Advertising Most consumer ads (perhaps 75%) in an affluent society simply emphasize acquisition. There are so many possible "goods" available, and so many sellers and stores. Our desires can be so unlimited that advertisers simply try to persuade us that their product is the "good" which deserves high priority on our list of wants. In contrast to "protection" products, which stress care and maintenance of what we already have, most "acquisition" ads urge us to get more and to consume. Here, advertising's job is to make us discontent with what we already have, to encourage us always to want something more, something else. Key verbs, commonly used in most acquisition ads:
buy, get, use, try, enjoy, select, choose, purchase, obtain.
Other verbs are appropriate to specific products:
taste, eat, drink, smoke, wear, see, hear, listen to, feel, experience,
shop at, go to, come to, stay at, play with, travel on, fly, ride.
Some services are a means to an end.
Credit cards (Visa, Master Charge), for example, offer a means to
acquire goods quickly or conveniently, intensifying these features,
and downplaying the cost of the high interest. Credit cards encourage
"instant gratification" (carpe diem) and give
permission ("you deserve it") to treat yourself well! Local retail stores and shopping malls
run many display ads, usually in local newspapers, competing
to bring customers to acquire the nationally-advertised products at
their specific place of business. Business ads promise benefits to business travelers (airlines, hotels, rental cars) and offer office equipment (computers, phone services, online services, package delivery services). Cumulative Effects Here the cumulative effects of advertising can be noticed: not only of the individual brands, but also of the generic kinds of products and services we want. For example, eating out in fast-food restaurants (regardless of what franchise) is commonly accepted today, as is eating microwave meals at home (regardless of the brand), and using ATMs and credit cards, mobile phones and a host of electronic devices (regardless of brand). For better or worse, increasingly fewer young people are able to cook "from scratch"; and more young people have almost no "entertainment experiences" other than the highly-advertised movies, pop concerts, videogames and DVDs. In a broader view, the overwhelming emphasis on acquisition of new things has obscured the need for maintenance of what we already have. New cars, for example, are heavily advertised, but our society gives little attention to repairs of the decaying infrastructure (roads, bridges) needed to handle millions of new cars. Tangible and Intangible Benefits Ads can promise tangible or intangible benefits. Tangible "goods" can mean a specific brand of product or service (such as Revlon lip gloss, or McDonald's Big Mac); or a kind of product (such as cosmetics, or fast food restaurants.) Product-centered ads focus on tangibles. Explicit claims for tangibles can be measured. Regulations can sometimes be made to get ads to "live up to their claims." Audience-centered ads focus on intangibles. Implicit suggestions for intangibles cannot be measured. Because no specific claims are made explicitly, such ads are very hard to regulate. Usually, the association technique is used, linking (1) the product or service, with (2) something already liked or desired by (3) the intended audience. Intangible "goods" relates to our desires, our hopes and dreams: our feelings of security, success, happiness, virtue, wisdom, popularity, of being loved and admired. Cosmetic ads, for example, will show beautiful models in settings suggesting sex appeal, popularity, wealth. "We make lipstick," said Charles Revson, the cosmetic manufacturer, in a famous quote,"but we sell hope." Shop 'til you drop! For a history of shopping back to ancient days, check out Thomas Hine, I Want That! (2003) who writes "Indeed, our economic health depends upon shoppers' ceaseless lust for the inessential." Political Persuasion Advertising puts the focus on material goods and services to individuals. Political rhetoric usually is concerned with non-material goods -- conditions, states of being, policies (peace, prosperity, justice, security)-- benefits to a group, sometimes a large group (a nation), sometimes a sub-group (women, minorities, poor) within a larger group. In most cases, progressive rhetoric describes the positive appeals to get the good ("I have a dream..."). But, in international affairs, nations, can be too greedy to acquire more "goods"-- often in terms of their neighbors' territory. Political persuaders often promote the feeling within a country to support an eagerness to acquire more territory, more power. Such expansionism, such colonialism such imperialism to create an empire, has frequently occurred in history. In every case, words have justified and supported such expansion. Such expansionism is usually accompanied with the God-on-our-side justification that "we are right" -- doing God's will. Deo volunte! cried the Crusaders. European colonization of Africa and South America was done under the banner of bringing civilization and Christianity to the natives: it was the "white man's burden" to civilize the savage. Later, Islamic expansionism spread eastward, bringing the word of Allah and his prophet Mohammed to the isles of Indonesia and Malaysia. Today, Islamic terrorists justify their cause as a jihad, a holy war, while American leaders claim that God is on our side. Hitler invaded the Saar and the Sudetenland to " free" the German populace there, and to give lebensraum ("living space") to the German people. In the 19th century, the United States expanded all over the continent because of the idea of "Manifest Destiny": isn't it obvious, isn't it manifest that God created us to rule? |
||||
