Love your adman as you would yourself !
* We now come to a significant moment in our exploration of the ins and outs of this fascinating field of economic endeavour, namely, the advertising industry. How heartless we have indeed shown ourselves in our relentless criticism of the feckless, irresponsible adman ! The poor creature is just doing his job after all. Some of us would be quite happy to be appointed head of marketing for a dogfood company or a laxative product. “Hey, Mary, I've just been made marketing head of Poopy laxatives !! It's all downhill from here, baby ! Hold the Brussel sprouts !“ How cruel of us.
* As people tend to regard them favourably, let us establish an open list as to the merits and demerits of an advertising industry in any given developed country. We are dealing in macro terms here, in order to stimulate debate.
* The advantages of the list are to allow one to quickly group elements in a visibly accessible form, without having to write 20 pages of text. It is also undeniable that one of the consequences of the immediacy of information-retrieval on the Internet may indeed be that of consequent superficiality. So be it. Lists, while condensed, thus non-exhaustive, do however provoke thought, discussion and opposing views, all healthy.
* We leave aside here the debate on State advertising, which can touch on propaganda - term interestingly enough, coined by the Roman Catholic church to designate its early missionary activities. We will include, on the other hand, advertising for worthy causes and for public service announcements such as road safety, HIV-AIDS, alcohol abuse etc.
ARGUMENTS FOR ADVERTISING
Major Elements
- Serves as the locomotive to propel or the lubricant to grease (choose your metaphor), the capitalist consumer society
- Erects an ideal model of societal values through pedagogical universality and ubiquity (socialising role)
- Favorises a materialist, individualistic form of societal behaviour, thereby opposing spirituality, collectivism and fanaticism
- Furnishes, through identification, sub-conscious dreams or life solutions to consumers (escapism, see also religion)
- Proposes immortality through obedience (the dead don't earn)
- Adapts swiftly and remorselessly to deep societal changes (no-change is good, change is good)
- Suggests, per purchase, a series of mini-templates for happiness/ contentment/ satisfaction (if you buy...then you will...)
- Elicits in consumers, feelings of rivalry/ envy, which may be economically productive (I want one like that too...)
Minor Elements
- Displays, shows and pre-informs on the supply of products and services on offer to consumers
- In so doing, facilitates consumer choice at POS (Point of sale) by packaging recognition
- Recognises and thus psychologically encourages and supports economic target groups (children, bank loan seekers, car-buyers...you exist !)
- Informs on the specifications of diverse products/services for purposes of comparison (price, ingredients, conditions...)
- Helps develop an aesthetic sense in consumers: visual/ aural/ textual / ludic creations appreciated en tant que tel (fun factor)
- May underpin national or regional unity through sales discourse (1998 soccer World Cup, Superbowl...)
- Improves consumer reading, comprehension, vocabulary and maths skills (price per kilo, humour, wordplay...)
* This constitues a start, hopefully objective, to be completed with your help if you wish, as we advance. Some of the above possess a flip side of course, being both positive and negative according to one's take on the subject.
* Our next post will (possibly) add to this list and will undertake to establish a list of negative characteristics of advertising. Should go to several tomes...
STUDENT CONTRIBUTIONS (note that there may be some overlap with those above)
Advantages of Advertising, minor and major
- helps people discover that 'undiscovered' need, which he or she was trying to imagine... (Mariana)
- informs people about the health of the company (see institutional ads) or about their own health (see public campaigns for the health sector)(Mariana)
- develops people's creativity and serves as a good subject to talk about with your friends over dinner, during unlimited cellphone calls, or with your bored grandfather (Mariana)
- teaches people how to use a product and understand its function/purpose (Alexandre)
- allows people/gives them the space to compare products to identify which one is the best (Alexandre)
- helps traditional media, such as serious newspapers with decreasing sales and even public TV channels, to survive in times of free online publications. These private sector "cash injections" can help ensure good in-depth journalism (Stefan)
- can be interesting/enjoyable/funny per se; ads entertain us (Romain, Gabriella)
- constitutes a way for elders/senior citizens to keep in touch, at least stay informed, on the evolutions of new technologies (Romain)
- by focussing on environmental problems, may have popularized the issue of global planetary threats, which may then be researched elsewhere... (Tamia)
- contributes to democracy through public debate (Tamia) Example : ?
- presents life (as does consumerism), as simplified, often as caricature, but easy to follow (Farida)
- uses a common "référent culturel"(cultural stereotypes), so as a target, one rarely feels "lost in translation", thanks to common codes and references (in France for example, "Les Trois Mousquetaires", Claude François...)(Farida)
- if, as an adult, you're able to watch an ad and think : "this is manipulation and I am not going to fall into the trap", then Kant himself would have said that you were freeing yourself from the "guardianship" of mainstream thinking. This emancipation wouldn't be possible if advertising didn't exist (Farida)
- allows, just as tyranny or injustice pushes the best of people to become committed freedom fighters (e.g. Nelson Mandela), the most enlightened to become the heroic denouncers of the abuses of advertising and of consumerism in a globalised world (except some Parisian "bobos" and some latino "revolucionarios")(Farida)
- provides students with jobs in the industry (Pedro, Sophie, Pierre, Etienne)
- contributes to many sectors of the economy (without publicity, newspapers, TV etc. wouldn't be economically viable, for it is their main source of income)(Pedro, Sophie)
- encourages special offers and thereby helps the citizen/customer save money. Without advertising, special offers might not exist (Pedro)
- due to the constant flow/wave of commercials, stimulates a critical awareness in people, thus protecting them from commercial intrusions in their private thoughts and opinions; a sort of Darwinian process, a new kind of survival of the fittest : you filter or you drown in the wave (Emilie)
- although not essential to capitalism (one can buy a yoghurt or a shampoo without even having seen ads for those products), advertising exists, creates employment and stimulates growth (Emilie)
- succeeds in creating short stories that last one minute or even less ; to this extent, advertising could be considered as an art, just like the cinema (Maëva, Pierre)
- contributes to creating a TV culture ! (Maëva) Positive ?
- encourages lower prices; increases sales, which leads to higher production and more jobs, thus a virtuous circle (Sophie)
- encourages people's choices and decision-taking (Etienne)
- encourages diversity in society. Example : ? (Etienne)
- may provide the financial wherewithal for culturally or socially useful activities (sport teams, schools…), through sponsorship, for example (Lola)
- makes people aware of topical questions around the world or at a national/local level Example : ? (Gabriella)
- can create positive values of solidarity, cooperation, etc. Example : ? (Gabriella)
(à suivre)
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