Advertising
Advertising, as we have already discussed, is any paid for space which communicates a message about a product/service and can be categorised according to the medium in which it appears. Traditionally, this has been split between
We now add Interactive (ie Internet) and New Media (ie any media which has not been used before, like the back of cinema tickets, or electronic billboards to the list. Ad Agencies are foaming at the mouth about the introduction of tablet computers like the iPad, and the way new types of ad campaigns can be specifically designed for these devices.
The history of mass advertising and the history of television are closely intertwined. Without advertising, television would have made no headway in countries without a state sponsored broadcaster (mainly the US) and would certainly not be the instrument of mass communication it is today. Television advertising takes the form of tv commercials (often referred to as TVCs or spots) which are either 30 or 45 seconds long.
TVCs appear in gaps between and during regular programmes, known as commercial breaks. Advertisers buy time in specific breaks, knowing that their target audience must be the same as that of the programme during which the break occurs. Thus teen soaps have commercial breaks filled with pimple cream and music CD ads.
Advertisers may choose to sponsor a whole programme, which means their logo and a short identity clip accompany the beginning and end of a programme ("Brought to you by...") and their advertising may feature heavily in commercial breaks during that programme. This is controversial, as it is felt that sponsors may interfere in the content of the programme if it doesn't work in their favour.
Television advertising is under threat from DVRs, and the phenomenon of "time-shifted" viewing. When you record a programme to a DVR you tend to edit out the ad breaks when reviewing it later. The problem is, without the funding that selling commercial space provides, there would be no TV programmes to start with, so TV companies are very anxious about the long term changes in viewing habits. Read more about the debate here.
Find examples of TVCs at
Most big manufacturers now include their latest TV ads as part of the material on their website - try these from Apple but you can look for your own favourites. You can find ads from our very own ICAC here.
Cinemas provide advertisers with access to a very specific audience (often sorted by age and taste, and often difficult to reach groups, such as 15-18 year olds) who are concentrating on a big screen in an environment without distractions. Because audiences are age rated, cinema commercials can be more daring and innovative than those that appear on TV which are aimed at a general audience. Cinema campaigns can be national, or extremely local (running in just one auditorium). Cinema advertising can also range from a single slide to a full length audio-visual commercial.
As well as advertising in cinemas, manufacturers can also use product placement to promote their goods & services. Read more about it here.
This category can be subdivided into
Again, target audiences of advertisements must match the target audience of the publication in which it appears.
This includes material which is sent directly to people's homes or offices - catalogues, brochures, mailing offers etc. And spam.
Direct Mail - tips on making it work from about.com
Many advertising campaigns now involve a rehaul of product packaging and design, meaning that images and colours are consistent across both promotion and presentation.
Outdoor advertising comes in many different forms. In a busy city, people may not even glance at a standard poster, so in an advertising saturated world the agencies use many different tricks to get our attention. Advertising creeps onto hitherto unused spaces, becomes larger, moves - anything to be different and eyecatching. This can be regarded as cultural pollution, as our cityscapes are plastered with paid-for messages. Or perhaps it just brightens up dull urban areas with wit and creativity?
One of the most basic of these is the bus stop ad - a one sheet poster. However, much more inventive use can be made of the bus stop environment, as this FT sponsored example shows, with newsprint wrapped around the supporting columns and the whole bus stop given over to Financial Times advertising.
Size matters: especially in advertising. Buildings in prominent places can be partly or wholly remade as giant billboards as these examples show.
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