Advertising Reality

Monday, March 3, 2008

Advertising

Advertising is a communication tool used by many businesses (non-profit or for-profit organizations) to inform consumers about products or services . Good advertisement needs to attract consumer attention and create a desire in them to take the intended action (make a purchase or use a service). It is, therefore, important for the images portrayed in advertisements and in the media to reflect a desired condition; this does not mean that the images have to represent reality.

The Media Awareness Network

The Media Awareness Network of Canada listed the following as the major concerns with advertising:

• Media Violence: how and why violence is used by the entertainment industry
• Media Stereotyping: media portrayals of ethnic and visible minorities
• Online Hate: ways in which people use the Internet to promote their agenda
• Information Privacy: how the Internet and electronic commerce have created challenges for the protection of personal information.
• Media and Canadian Cultural Policies: overview of the government and industry initiatives undertaken to protect and promote Canadian culture, and to ensure a domestic and international market for Canadian cultural products.

Of the major concerns, the one that caught my attention was media stereotyping. Media stereotypes are inevitable because stereotypes may be used to transmit messages in a manner that consumers can understand quickly and without much thought needed.

Advertising Unrealistic Images

A photograph can tap into our emotions that are buried into our subconscious . When this happens, people have a learned response to these images. In advertising, entertainment, and news industries stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.

Examples of the instant thoughts that images in the media make people think are that women have to be sexy, are weak and powerless, women should be tall and skinny, women should wear make-up, and women should let me do all the hard work. Men are not excluded from the stereotype created through the media and advertisements; Men should be tough, men should not be compassionate or show weakness, men are responsible for making money to support a family, and so on. Basically, using stereotypical (and unreal) images makes it easier for marketers to get the message across.

Drawbacks

Some of the drawbacks of using stereotypes in the media include their ability to:
• Reduce the existence of any differences among people
• Places people into simple categories
• Makes assumptions about particular groups acceptable
• Spread social prejudice and inequality
• People being portrayed have little to say about how they are represented (until recently)

Advertising Realistic Images

People begin to believe that the images portrayed in the media are real and ,therefore, are what people should look like or act like. This means that people who lack media literacy will feel a need to imitate the images or strive to obtain items similar to those in advertisements. Yes, using provocative images will attract peoples' attention, but they also objectify women (and in some cases men). The people at Dove Cosmetics decided to fight this objectification and began a marketing campaign to search for real beauty.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Dove - Evolution

Dove's marketing campaign titled "Evolution" was a viral film created in Canada for the Dove Self-Esteem Fund and has won the Film Grand Prix at the Cannes Advertising awards held in France in June, 2007. The film was created to demonstrate how photographs may be altered to fit into what society would view as "beautiful". The message behind this video is that women should not try to imitate images seen in advertisements and they should embrace their own personal beauty.

Their latest Campaigns include actions to support aging, called Pro-age, and increasing awareness of the influence the media has on children, called Onslaught (the TV ad for Onslaught is to the right of the screen and is called "Media & Children).

The Remedy

Learn About Advertising & Media Messages

In order to know how the media attempts to manipulate us as consumers, it is our responsibility to increase our awareness of how advertising influences our attitudes and behavior, to increase our ability to think critically about advertisements, and to take the appropriate measures to ensure our attitudes remain intact and strong.

The Media Literacy Clearing House listed some key questions that people should ask about media messages. The questions are:

1. Who is the producer/storyteller of the message?
2. What is their purpose/motive/agenda? (to inform, to persuade, to educate, to call to action, to entertain, to shock)
3. Who is the intended (primary) target audience? How do you know? Is there another (secondary) audience?
4. What does the message say? How does it say it?
5. How do you know what the message means?
6. What format/medium does the producer use?
7. What are the advantages of the format/medium?
8. What methods/techniques does the producer use to make the message attractive/believable?
9. What lifestyle is portrayed in the message? What clues tell you ?
10. Who makes money or benefits from the message?
11. Who/what is left out of the message?
12. Whose interests are served by telling/showing the message in a particular way?
13. Do you agree with the message?
14. How might different people interpret the message differently?
15. What do you know; what do you NOT know; what would you like to know?
16. Where can you go to verify the information or get more reliable information?
17. What can you do with the information you have obtained from the message?

People should ask these questions when they are being exposed to the media but since there are too many to remember, I suggest you briefly review them and try to pick up the questions that hadn’t occurred to you to ask before.