Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication, it’s used to persuade people to buy products or use services from a company. Advertising is mostly used to drive consumer with a respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is common. Messages sent out through advertising, are using paid for by sponsors and viewed through various media including; newspapers, magazines, television commercials, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail (these are known as mass media), they are also viewed through new media such as websites and text messaging.

As well as in fashion photography, commercial photography is used a lot in advertising, commercial photography through advertising can be used anywhere from selling a product through merchandising to in brochures or leaflets. Commercial advertisers often try to increase the use of their products/services through ‘Branding’; this involves the repetition of an image in an attempt to relate certain qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Non- commercial advertisers spend money to advertise through political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies.

Since the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, modern advertising has developed with the rise of mass production. In 2010, it was estimated that more than $300 billion in the United States and $500 billion worldwide was spent on advertising.

When it comes to advertising there are 5 main points advertisers have to think about for the adverts to be effective;

1.    Have a ‘stopping power’, to make people stop and look at it.

2.    Make an impression, if they make an impression on people, they are more likely to buy a product or use a service.

3.    Be understandable, making an advert understandable will appeal to more people as they won’t have a lot to think about.

4.    Include moving messages, if an advert has a message people are more likely to remember the message and then associated it with the advertisement.

5.    Have a ‘locking power’, adverts that have a ‘locking power’ will make the advert ‘lock’ into the audiences head.

Many techniques can be used in advertising such as; an appeal to emotion, associations and fear tactics. When advertisers use to technique to appeal to an emotion, they normally attempt to cover the emotions experienced by people in everyday life. An example of this is a women looking at a tray of diamonds in a shop window, as her husband stands from a distance smiling, the text on the advert reads ‘show your love’. This is an appeal to emotion and the need to please someone you love. When advertisers use association they try to associate their product with the people, values and lifestyles illustrated in the adverts. If the advert contained a man offering a ring to a women, in a luxuriously furnished apartment and the text reads ‘love has no price’. This would be associating the purchase of the diamond ring to wealth, and if the male and female were in a close embrace it would be associating love and romance. Using the technique fear tactics, advertisers attempt to sell their product by playing on our fears, they do this by basically saying if you buy the product the fear will end. An example of fear tactic is; a man and a women warmly embracing while displaying the diamond ring on her finger, the text reads ‘he just gave her a diamond. She thinks it absolutely perfect, she thinks he is too’. The fear tactic here is that if you don’t buy a woman a diamond ring, there will be a fear of rejection or unhappiness. These three advertising techniques can overlap in one advertisement, but there will be one main technique used.