Advertising: Questions Flashcards
Be able to answer the following questions.
In addition to identifying central tropes of ads - Be able to identify the ways in which as break with conventions
Central tropes include: Jingles Slogans Stereotypes Icon Before and After Scare copy Nostalgia Intertexuality Overpromise Testimonials Pseudoscience Reason Why Puffery Benefit over the product Encounter with adventure Old style
Describe the conditions surrounding the birth of the advertising agent - when was this and what were his roles?
1840’s - birth of the advertising agent (mostly men)
Contributed to the advancement of technology
Roles were to…
How were ad men of the early 20th century town criers of modernity?
AKA “criers of fashion and progress”
Bridge between people and producers of goods
They pushed America toward depending on products for EFFICIENCY
*new scale of life = a QUICK lifestyle / world of rapid
movement from about the product to about the consumer
construction of consumer identities
Why does Raymond Williams call advertising a magic system?
Plays on the hopes and anxieties of the consumer
Wipes meaning away from the product (labour, cost, waste)
Objects are not merely objects - personal meaning, inducement and satisfaction
How does colour work to create meaning in ads?
See Strasser and Williamson
What happens to advertising during the wartime? Who does it target and what is being “sold”?
Target: women
What was sold: Recruitment ads Factory work Lifestyle It said something about the woman
Be able to name some major technological and historical developments that lead to advertising as we know it and explain how each contributes.
Technological Development
Print - Newspaper (penny paper), Chromolythography
Radio - became a part of domestic life, initially as a means of education, ads became a central role (ETHER ADVERTISING - selling of time to private interest groups; like selling an ad in newspapers or magazines, ad agents receiving commission)
Brand awareness over focus on a particular product
Television
Historical Developments
Industrial Revolution
War
Post-War Era
What were the major subjects and formats of the earliest newspaper?
Major Subjects
Newspapers were initially for the affluent
Explain Jean Kilbourne’s argument about gender in advertising - why does she believe ads matter?
Ads say that looks are the most important; surrounds people with the image of ideal female beauty (flawlessness that cannot be attained)
White ideal vs black (exoticism)
Objectification of women’s bodies = dismemberment (focus on one part - i.e. breasts)
Dramatic increase in cosmetic procedures
Cult of Thinness - obsession with being thin, if not thin enough, fixed with photoshop
Role of men vs women
Promotes unhealthy attitudes, eating disorders
Explain the structural role of advertising in the development of radio and television. How are these stories similar and distinct?
RADIO - ether advertising, how programming is run, how funding is accounted for (moral and ethical issues about media invading the family unit), no initial framework (unlike television)
Initially for education
A part of the domestic life, in contrast to newspapers
Around the time of the Great Depression
TELEVISION - following WWII
Relied on the radio model; advertising was a part of tv to begin with (no issues like radio)
1950s Spot - advertisements that filled breaks between programmes
How to reach a wider audience, more consumers; largest coverage of potential consumers
Be able to identify and talk about the ads we spent the most time on in lecture: what conventions or ideas do they illustrate and what do they contribute the story of adveritsing overall?
Marlboro Man - red tip was initially for women however the cowboy figure was able to repackage this cigarette and give it a new meaning
Lemon BMW - mocking
Understand some of the historical and structural forces that contribute to the turn to market segmentation and in turn how advertisements impact constructions of identity?
Market Segmentation
