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6th Semester GENERIC ELECTIVE (ENGLISH)
Media and Communication Skills
Unit 2 Understanding Advertising
We are surrounded by advertisements from every corner – wherever we look we are always forced to view an advertisement in this globalized world of ours. Every corner of the world is sufficed with advertisements as that would help the seller sells their products and services to us. Wherever the potential customers are there, advertisements are always there.
As we are the potential customers therefore advertisements are everywhere – in markets, in bus stands, in railway stations, in airports, on buses, on metro trains, on billboards, on kiosks in significant places and numerous other places. We switch on the TV and there are ads; we switch on FM radio and in between songs, there are ads; we visit a site on the internet, there are advertisements; we go to a movie hall, advertisements come before the movie begins; even within the movies certain products and services are advertised.
What is an Advertisement?
An advertisement can be defined as a selling message for the mass from an identified sponsor whose objective is to sell a product or a service or an idea to the mass. Marshall McLuhan is of the opinion that “advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.” It is the greatest form of art as within a short span of time the ad-maker has to tell an interesting story for making the audience get hooked to the story and within the story has to tell about a particular product or service within a short period of time so that people are forced to get attracted to the product or service and then buy it.
The Definition of Advertisement according to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)-
An advertisement is defined as a paid-for communication, addressed to the public or a section of it, the purpose of which is to influence the opinions or behavior of those to whom it is addressed. Any written or graphic matter on the packaging, or contained in it, is subject to this Code (ASCI Code).
By now it must have been clear to you that like any other communication process, advertising also has all the elements associated with the communication. They are
An identified Sponsor – the person or the organization giving the ad with a motif – primarily to sell and make a profit.
(b) A Target Audience – whom the identified sponsor wants to target so as to provoke, persuade, and attract their attention towards the product or service and also to keep on reminding them about it.
(c) The message – The Ad itself.
(d) The Channel – the medium through which the ad is presented to the target audience – whether audio-visual or visual, etc.
(e) The feedback – the feedback to the advertisement may come in terms of the actual sales of the product or the service or it may also be in terms of proper feedback of the advertisement as people do not swap channels when the advertisement is coming on air.
Origin of the term Advertising -
The term advertising is derived from the Latin word advertere, which means, “turning attention towards a specific thing.”
Each product uses a different kind of idea to sell its product. These days we see that Patanjali products are being advertised with the idea of ‘swadeshi’; whereas Dabur is using the star power of an aged actor Amitabh Bachchan to sell its products. Each product or service tries to find an equivalent brand ambassador and/or a bright idea to advertise its product.
Some of the success stories of ad campaigns are–
1 Hamara Bajaj Campaign – the target audience is the middle class where a middle-class family is incomplete without a Bajaj Scooter. The catchy lines “Buland Bharat ki Buland Tasveer” immediately strike a chord with the people.
2 Cadbury Campaigns -- Kuch meetha ho Jaye, ‘Kuch khas hai’ and ‘Shubh Aarambh’ campaigns – where the emotional and psychological quotient of the audience is stirred as Indian festivals are usually celebrated with sweets whether it Rakhi or Diwali.
3. Coca-Cola Campaign – Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola – In India common people still term a cold drink as thanda and when Coca-Cola came up with the campaign it immediately established a connection with the people.
4 Amul Ad – ‘Utterly Butterly” delicious Amul Butter – the Amul Girl ad is still a favorite amongst the people. This campaign is also one of the longest campaigns.
Publicity and Advertising:
Publicity and Advertising are forms of non-personal mass communication meant to create awareness, but they differ in terms of the money involved in the communication process.
Whereas Advertising is a paid form of communication intending to create awareness about a specific product or service or idea,
publicity is mostly free of charge – as publicity is usually done through the grapevine, or through articles, editorials or announcements, or feedback articles. Often comments and photographs by users and consumers on different social media sites and elsewhere also create free publicity.
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