Advertising from my viewpoint refers to promotional means of goods, services, or product to the public, with an aim of sales increases by drawing the attention of people through positive campaigns of their target products. Advertisement has changed into a compound form of communication, where thousands of businesses make new advertisement each year targeting their consumers, by conveying messages, which promotes their products. Methods of advertising are common in our daily lives, and the early Egyptians, and the ruins in Pompeii saw signs of the first form of advertisement from paintings in caves, and writings. Advertising has come a long way to its present state, for instance, in England in the 1666, the aftermath of the great fire of London saw a boost in newspaper advertisement then, through advertisement of lost and changed home addresses. This type of advertisement was descriptive, and not persuasive (Catherine Et al, 2000).
This was the major turnaround in the advertisement industry and had the greatest influence in advertisement for various reasons, as this era saw a change in advertisement from print newspaper to the use of television and radio. This era significantly influenced the course of advertisement, and the role it played in changing the economy. The great depression introduced the hire purchase agreement on costly goods such as washing machines and cars. Because of the new change in product buying, advertisers took advantage of the new trend and profited on the new media. The need to send message to a wide audience saw the use of cinemas in advertisement and radio rise, although not directly advertising the products. It was until the 1920s that radio commercial were on the rise, since the public had a craving for radio but there was no means of them paying directly for the broadcast to reach them. This was the best time for advertisers to play as intermediaries in delivering their messages to the public by paying the broadcasters for the listening periods they broadcast to the public. More and more people listened to the radio, and this prompted major funding of radio dramas by Proctor and Gamble, thus soap opera became the gnome at the time. It was until 1929 when the media scene changed dramatically when Wall St. stock market went bankrupt and crashed out of the market. The outcome was a dramatic decrease in the demand of newspapers, as hard-hit consumers preferred to listen to radio at the cost of newspapers, as magazine owners put their publication on sale.
This downfall in the print advertisement greatly influenced the rise in cinema attendance as advertisers opted to use cinemas and radio to convey their message to the public. Ad agencies were the hardest hit, by 1930s, the game in advertisement went a notch high, with sex, threats, and violence being the new trend, as products became vital necessities, and not luxuries products. Ads bullied and hustled consumers, targeting their income through aggressive methods.
The Outcome of This Era
The era that changed advertisement, had both a negative and positive outcome to the society. For instance, it introduced television, and explicit content advertisement. This is clear in most advertisement, where particularly the advertisers targeted the youth and middle-aged in consumer awareness, as these audiences have a taste sexy products and adult toys preference in mind. To some extent, broadcasters set aside a specific time for placing such adverts. In view of the community, some people may argue that such adverts only promote immoral behavior and doings among teenagers and the youth in particularly. One can argue that the vast explicit advert in this modern time was because of laxity by the government to control such advertisements. Nonetheless, this era has had a positive outcome in the advertisement industry, since the television and the radio became the most common and preferred means of advertisement by producers, due to the vast number of people worldwide that preferred to listen and see adverts on radios and television.
Social Medias
The introduction of social media has had a tremendous impact on the development in advertisements, where investors and producers advertise their products through social Medias such as face book and tweeter. Since this are the most used social networks around the world, it is very easy for consumers to learn of a new product in the market. Other inventions such as Google, in the use of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) have been popular among advertisers targeting internet users. This has been the most noticeable difference in historic ads with today’s ads, for instance, early methods of advertisement included writings in pieces of billboards, printed newspapers and handwritten post cards. This was the common methods used, and with time; there has been a turn around with today’s advertisement, which includes YouTube, for video adverts, face book, and tweeter through social media adverts, celebrity advertising, covert advertising in movies, and Google, and the famous online advertisement.
Conclusion
All these modern methods in advertisement have contributed to product competition, and better consumer awareness. What surprised me particularly is the aggressiveness and methods used in advertisement. For instance, some advertisers place deceitful adverts with negative attributes just to lure unknowing consumers to purchase their products. The best part in this all is the lesson learned from knowing better methods of advertising, and realizing the importance of advertisement in running a business, which of course is vital for every entrepreneur.
References
Katherine Howe, M. L. (2000). Understanding Advertising: History, Persuasion Techniques,
Mass Media, Target Audiences, Ad Creation. Texas: Prufrock Press Inc.
Tipper, H. (2012). The Principles of Advertising. Tennessee: General Books LLC.
