small catchy phrase that reminded you about the beer. Having a good wording and a way of transmitting what you are offering are techniques that help advertisements promote what they want. Through this way it’s easier for people to know about products and services that they might need. There are certain products that enter in debate for whether they should be advertised or whether they shouldn’t. There are certain advertisements that we might need but it’s dangerous to advertise, this would be the case of guns and condoms. “ A ban on condom advertisements might constitute a curtailment to freedom of the speech…” (Ager, 2010). People want to be safe and they buy condoms for this purpose. This is a very risky advertising since children might get knowledge of these products. Industries that manufacture these types of products do have to have a way of selling these things to people. People have the right to know that there are different alcoholic drinks available. In the end they do have the freedom of speech supporting them, though the (ASA) Advertising Standards Authority should have limits to where it’s being advertised. There are products that you know people need but you have to be careful for how you transmit it to the audience. The economist John Kenneth Galbraith argues that advertising is morally wrong because it enables corporations to artificially create the desire to possess the goods or services it offers for sale (Flaherty, 2003). There was this ad that “ promoted the Diploma, for 14- to 19-year-olds, as being ‘accepted by all universities” (Johnson, 2009). Apparently the (DCSF) The Department for Children, Schools and Families reported this ad, “'accepted by all universities' and the wording 'can get you into any university' were misleading, because they understood Cambridge University only accepted Diplomas in one subject.” (Johnson, 2009). There is also said that advertisement for children is wrong and shouldn’t be done. The example above shows how they might get easily attracted. Not all the products should be advertised. People are lied to and lie all the time and either way it is used to manipulate people. Children also have the right to learn about things in the world but there should be certain precaution for this matter. You don’t want to promote sex but either way you can promote it through making it safety. The advertising of condoms even though it justifies people to do it they might do it the safe way. Thanks to advertisement we are able to learn about products and services that are needed for life to go in a nice and easy way. All types of techniques are applied to us every time we turn on the TV, the radio or when riding our cars to school. Though we can sometimes over charge ourselves for wanting things that we know we can’t have, there are always ads that make you have a good time and a good feeling. We’ll just have to keep adapting to our changing world. Limits are made to be broken and a good example would be advertising, it is very difficult to contain advertising to a small audience since in a way it will always get to you. Good thing we don’t live in Jay’s world.

Bibliography

Ager, M. (2010). Condom ads ban might curtail freedom of speech, says roxas. // Inquirer.net //, Retrieved from []

Crash (2007) "Top 80 Advertising Slogans/Catch Phrases" retrieved  March 12, 2010 from  []    Flaherty, P.(2003) "Philosophy: Questions & Theories"  Toronto, Ontario: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited. Johnson, S. (2009). Government's diploma ad banned by asa.//Marketing//, Retrieved from http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/948883/Governments-Diploma-ad-banned-ASA/

The Coca-Cola Company (2009) "Open Happiness Press Release" retrieved  March 12, 2010 from  [|http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/presscenter/presskit_open_happiness_press_release.html]  Warc. (2010). // Warc //. Retrieved from []