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Advertising: Medium, Message, Manipulation

By KRISTEN STERNBERG
NIE EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT

How many advertisements do you think you see each day? If you were to try to answer that, you'd first have to figure out all the places you are exposed to ads. Do you find them on the TV and radio? How about in newspapers, magazines and comic books? How about ads at grocery stores and video stores, at city bus stops, the doctor’s or dentist’s office, on billboards and in your mail delivery?

Where else can you find ads? Some would say, "Just about everywhere!" Think about cars: Make, model and logo information is visible on almost every one. Even your clothing or other personal items may sport trademark logos, to advertise their brands to others. Thanks to smart advertising campaigns, the names "Tommy Hillfiger" and "Calvin Klein," for example, are probably known in most U.S. households. Our nation, based partly upon an economic principle of "supply and demand," has paved the way for many product marketers to become wealthy through advertising.

Advertisers pay to have their products promoted, and the fees vary widely. A small printed ad, for instance, might cost just a few dollars to run in a local newspaper. At the other extreme, ads slated to run during big events such as the Super Bowl cost some advertisers millions of dollars for a 30-second TV spot! If you're wondering why there's such a price range, think about how many people your daily newspaper reaches (you can find this number, the "circulation," inside the newspaper) and compare that figure to the millions and millions who typically watch the Super Bowl.

Media that accept advertising do so to help offset costs of staying in business. In short, advertising pays for everything from the TV shows and sporting events we watch to the magazines and other printed materials we read are paid for through ads.

Do ads have an effect on you? Marketing specialists and most others believe they do. Brand-name advertising, a huge industry, uses techniques that have been highly polished over the centuries. Many manufacturers know they must keep their products in the public eye. A recent article illustrated this when it reported of fears about the PC market. In advertising, image is everything. Marketers want their products to be alluring. Ads may promise that a product will make you healthier or better looking, more appealing, happier, and so on. Think of some other products you've seen advertised. What good did they seem to promise they'd do for you? Did you believe them? Why or why not?

More advertising articles:

Your ad on this government vehicle
Two summers ago, a New York couple held an Internet auction. The product was their newborn son's name. They were willing to give a corporation the right to name the child for a fee of $500,000 or up.

Hello. The meter's running.
Federal Trade Commission members are working over a deal to make telemarketers pay for the lists of people who don't want to be bugged by dinner hour sales pitches.

Are you sure we aren't living inside a commercial?
Media advertising exerts a powerful influence on our lives. Its purpose is to encourage, persuade, entice and at times demand that we not only take a serious look at their product, but make the product a permanent choice in our selection repertoire.

Try these interesting activities using The News-Journal!

1. The entertainment section of your newspaper runs ads for films showing in local theaters. Study the information provided in at least five such ads, and list characteristics they share. Create your own advertisement for a favorite film. Include important criteria you learned from studying the other ads. As you draw, try to think about the role of advertising in creating blockbuster films. What information did you choose to include in your ad? What did you leave out? (Sunshine State Standards: LA.A.1.2.2, LA.A.2.2.3, LA.A.2.2.5, SS.D.1.2.1, VA.A.1.2.1, VA.A.1.2.3)
   
   

Fast Talk Some visitors to the beach have complained about the relentless pursuit by sales associates on the beach. (Photo: News-Journal/Kelly Jordan)

2. Imagine you're showing that favorite film-the one for which you designed an ad--in a theater you own. As the owner, you would like to offer discounts to special groups. You decide to offer a 5% discount to senior citizens over 60, a 10% discount to children under 5, and a 15% discount to students aged 5 to 19. Assuming the cost of a regular adult ticket is $8.00, compute the cost of a ticket for each of the other age groups. (Sunshine State Standards: MA.A.3.2.2, MA.A.3.2.3)
   
   
3. Advertising is intended to entice people into buying products. Many ads are aimed at only a segment of the population. They may target people by age group, gender, income level, area or occupation, for instance. Search your newspaper's advertisements and clip those you perceive as targeting a specific population, using the groupings mentioned above as well as others you identify. For which populations did you find the most newspaper ads? (Sunshine State Standards: LA.A.2.2.3, LA.A.2.2.5, LA.B.2.2.1, LA.B.2.2.2)
   
   
4. The cost for placing a classified ad in the newspaper is typically determined by the length of the ad. To save space, therefore, you can find lots of abbreviations in the classifieds. Abbreviations are useful when you need to state a lot of information in as few lines as possible. Locate the real estate ads in your newspaper's Classified section and circle all of the abbreviations you find. Put your list of abbreviations in alphabetical order and, next to each entry, write out the full word. (Sunshine State Standards: LA.A.1.2.2, LA.A.2.2.5, LA.B.2.2.2, LA.D.1.2.2)
   
   
5. Scan your newspaper for ads, keeping a tally of how many use photographs and how many employ drawings. What is the ratio of photos to other illustrations? Express both types as fractions, then as a percentage. In your opinion, is one kind of illustration more powerful or attention-getting than another? Why or why not? (Sunshine State Standards: MA.A.1.2.3, MA.A.1.2.4, MA.A.3.2.1, MA.A.3.2.3)

A copy of Florida's Sunshine State Standards can be found at intech2000.miamisci.org.

Check out these links to learn more:

Do you own any collectible advertising icons or toys? Find out how and what to collect, and how to determine the value of a collection at this on-line museum of toys from advertising history. (www.toymuseum.com)

About.com has some excellent pages about advertising. How good are you at matching celebrities with the products they endorse? Take this and other trivia challenges, find out how products are marketed to kids and see if you qualify as a walking billboard! (advertising.about.com)

How Ad Slogans Work has the ins and outs of ad slogans. There's also a 'Test Your Ad Slogan IQ' – how many can you identify?

The Newspaper Association of America's Web site contains links to many newspapers in the U.S. and around the world. Visit the site and check some of them out, to see if they have recently published any articles about advertising issues. To access the newspapers at the site, select a state. Click on the "Internationals" button to view choices from other countries.

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