The advertising chapter opened with some intriguing insights. Despite the common misconception that advertising has only really evolved recently, (since the implementation of newspapers) the book dates early rudimentary forms of advertising back to 1200 B.C., and even mentions that “Advertising became part of the American experience even before settlers arrived” (Biagi, 214). Even though advertising has been around for several centuries, critics often comment on the many setbacks of early advertising, as well as the magnitude of which it has evolved over time.
The very first newspaper advertisement appeared in The Boston News Letter in 1704. In the 1800s, The Penny Press began using advertisements as a means of counterbalancing its costs. Newspapers began to catch on to this strategy and became dependent on advertisements. Despite the initial intention to use ads as a source of income, newspapers failed to filter ads and would “accept advertising from anyone who paid for it” (Biagi, 214). This created a problem because advertisements were extremely deceitful, and were soon deemed an embarrassment to have in ones newspaper. Thus, advertisements weren’t socially accepted until 1887 when the Ladies’ Home Journal “promoted advertising as a way for magazines to succeed” (Biagi, 215). Eventually, Congress created the Federal Trade Commission as a filter for deceptive advertising in 1914, and other forms of media began using advertisements as well. For instance, the WEAF a New York radio company broadcast the first ever radio ads in 1922. This was eventually introduced in television, (which began as an advertising medium) as well as on the internet.
Initial problems with advertising included its lack of reliability, for, the advertisements consisted of “hopeful overstatements, half-truths, and downright lies” (Biagai, 214). Later problems with advertising however, began to get a lot more complex. For instance, mass mediums allotted for a lot more competition among the advertising world. Despite the more affordable costs of radio advertisements, (versus the thirty second $100,000 cost of TV ads) television advertisements were becoming one of the best ways to advertise, for they could “catch your eye, ear or heart” (Biagi, 218) something that earlier forms of media could not compete with. Thus, it became increasingly hard for other mass mediums to co-exist with the increasingly advanced technology that also carried advertisement. Correspondingly, with the magnitude of ads being produced, advertisers are having to find unique ways to get consumers brand differentiate their product over the leading competitors. Likewise, advertising agencies misconstrued the revenue advertisements would bring in on the internet. Assuming that advertisements would “take off” and be an extremely successful form of promoting products; they failed to realize that most consumers click out of advertisements, or completely ignore them altogether. Thus, it has become inconclusive as to how effective ads on the Internet really are in engaging consumers’ interests.
Technological changes are consistently occurring, and are among one of the three factors that will “affect the future of advertising business” (Biagi, 227). With international marketing campaigns becoming more and more apparent, ads are being forced to produce messages that will agree with a neutral audience and have a universal persuasive effect. In addition to this, the book states that “as new media technologies create new outlets, the advertising community must adapt” (Biagi, 227). This is evident through the constant search for a way to make Internet advertisements appealing to consumers. Finally, the book describes a third factor that ad companies must regularly monitor: the shifting demographic patterns. In other words, ad companies must continue to adapt to audiences, or situations- whether it’s adjusting the programming to be multi-cultural and include Spanish dialogue, or decreasing the amount of ads when the economy is in a recession.
The book specifies six job categories advertising can be divided into. While this does allow for more jobs, there is no telling what technological advances could occur next , and with the steadily decreasing use of newspapers it is likely that this mass medium (and eventually several others) could become extinct, which would lead to a decrease in jobs. Thus, it would be wise to invest in an advertising job that is aimed at a thriving media, such as television.
Simply superb work.
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