Advertising - Lecture Notes

Is advertising prostitution?

It is considered:

• A capitalist tool used to change value in society
• Influential in changing our opinions of what we need and want

There is no short term effect specific to a single product, but it changes the way we think over a long period of time. 

Advertising can often be sexist by using people as cultural stereotypes of their gender.

An example of 1950s illustration shows women being portrayed as the less intelligent gender. 

A more modern piece shows women as a weaker gender and how peoples opinions of what women shouldn’t do pushes them down in society. 

Does sex sell?

Advertisements are often over sexualised to grab the attention of a certain audience and provide unrealistic aspirations for consumers. 

Others provide a humorous approach to this advertising mechanism. 

Pros to advertising

It drives global economies

It drives creativity 

• 1st wave - creating utopia
• 2nd wave - persuasive communication to fulfil dreams

Advertising and art feed each others development - advertising in itself is a powerful art form. Here is a very literal example of advertising taking inspiration from Dali's 'The Persistence of Memory.' 

It shapes popular culture by playing on trends and creating new ones.  

It provides entertainment.

It provides enlightenment and inspiration. This advert draws attention to a detail which makes you realise that priorities are totally wrong.

It reflects values, hopes and dreams. 

Challenges you to do something and makes you think you are capable of doing things you never thought you could.

Questions social norms and attitudes and pushes boundaries to get a message across. 

Raises social awareness, for example this piece highlights the issue of testing cosmetic products on animals. 

I did not attend this lecture due to a clash in my timetable, however, looking through the slides I am trying to understand what the lecture was about. In light of looking at this, I can see that there are many advantages to advertising as it has the power to change public perception and raise awareness of important topics. However, advertising does become more of a controversial topic when it uses selling techniques that could be considered inappropriate or offensive. I agree that a lot of adverts nowadays are over sexualised which isn't necessary or relevant to the products being advertised but I understand that advertisers need to keep pushing boundaries in society to get their message noticed.