Advertising
The aim of advertising is to influence the consumers. Advertisers use all kinds of psychological tricks to achieve their aims. The wish to buy the advertised brand goes hand in hand with the illusion of becoming as beautiful and desirable as the persons who advertise the products. In this essay I will discuss how the advertising managers want to achieve their aims and their psychological tricks.
Characters, who are shown in advertising are almost perfect. Good-looking, successful and often famous people talk about the advantages of a product. They do it in such a convincing way to make people feel with buying a certain item, they get a solution for their everyday problems. There are different possibilties of presenting people that the consumer can identify with. The common method is to present a famous personality for example sportsmen, actors or pop stars. They are shown on a poster or a TV commercial using a certain product and generally saying a few prepared words in favour of it. Such "stars " can earn a lot of money for advertising. These people are often regarded as model for a large number of consumers. The advertiser's hope is that their appearance on advertisements will encourage imitation. Many firms like "Palmers" and "Wolford" show on their advertisments and commercials young women with soft skin and shiny long hair, in underwear with a seductive look on their faces. Not only do they aim at the secret wish of many women to be irresistible, but also at men's desires to be the lover of such a sexy girl.
Another, more recent, method, consists in presenting ordinary people like "the girl next door", the "man from the street", simply people like you and me in advertisements. Here it is hoped that the consumer will find it easier to identify with them. Of Course, it is necessary that the people presented correspond to the average taste and ideals of the group at which the advertisement is aimed. If the product is mainly meant for middle-aged people of the higher income classes, the poster or the TV commercial will have to feature for example a successful-looking executive.On the one hand, some advertisements are, or pretend to be extremly factual. There are two ways of giving an advertisement a factual overtone. Either an "expert" for example a chemist, technician or doctor, appears on the TV screen and speaks about the advantages of a product, or an ordinary person comes and speaks about his or her personal positve experience with the certain product. Both methods try to create the impression of objectivity and truth.
Some advertisements bring to mind fairy-tales. Altough they are aimend at adult consumers, they are, at times, quite childish. There are all kind of objects that can speak and walk and have human feelings. Consumers should develop a personal, emotional attitude to the product.
To reinforce the message of TV-commercials the advertisers create a relaxing atmosphere and a nice setting. The stimulating effect is created with certain kinds of music, ranging from classical melodies to popmusic. In newspaper advertisements, on posters or on TV you mostly see beautiful, happy and successful people, beautiful landscapes, elegant and comfortable apartments, expensive and luxurious cars. Stunning pictures of the beach or wide countryside in combination with a fast car attract people's attention. Advertisements suggest a certain life-style that many people dream of, but never achieve. Words like "freedom", "beauty", "success" are often unsed in connection with certain products.
Slogans and jingles are effective means in advertising. Recognizing the power of TV-commercials on children in the early fifties, the advertising industry was able to convince the firms of how easy it is to imprint messages on children's minds. It has beed found out hat commercials with male announcers are 25% more effective on children because they are exposed to female voices most of the day. For toddlers it is quite fascinating to listen to easily understandable rhymes, where the name of the product is repeated over and over again. Children can be easily conditioned to be enthusiastic about a product. It does not take long until the slogans are sung by the little kids all day long. However, in Austira, advertisemnets which aim directly at children as consumers are forbidden.
In conclusion, let me say, that I am fascinated. how easily we are manipulated with simple tricks. Every day the advertising industry learns more and more about influancing people. Sometimes I am afraid about it, I thought, if they can use their knowledge for positives activities, some people can make use of it for bad ideas, for example proparganda. However, I see also some positves. For instance advertising contributes to the economic growth of a country as a whole, and in this way helps to create employment, it pays for television programmes and keeps prices of newspapers and magazines down.
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