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Chapter 11: Essay
Essay
1. Whom did the first ad agents serve, and how did they operate?
ANSWER:
The first American advertising agencies were what were called newspaper space
brokers. They were individuals who purchased space in newspapers and sold it to
various merchants. Newspapers, accustomed to a 25 percent nonpayment rate from
advertisers, welcomed the space brokers, who paid up front. Brokers usually received
discounts of 15 to 30 percent but sold the space to advertisers at the going rate. In
1841, Volney Palmer opened a prototype of the first ad agency in Boston. He charged
a 25 percent commission from newspaper publishers, then he sold the space to
advertisers.
2. How did packaging and trademarks influence advertising?
ANSWER:
During the mid-1800s, most manufacturers served retail store owners. These
owners set their own prices by purchasing goods in large quantities. However,
manufacturers began to realize that if their products were distinguishable from other
similar products and were associated with quality, customers would ask for them by
name. This would allow manufacturers to dictate prices without worrying about
being undersold by stores’ generic products or bulk items. Advertising let
manufacturers establish a special identity for their products, separate from those of
their competitors.
Nineteenth-century advertisements often created the illusion of significant
differences among products when in fact very few differences actually existed. But
when people began demanding certain products—either because of quality or
because of advertising—manufacturers were able to raise the prices of their goods.
With ads creating and maintaining brand-name recognition, retail stores had to stock
the desired brands.
3. In what way did patent medicines and department stores figure prominently in advertising in
the late 1800s?
ANSWER:
By the end of the 1800s, patent medicines and department stores accounted for half
of the revenue taken in by ad agencies. Meanwhile, one-sixth of all print ads came
from patent medicine and drug companies. These ads ensured the financial survival
of numerous magazines as the role of the publisher changed from being a seller of a
product to consumers to being a gatherer of consumers for the advertisers.
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Chapter 11: Essay
by creating demand for new products. This helped manufacturers create new markets
and recover product start-up costs quickly. From rural areas to cities, advertising
spread the word—first in newspapers and magazines and later on radio and
television. Second, advertising promoted technological advances by showing how
new machines—such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and cars—could
improve daily life. Third, advertising encouraged economic growth by increasing
sales. To meet the demand generated by ads, manufacturers produced greater
quantities, which reduced their costs per unit, but they did not always pass these
savings along to consumers.
5. What are the major divisions at most ad agencies, and what are the functions of each?
ANSWER:
Traditional ad agencies, regardless of their size, generally divide the labor among
four departments: account planning, creative development, media coordination, and
account management.
The account planner’s role is to develop an effective advertising strategy by
combining the views of the client, the creative team, and consumers. Because
consumers are difficult to understand, account planners coordinate market research to
assess the behaviors and attitudes of consumers toward particular products long
before any ads are created. Also, some researchers contract with outside polling firms
to conduct regional and national studies of consumer preferences.
The creative team is made up of writers and artists. The creative department outlines
the rough sketches for print and online ads and then develops the words and graphics.
For radio, the creative side prepares a working script, generating ideas for everything
from choosing the narrator’s voice to determining background sound effects. For
television, the creative department develops a storyboard, a sort of blueprint or
roughly drawn comic-strip version of the potential ad. For digital media, the creative
team may develop websites, interactive tools, flash games, downloads, and viral
marketing—short videos or other content that (marketers hope) will quickly gains
widespread attention as users share it with friends online or by word of mouth.
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Chapter 11: Essay
orientations. The most recent system classifies people by their primary consumer
motivations: ideals, achievement, or self-expression. Many agencies believe that
VALS research can give them an edge.
7. Why is there often tension between the research and creative departments at some agencies?
ANSWER:
Often the creative side of the business finds itself in conflict with the research side.
However, both the creative and the strategic sides of the business acknowledge that
they cannot predict with any certainty which ads and which campaigns will succeed.
The creative side may think about the actual ad while the research may suggest that it
is the values of the consumer that make the difference. Agencies say ads work best
by slowly creating brand-name identities by associating certain products over time
with quality and reliability in the minds of consumers.
8. Why are privacy advocates concerned about online advertising techniques?
ANSWER:
Compared to ads in traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines, radio,
and television, Internet ads offer many advantages to advertisers. Perhaps the biggest
advantage—and probably the most disturbing part for citizens—is that marketers can
develop profiles that directly target ads to specific website visitors. They do this by
collecting information about each Internet user through cookies and online surveys.
For example, when you are online, you may be asked to fill out a survey to be
eligible to win prizes, or an online newspaper may require that you create an account
for free access to the site. Marketers use that information to build a profile about you.
Recently, we have been made aware of the bots that track our search habits and plant
fake news. So, the cookies that a site attaches to your profile allow them to track your
activities on the site. They can also add to your profile by tracking what you search
for and even by mining your profiles and data on social networking sites. Agencies
can also add online and retail sales data (what you bought and where) to user profiles
to create an unprecedented database, largely without your knowledge. Such data
mining is a boon to marketers, but it is very disturbing to consumer privacy
advocates.
9. How do Internet advertisers collect information about Internet users? Provide two examples.
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Chapter 11: Essay
database without your knowledge.
Internet advertising agencies can also track ad impressions (how often ads are seen)
and click-throughs. This provides advertisers with much more specific data on the
number of people who not only viewed the ad but also showed real interest by
clicking on it. Click-bait is when you are enticed to click on an ad, often with
something sensational.
10. What is third-screen advertising, and why is it an appealing new venture for companies like
Google?
ANSWER:
Beyond computers, smartphones—the “third screen” for advertisers—are of
increasing importance. Smartphones offer effective targeting to individuals, as does
Internet advertising, but they also offer advertisers the bonus of tailoring ads
according to either a specific geographic location or the user’s demographic, since
wireless providers already have that information. Google has developed unique
applications for mobile advertising and searching. For example, the Google Goggles
smartphone app enables the user to take a photo of an object—such as a book cover,
a landmark, a logo, or text—and then have Google return related search results.
Google’s Voice Search app lets users speak their search terms.
11. What is “earned media,” and why is it valuable to online advertisers?
ANSWER:
Companies and organizations buy traditional paid advertisements on social media
sites. A major objective of their paid media is to get earned media, or to convince
online consumers to promote products on their own. The incentive is for the user to
get as many likes and thus generate a revenue stream. For instance, say the National
Resources Defense Council buys an ad on Facebook that attracts your interest. That’s
a successful paid media ad for the council, but it’s even more effective if it becomes
earned media—that is, when you mark that you “Like” it, you essentially give the
organization a personal endorsement. Knowing you like the ad, your friends view it;
as they pass it along, it gets more earned media and eventually becomes viral—an
even greater advertising achievement.
12. What is “blog-ola,” and why are consumer advocates and the FTC concerned about it?
ANSWER:
Blog-ola is when bloggers with large followings have been paid (either directly or by
gifts of free products or trips) to give positive reviews or promote products on their
site. When such instances became known in 2008 and 2009, the bloggers argued that
they did not have to reveal that they were being compensated for posting their
opinions. At the time, they were right. However, in 2009, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) released new guidelines that require bloggers to disclose when an
advertiser is compensating them to discuss a product. In 2010, a similar controversy
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Chapter 11: Essay
advertising. Someone may not really use or like a product, but if there is a cash
incentive, that person might promote it.
13. How do the common persuasive techniques used in advertising work?
ANSWER:
Ad agencies and product companies often argue that the main purpose of advertising
is to inform consumers about available products in a straightforward way. Most
consumer ads, however, merely create a mood or tell stories about products without
revealing much else. It is very common for an ad agency, in managing space and
time limitations, to engage in a variety of persuasive techniques. These techniques
could be any one of the following: famous-person testimonial, plain-folks pitch,
snob-appeal approach, bandwagon effect, hidden-fear appeal, or irritation
advertising.
14. How does the association principle work, and why is it an effective advertising strategy?
ANSWER:
American car advertisements tend to show automobiles in natural settings but rarely
on busy city streets or in other urban settings where most driving actually occurs.
This type of advertising exemplifies the association principle, a widely used
persuasive technique that associates a product with a positive cultural value or image
even if it has little connection to the product. Many ads displayed visual symbols of
American patriotism in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in an attempt to
associate products and companies with national pride. According to media critics,
advertising may associate products with nationalism, happy families, success at
school or work, natural scenery, freedom, or humor. This is effective because it is in
line with people’s values and the psychological and sociological traits that Edward
Bernays practiced.
15. How can analyzing mythic elements be used to critique an ad?
ANSWER:
Another way to understand ads is to use myth analysis, which provides insight into
how ads work at a general cultural level. The term myth does not refer to an untrue
story or an outright falsehood. Rather, myths help us define people, organizations,
and social norms. According to myth analysis, most ads are narratives with stories to
tell and social conflicts to resolve. Ads incorporate myths in mini-story form,
featuring characters, settings, and plots. Most stories in ads involve conflicts, pitting
one set of characters or social values against another. The conflicts are negotiated or
resolved by the end of the ad, usually by applying or purchasing a product. In
advertising, the product and those who use it often emerge as the heroes of the story.
16. Some critics of the advertising industry have argued that our contemporary consumer culture
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Chapter 11: Essay
ANSWER:
Edward Bernays created the idea that psychology could be used to engineer consent.
This idea got people to consent to things that they might not have had they
understood the psychological techniques he taught advertisers to use—that is,
creating an illusion that without certain products, people will be unhappy. Some
forms of fashion and cosmetics advertising actually pander to individuals’ insecurities
and low self-esteem by promising the ideal body. And some advertising implies that
the right kind of car or watch or cell phone will raise your status. Such advertising
suggests standards of style and behavior that may not only be unattainable but also be
harmful, leading to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia and an increase in
cosmetic surgeries. Alcohol ads are another example. The images and slogans in
these ads often associate the products with power, romance, sexual prowess, or
athletic skill. In reality, though, alcohol is a chemical depressant; it diminishes
athletic ability and sexual performance, triggers addiction in roughly 10 percent of
the U.S. population, and factors into many domestic abuse cases.
17. Should tobacco advertising (or alcohol, fast-food, or pharmaceutical advertising) be
prohibited? Why or why not?
ANSWER:
Each year, many Americans die from diseases related to nicotine addiction and
poisoning. Tobacco ads were banned from television in 1971, under pressure from
Congress and the FCC. In spite of the ban, numerous ad campaigns have targeted
teenage consumers of cigarettes. For example, R. J. Reynolds updated its Joe Camel
cartoon character in 1988, outfitting him with hipper clothes and sunglasses. The
company put Joe on billboards and store posters and in sports stadiums and
magazines. One study revealed that before the change, fewer than 1 percent of teens
under age eighteen smoked Camels. After the ad campaign, however, 33 percent of
this age group preferred Camels.
In addition to young smokers, the tobacco industry has targeted other groups. For
instance, Eve and Virginia Slims cigarettes associated their products with women’s
liberation, equality, and slim fashion models. And in 1989, R. J. Reynolds introduced
a cigarette called Uptown, targeting African American consumers. The ad campaign
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Chapter 11: Essay
ANSWER:
Only very wealthy or well-funded candidates can afford political advertising, and
television does not usually provide free airtime to politicians. Since the 1950s,
political consultants have been imitating market-research and advertising techniques
to sell their candidates. Ad techniques to promote a candidate’s image are used to
persuade the public to adopt a particular viewpoint. In the early days of television,
politicians running for major offices either had to buy or were offered half-hour
blocks of time to discuss their views and the issues of the day. As advertising time
became more valuable, however, local stations and the networks became reluctant to
give away time in large chunks. Gradually, TV managers began selling thirty-second
spots to political campaigns.
Completion
1. Establishing the first ad agencies, _______ purchased ad space in newspapers and sold it to
various merchants.
ANSWER:
space brokers
2. _______ opened a prototype of the first ad agency.
ANSWER:
Volney Palmer
3. _______ was the first full-service modern ad agency.
ANSWER:
N. W. Ayer & Son
4. _______ was one of the first brand names in the United States.
ANSWER:
Smith Brothers
5. By the end of the 1800s, _______ and department stores accounted for half of the revenue
taken in by ad agencies.
ANSWER:
patent medicines
6. _______ are large conglomerates of ad agencies that offer a full range of advertising, public
relations, and other services.
ANSWER:
Mega-agencies
7. The _______ department of a typical advertising agency collects consumer data.
ANSWER:
market research
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8. _______ is a market-research strategy that measures psychological factors to divide
consumers into types.
ANSWER:
VALS (Values and Lifestyles)
9. In a typical advertising agency, the _______ department writes and designs the ads.
ANSWER:
creative
10. A(n) _______ is a sort of blueprint or roughly drawn comic-strip version of a potential
television ad.
ANSWER:
storyboard
11. In a typical advertising agency, the _______ measure the effectiveness of ad placements.
ANSWER:
media buyers
12. In advertising, _______ are people who choose and purchase the types of media that are best
suited to carry a client’s ads.
ANSWER:
media planners
13. _______ has become the dominant form of web advertising.
ANSWER:
Paid search advertising
14. The_______ testimonial associates a product with the endorsement of a well-known person.
ANSWER:
famous-person
15. An advertising strategy that associates a product with simplicity is called the _______ pitch.
ANSWER:
plain-folks
16. Trying to persuade consumers that only a specific product can offer relief from an
embarrassing problem, the _______ appeal plays on people’s insecurities.
ANSWER:
hidden-fear
17. Analyzing ads using the _______ principle explores how the ad connects the product/service
with something culturally positive.
ANSWER:
association
18. A persuasive technique that tries to distance the product from a large manufacturer or parent
company is called the _______.
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ANSWER:
disassociation corollary
19. Any print or broadcast expression for which a fee is charged to the organization or individual
buying time or space in the mass media is referred to as _______ speech.
ANSWER:
commercial
20. _______ is about the right to circulate goods, services, and images in the concrete
marketplace of products.
ANSWER:
Commercial speech
21. _______ is the use of ad techniques to promote a candidate’s image and persuade the public
to adopt a particular viewpoint.
ANSWER:
Political advertising
Multiple Choice
1. In an effort to attract more viewers, the four major TV networks have reduced the number of
commercials aired during prime time.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
2. More than half of each hour of network television includes some form of paid sponsorship.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
3. According to historians, advertising has existed since 3000 BCE, when wooden or stone signs
were placed outside shops in ancient Babylon.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
4. About 80 percent of early newspaper and magazine advertisements covered three subjects:
land sales, transportation announcements, and runaway slaves.
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a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
5. Before the 1830s, there was little need for advertising in America because there were few
goods available for sale and virtually no consumer market.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
6. Some of the first American advertising agencies were space brokers, who bought space in
newspapers and sold it to their clients.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
7. Patent medicines marketed in the late 1800s were generally harmless, since they consisted
mostly of flavored water.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
8. One twentieth-century trend associated with advertising was the transition from a producer-
directed to a consumer-driven society.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
9. The Ad Council produces public service announcements (PSAs) at no cost to the client.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
10. In an attempt to minimize government oversight of advertising practices, the advertising
industry established the Better Business Bureau in 1913.
a.
True
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b.
False
ANSWER:
b
11. In the advertising industry, there are about fourteen thousand mega-agencies in the United
States.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
12. WPP is one of the four global mega-agencies that control over half the world’s advertising
revenues.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
13. Mega-agencies are not seen as a threat to the independence of smaller advertising firms.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
14. Even though boutique agencies give creative people the freedom to do good work, they
haven’t been able to attract any major clients.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
15. It costs large-volume advertisers much more money to use an ad agency than to use their own
staff to create an ad.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
16. In 2006, Google unveiled Analytics 360 as a way of reading consumers Gmail accounts.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
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17. Google earns the most online advertising revenue.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
18. Because of the backlash against social networking websites, advertisers are moving their
advertising dollars back to traditional media outlets like television and radio.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
19. One of the benefits of online advertising is that it tends to protect the privacy of consumers
who use the Internet.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
20. Most advertisements provide little information about how a product was made or how it
compares with similar brands.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
a
21. The bandwagon effect is an advertising strategy that plays on consumers’ sense of insecurity.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
22. Ad agencies rarely use irritation advertising to sell products because people hate it and it
doesn’t work.
a.
True
b.
False
ANSWER:
b
23. Ads that portray women as sex objects exemplify the association principle.