Advertising is how companies communicate to the public in order to try and persuade them to buy their product or service.
They can advertise through different types of media including:
TV
Radio
Internet
They can also advertise through:
Billboards
Magazines/newspapers
Buses
Advertising can also be used by organisations for example - political parties and military recruiters.
How does advertising work?
Advertising works by trying to create something where the consumer feels that if they consume the advert they will be better in a certain way. An example of this is make-up adverts.
In make-up adverts they usually use a really good looking, slim model, who will look “perfect”. In a make-up advert they’ll be advertising it to make it look as though you will have flawless skin and will look completely different and gorgeous, so people will be more persuaded to buy it because they believe it will work the same for them too.
Another similar example is clothing adverts. Adverts for big clothing brands will almost always have a tall, skinny, attractive model, or muscly if it’s a male model, and the clothes will look really good on them, so again people will believe it will be the same for them and it will make them want to go out and buy them so they can look good too. Because these companies also use really skinny models it also can make consumers - especially younger ones - think that you also need to be that skinny to be attractive.Today companies spend £17 million a year on advertising.
Celebrity endorsement
Celebrity endorsement is when companies or organisations employ celebrities to advertise their product or service. They use celebrities because the public are more easy to influence if the person advertising is someone they admire or look up to. A good example of celebrity is David Beckham, not only is he a role model for hundreds of young children he is also admired by both women who want him and men who want to be him, he has done advertising campaigns for Adidas and Armani…