978-1319058517 Chapter 11

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PART 4

The Business of Mass Media

The digital turn has shifted the locus of power in mass media. For decades, mass media have been

dominated by giant corporations that created the music, television, movies, and publications we

consumed. Now a new digital market has grown up around them, displacing the way traditional mass

media businesses operate, changing how advertising and public relations work, and breaking down the

barriers of entry to start-up media companies. This disruption has changed the structure of media

economics, spawned a new digital ecosystem for advertising and public relations, and affected democracy

by redistributing power for content creators, among other groups.

Chapter 11

Advertising and Commercial Culture

In this chapter, we will:

• Examine the historical development of advertising—an industry that helped transform numerous

nations into consumer societies

• Look at the first U.S. ad agencies; early advertisements; and the emergence of packaging, trademarks,

and brand-name recognition

• Consider the growth of advertising in the last century, such as the increasing influence of ad agencies

and the shift to a more visually oriented culture

• Outline the key persuasive techniques used in consumer advertising

• Investigate ads as a form of commercial speech, and discuss the measures aimed at regulating

advertising

• Look at political advertising and its impact on democracy

Preview Story: The digital turn has shifted how products are bought, sold, consumed—and advertised.

Television and cable still receive the largest share of worldwide ad revenue (more than 35 percent).

Internet and digital ads now account for almost 30 percent of worldwide ad revenue. Since 2007,

newspaper ad revenue has fallen from 27 percent to 13 percent of ad spending. And magazines have

dropped from just over 12 percent to only 6.5 percent of worldwide ad dollars.

I. Early Developments in American Advertising

A. The First Advertising Agencies.

B. Advertising in the 1800s.

1. Trademarks and Packaging.

2. Patent Medicines and Department Stores.

3. Advertising’s Impact on Newspapers.

C. Promoting Social Change and Dictating Values.

1. Appealing to Female Consumers.

2. Dealing with Criticism.

D. Early Ad Regulation.

II. The Shape of U.S. Advertising Today

A. The Influence of Visual Design.

B. Types of Advertising Agencies.

1. Mega-agencies.

2. Boutique Agencies.

C. The Structure of Ad Agencies.

1. Account Planning, Market Research, and VALS.

2. Creative Development.

3. Media Coordination: Planning and Placing Advertising.

D. Trends in Online Advertising.

1. Online Advertising Challenges Traditional Media.

2. Online Marketers Target Individuals.

3. Advertising Invades Social Media.

III. Persuasive Techniques in Contemporary Advertising

A. Conventional Persuasive Strategies.

B. The Association Principle.

1. Disassociation as an Advertising Strategy

C. Advertising as Myth and Story.

D. Product Placement.

IV. Commercial Speech and Regulating Advertising

A. Critical Issues in Advertising.

1. Children and Advertising.

2. Advertising in Schools.

3. Health and Advertising

a. Eating Disorders.

b. Tobacco.

c. Alcohol.

d. Prescription Drugs.

B. Watching over Advertising.

1. Excessive Commercialism.

2. The FTC Takes on Puffery and Deception.

C. Alternative Voices.

V. Advertising, Politics, and Democracy

A. Advertising’s Role in Politics.

B. The Future of Advertising.

Case Study: Super Bowl, Supersized: $4.5 Billion in Ad Spending Over 50 Years

Examining Ethics: Do Alcohol Ads Encourage Binge Drinking?

Media Literacy and the Critical Process: The Branded You

Global Village: Smoking Up the Global

Market

Digital Job Outlook: Media Professionals Speak about Jobs in the Advertising Industry

LECTURE IDEAS

Preview Story: Google Glass and Mobile Advertising

• Internet advertising revenue continues to grow at a quick pace. It overtook newspaper advertising

for the first time in 2010. But some large companies like Apple and Google are already looking

ahead to the next step for marketing: mobile technology. By 2015, 68 percent of Americans owned

smartphones, and 45 percent owned tablets (Pew Research Center). In 2011, mobile Internet

research firm In-Stat predicted that app downloads would be close to 48 billion by 2015, which

meant that in-app ads would also grow exponentially. In fact, Forrester Research estimated that

worldwide downloads of apps would top 225 billion in 2015, and a 2014 Pew Research Center

study found that most free apps were supported by advertising.

• Short demonstration videos of mobile ads are available at Google’s AdMob Web site

(http://www.admob.com) and at iAd (http://advertising.apple.com). Apple even has an iAd Gallery

app where you can view a selection of iAd campaigns.

• Steve Jobs on iAd: “iAd offers advertisers the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the Web, and

offers users a new way to explore ads without being hijacked out of their favorite apps.”

I. Early Developments in American Advertising

• The first full-service modern advertising agency, N. W. Ayer & Son (established in 1869 in

Philadelphia), remained active until 2002. N. W. Ayer & Son’s more famous slogans include:

• “When it rains it pours.” (Morton Salt, 1912)

• “I’d walk a mile for a Camel.” (Camel cigarettes, 1921).

• “A diamond is forever.” (De Beers, 1948)

• “Reach out and touch someone.” (Long-distance telephone service for AT&T, 1979)

• “Be all you can be.” (United States Army, 1981)

• N. W. Ayer & Son was also responsible for the Absolut Vodka campaign.

• Explain the rise of advertising in the United States, the troubling claims of some early brands, and

the significance of advertising in the historical shift from a producer-driven to a consumer-driven

society. If you or your students are familiar with nations in Eastern Europe or Asia, or developing

countries elsewhere, you may wish to discuss advertising’s role in the shift to consumer society in

those places, too.

• Early twentieth-century advertising appeals threatened citizens with social failure if they didn’t

consume the product. Here are some examples:

• Listerine: If you don’t use Listerine, you’ll have bad breath, which will lead to spinsterhood.

• Antidandruff shampoo: People with dandruff are “guilty.”

• By the 1920s, agencies began to associate more positive experiences with product use and focused

on the pleasure of consumption. Some examples:

• Metropolitan Life Insurance Company: You’ll have a happy, robust life.

• Soap advertising: You deserve an afternoon of leisure.

• Kodak Girl: Like the Kodak Girl, you will radiate happiness every time you take a photo. . . .

Kodak cameras were so simple that “even a girl could do it.”

• During the 1960s and 1970s, there was much talk about subliminal advertising. In fact, the FCC

actually banned subliminal advertising from the airwaves in 1974. However, in 2006, a team of Dutch

researchers concluded that if conditions are right, subliminal advertising can successfully promote a

brand. The researchers asked their subjects to count Bs on a screen. They then flashed a millisecond

image of the words Lipton Ice among the Bs to one group and the nonsensical words Nipeic Tol to the

other group. After the test, people from the first test group were more inclined to choose Lipton Iced

Tea than people who were in the second group.

II. The Shape of U.S. Advertising Today

• Discuss the evolution of both print and broadcast ads. Track the aesthetic influences on ads’ visual

design. Look at changes in the use of language in the ads’ phrasing. Explore the interaction

between advertising and popular culture.

• The first TV commercial ever was a twenty-second spot for Bulova watches in 1941 that was

placed for a cost of $9. The ad played during a Dodgers-Phillies baseball game and consisted of a

rather boring twenty-second-long shot of a ticking Bulova watch.

Here are some famous TV advertising slogans:

“No More Tears.” (Johnson & Johnson)

“Nobody Doesn’t Like Sara Lee.” (Sara Lee)

“Mama mia, that’s a spicy meatball!” (Alka-Seltzer)

“M’m, M’m, Good!” (Campbell’s)

“Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!” (Alka-Seltzer)

“Built Ford tough.” (Ford)

“Snap! Crackle! Pop!” (Kellogg’s Rice Krispies)

“See the USA in your Chevrolet.” (Chevrolet)

“The best part of waking up is Folger’s in your cup.” (Folger’s)

“Melts in your mouth—not in your hand.” (M&M’s)

“Think outside the bun.” (Taco Bell)

“The King of Beers.” (Budweiser)

“Tastes great, less filling.” (Miller Lite)

“The Other White Meat.” (National Pork)

“The Un-Cola.” (7-Up)

“Fabric of our lives.” (Cotton Inc.)

“Finger-lickin’ good.” (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

“Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids.” (Trix Cereal)

“Two great tastes that taste great together.” (Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups)

• Describe the structure of the advertising industry, including the development of mega-agencies and

boutique agencies and the process of doing advertising.

• Explain the use of the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) strategy in advertising. Consider its uses and

limitations in determining consumer orientations. Take your students through a VALS psychographic

survey during class (see http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml).

By 2015, more than 21 million American college students had a spending power estimated at about

$523 billion a year (Refuel Agency 2015 College Explorer study; available at:

http://research.refuelagency.com/reports/college-explorer-2015). Although many of them best fit

into the VALS “experiencers” group, they are still considered to be hard to pin down as a target

audience. Here are some of the ways the college market has been described by ad agencies:

“restless, easily disinterested”; “smart enough to have their own opinions”; “don’t buy into the idea

of corporate America”; “a hard sell, but a smart investment”; and “there are already signs that this

generation is not enamored with commercialism.”

• Discuss the evolution of online advertising, from early spam and pop-up ads to sponsored links on

search-engine results, to e-mail programs (like Gmail) that search messages for keywords that

trigger specific ads, to mobile marketing on smartphones and touchscreen tablets.

• Here are some facts about Facebook and its advertising:

• Facebook’s global ad revenues for 2012 were estimated at $4.3 billion, a 13 percent increase

over its ad revenues in 2011. In 2015, Facebook earned $5.6 billion in sales (mostly from

advertising) in just the fourth quarter of the year.

• According to the Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project report “State of the News Media

2015,” Facebook accounts for 24 percent of all display ad revenue and more than one-third of

mobile advertising revenue. (See http://www.journalism.org/files/2015/04/FINAL-STATE-OF–

THE-NEWS-MEDIA1.pdf.)

• According to Business Insider, the top advertisers on Facebook in 2013 were Samsung, Proctor

& Gamble, Microsoft, AT&T, and Amazon.

• Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has hundreds of millions of users. According to

eMarketer, Instagram will likely quadruple its mobile advertising revenues between 2015 and 2017.

Instagram would then still only account for about 14 percent of Facebook’s overall ad sales, but it

would surpass Google in mobile advertising. (See http://wwd.com/media–

news/advertising/instagram-ad-revenue-google-10193070.)

III. Persuasive Techniques in Contemporary Advertising

• Detail the persuasive strategies and techniques in contemporary advertising, using current print,

broadcast, and online examples.

• Product placement has been around since the 1940s, when the diamond company De Beers supplied

jewelry for stars to wear on the screen. In the 1950s, James Dean used an Ace comb in Rebel

without a Cause, which caused sales of the comb to soar.

• A remarkable example of the financial power of product placement occurred decades ago. The

movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) was entirely funded by Quaker Oats, which

used the movie to promote its new Wonka brand of candy and sweets.

• Here are some more brand partnerships: Snapple is the official beverage of New York City;

Coca-Cola has a marketing deal with Huntington Beach, California, and East Lansing, Michigan;

and PepsiCo has deals with San Diego and Fresno, California.

• In 1968, HAL, the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, was actually a disguised IBM computer

(count one letter back in the alphabet to get HAL), something that surely wouldn’t happen today.

• MGM’s release of the James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002) set a record for product

placement deals in the film. However, there are enough shots featuring Bond with Sony’s then-new

Vaio laptop to make the movie look like an ad for the laptop. Casino Royale also features a most

unlikely product placement for an action film: underwear that shows the British brand name

Sunspel. Sony also signed a six-figure deal with Heineken to showcase the company’s beer, taking

James Bond away from his martini routine and positioning him as a “tough every guy.”

• Read or hand out copies of the following quotation, and have students react and reflect on McLuhan’s

view of advertising agencies:

“…Ad agencies are so very useful. They express for the collective that which dreams and

different ways, are always trying to get inside the public mind in order to impose their collective

dreams on that inner stage… The ad agencies flood the daytime world of conscious purpose and

control with erotic imagery from the night world in order to drown, by suggestion, all sales

resistance.” — Marshall McLuhan

(McLuhan, Marshall. The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man. New York: Vanguard,

1951, p. 97.)

IV. Commercial Speech and Regulating Advertising

• Outline some of the problematic aspects of advertising, such as advertising aimed at children and

the impact of advertising on health, and discuss any resulting advertising regulations.

• Teenage girls are a prime target for advertisers. Alloy Entertainment is making a profit by creating

the books and movies the girls love and by courting the advertisers who want to reach them. Alloy

is behind such franchises as Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. According to a 2010 Businessweek

distribution, and the advertising sales, and thus the profits, for its shows. If all goes according to plan,

Alloy could be a digital studio and broadcaster in one. It could own the teenage girl, and maybe even

the holy grail of demographics, prized for its spendthrift, trendsetting ways: the 18- to 34-year-old

woman.” (Berfield, Susan. “Alloy Wants to Own Teenage Girls,” Bloomberg Businessweek. October

14, 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-10-14/alloy-wants-to-own-

teenage-girls)

• A 2015 study by Common Sense Media found that “on any given day in this country, tweens (8– to

12-year-olds) spend an average of about six hours (5:55) and teens (13- to 18-year-olds) spend

about nine hours (8:56) with media—outside of school or homework—including TV, video games,

social media, the Internet, print, and music.” Here are some of the specific findings:

• “Despite the variety of new media activities available to them, watching TV and listening to

music dominate young people’s media diets.” Among thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds, 67 percent

listen to music every day, and more than half watch TV every day. Youths in the United States spend,

on average, about two and a half hours a day watching videos (TV, DVD, online) and more than an

hour a day playing electronic games. Older youth (thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds) listen to music

almost two hours per day and use social media more than an hour per day. “Even among teens, social

media use still lags behind traditional media use.”

• Ownership of smartphones (not just cell phones) was 24 percent among eight- to twelve-year-olds

widely used. Overall, mobile devices now account for 41 percent of all screen time among tweens and

46 percent among teens. Both tweens and teens now interact with media content across a diverse set

of devices. For example, among teens only half (50 percent) of all TV- and video-viewing time

consists of watching TV programming on a TV set at the time it is broadcast; 8 percent involves time-

shifted viewing on a TV set; 22 percent involves watching online videos on platforms such as

YouTube; 7 percent involves watching DVDs; and 14 percent involves watching TV shows or movies

on another device such as a computer, tablet, or smartphone. The time spent watching videos or TV

shows online is divided such that 43 percent is watched on a phone, 31 percent on a computer, 17

percent on a tablet, and 9 percent on an iPod Touch.”

• See the full report: Vicky Rideout, The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and

Teens (San Francisco: Common Sense Media Research, 2015), available at

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens–

and-teens.

• American Girl: Purchased by Mattel in 2006, this doll is now partnered with Bath and Body

Works to sell body lotion, fragrances, and lip gloss to American Girl doll owners.

• Victoria’s Secret: As part of its Pink line, Victoria’s Secret sells stuffed animals in front of its

stores so as to get younger girls inside the door.

• Advertising in schools has increased as exclusive marketing contracts with public schools have

become more common in the last few decades, particularly with soft-drink companies. Pepsi, for

example, pays a school a nominal fee for placing soft-drink machines on school property; schools

are asked to encourage soft-drink consumption and to discourage the consumption of competing

beverages. Pepsi and Coke (as well as other companies) also purchase school property-naming

rights. For example, they’ll supply the school with a football scoreboard that prominently displays

the company logo. Meanwhile, childhood and teenage obesity rates are soaring. Approximately

• Complete broadcasts of the advertising-based school news program Channel One are now

available at http://www.channelone.com.

V. Advertising, Politics, and Democracy

• During his first run for office, President Barack Obama became the first presidential candidate to

advertise inside a video game. Using the online connection of game consoles like the Xbox 360, the

games can be updated so that ads appear on things like billboards and other signage in the

background of the games. In the weeks leading up to the 2008 election, the Obama campaign

targeted ads to ten states that allowed early voting. The ads appeared for about a month in popular

games such as Guitar Hero, Madden ‘09, and Burnout: Paradise. Game manufacturers such as

Electronic Arts say similar ad arrangements have been struck with businesses like the Ford Motor

Company and Puma.

• One of the earliest uses of a famous pop song for a television advertisement was the long-running

use of Carly Simon’s 1972 hit “Anticipation” for Heinz ketchup. The ad campaign featured a

person waiting for the presumably thick Heinz ketchup to exit the tilted bottle. Leo Burnett

Company was responsible for the 1974–1979 campaign. The contract for the commercial rights to

the song precluded Leo Burnett from using Simon to sing the TV ad, but the music agency hired by

• A mysterious group called the Modern Action Club has distributed free, innocent-looking coloring

books in public places in New York City to draw attention to labor issues that advertising and

corporate campaigns gloss over. For example, when Disney held a huge parade in New York City

on June 14, 1997, to promote its new movie Hercules, the Modern Action Club handed out

hundreds of coloring books titled Disney’s Hercules: From Zero to Hero. According to the Village

Voice, the subversive coloring books look like Disney products until one realizes that in this story

Hercules’s friend Meg discovers that the Disney Hercules merchandise “was being made in evil

• Free software called Adblock Plus (for Firefox browser users) helps eliminate the ads that

accompany many Web sites. The software works as a proxy, standing between the browser and the

Internet and checking every HTTP request for each resource against a blockfile of URLs before

sending it over to the user and stopping ads and cookies as a result. The software can be used to

block whole sites or to accept some cookies. Besides helping Internet users enjoy a less ad-intense

surfing environment, the software also enables Web pages to load up more quickly without the

extra graphics.

• In 2015, Apple’s update to its operating system allowed ad blocking for the first time, and ad

blockers became among the most popular apps downloaded by consumers. Ad blocking represents

a significant threat to the advertising agency. One in four French and German Internet users block

advertising. In the United States, only 10 percent of Internet users use ad blockers. That proportion

is expected to rise after the move by Apple to allow ad blocking. (For more information, see

http://www.businessinsider.com/theres-some-new-data-out-on-the-huge-ad-blocking-trend-and-its–

a-grim-read-for-online-publishers-2015-9.)

• In what is often called “culture jamming” or “subvertising,” artists from New York to San

http://www.rebelliouspixels.com). For example, using a Kodak commercial that originally featured

two women driving around Europe, taking snapshots, and then exalting in their developed photos,

McIntosh edited in war images from Iraq in place of the travel photos. McIntosh also has some

notable photographic and graphic art imagery on his home site.

MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES

ADVERTISING’S EFFECT ON YOUR CAMPUS

As a class, consider the effect of advertising on your college campus. Are any buildings or sports facilities

named after advertisers? Are any on-campus dining facilities run by fast-food franchises? What company

has the soda franchise on your campus, and how much does it pay? What companies dominate the

advertising on your campus, and where do they place their ads? Should college campuses be free of

advertisements? Why or why not? Are any places in society free of ads and corporate sponsorship?

WHAT’S YOUR PSYCHOGRAPHIC PROFILE?

Pre-Exercise Questions: How would you categorize college students as a psychographic group? What are

their attitudes, beliefs, interests, and motivations?

Are the eight VALS groups (see http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/ustypes.shtml or the

VALS section of the textbook) accurate descriptions of you and people you know, or do they reduce

people to simple stereotypes? Do the categories capture the essence of most people, or are there values

and lifestyles that fall outside these categories? If so, would these other types of people be of interest to

advertisers? Briefly describe two to three advertisements that seem to be targeting your psychographic

group, and explain your response to these ads.

ANALYZING MAGAZINE ADS

From a business perspective, magazine ads function to promote advertisers’ goods or services over

competing brands and to place these goods or services before consumers so that they can make informed

buying decisions. We know, however, that ads mean more than what advertisers intend because readers

form their own opinions. We know, too, that ads function as popular culture. They operate on a symbolic

level to affirm cultural values.

In this Critical Process exercise, compare and critique three magazine ads. The ads should all feature

the same type of product but should be taken from contrasting magazines (e.g., three alcohol ads from

women’s and men’s magazines or three clothing ads from various kinds of publications).

1. Description. Take notes on your three choices, laying out what is going on in the ads. Briefly

describe each ad. Is a narrative apparent here (setting, characters, conflict, etc.)? What different

persuasive strategies seem to be at work?

2. Analysis. Figure out common patterns or differences that emerge among the three ads, and then

develop an argument that you want to prove. For example, you may notice that one ad demonstrates

more social responsibility than the others or provides better consumer information. In your critique,

use the association principle to deal with the ads’ cultural meanings. Your analysis should go

beyond the issue of whether the ads successfully market their products.

3. Interpretation. Now think about these questions in regard to the ads you have chosen: What’s going

on? What different sets of values are being sold (e.g., ideas about patriotism, family, sex, beauty,

technology, tradition)? Are the ads selling a vision (or stereotype) of what it means to be male or

female? Young, old, or middle-aged? A member of a particular racial or ethnic group?

4. Evaluation. Make a judgment about which ad works best and why. Which ad is the best at treating

both the product and the consumer fairly and responsibly? Are any of the ads deceptive or

irresponsible? Again, your paper should have a central argument or thesis, drawing on evidence from

your ads.

To this end, organize your paper around an idea that is worth proving. For example, pointing

out that your ads “sell their products in different ways” is not an argument, but stating that an ad

“sells the American dream as equal opportunity for all” or that it is racist or sexist is an argument

worth proving.

5. Engagement. A number of projects and organizations bring a critical eye to advertising messages

through education and activism. For example, the Gender Ads Project is a growing collection of more

than 3,800 advertisements (mostly from magazines) categorized into various topical areas in

advertising (e.g., The Gaze, Social Class, Dolls, Males as Hero). Visit the site

(http://www.genderads.com), and contribute to the project’s image database or offer your own

commentary on issues related to gender and advertising. Also visit Adbusters

(http://www.adbusters.org), an organization that offers insights into our consumer culture, and join

the Culture Jammers Network, “a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students,

educators, and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the

information age.”

MALE STEREOTYPES IN TELEVISION ADS

Pre-Exercise Question: Are the men you know like the guys in television ads?

The portrayal of women in advertising has generated a considerable amount of controversy, but what

about the portrayal of men? This Critical Process exercise is designed to evaluate the visible stereotyping

of men in advertising.

In preparation for this exercise, there are two options:

1. Videotape all the commercials during one night of prime-time television on a chosen channel, and

bring that tape into class for analysis.

2. Ask your students to watch (and tape, if they can) all the commercials during one evening’s prime-

time schedule. Ask them to describe the depictions of men in these commercials and to bring the

information to class.

a. Description. What sort of categories do these male characters fall into? For each category, what

are the characters’ typical behaviors? What do they look like, including their normative body

types? What is the range of their actions? If they were coupled with a female counterpart, what

did she look like? What are the male characters’ relationships with other men and other women?

b. Analysis. Look for patterns in the descriptions of male characters in prime-time ads, especially

with regard to body type, behaviors, race and ethnicity, social class, and relationships with other

men and women. Is there a certain kind of male character that predominates in these ads? If so,

what is that character?

c. Interpretation. What conclusions can you draw about male characters on television? What is it

about these characters that suggests an appeal to the “ordinary” guy? Is it evident, from watching

these portrayals of men, that standards for male behavior are high or not very high? Why is that?

How close are the portrayals of men in advertisements to men you know in real life?

d. Evaluation. If portrayals of women in advertising affect the status of women in society, what

might be the effect of advertising images of men on men’s status in society? What sorts of

changes might you make to the portrayals of male characters in ads?

e. Engagement. There isn’t the equivalent of the National Organization for Women for men to voice

collective opposition to ad images of men. Still, register your own opinion to corporations that

peddle stereotypes of men.

ADVERTISING ANALYSIS (PAPER ASSIGNMENT)

From a business perspective, magazine ads function to promote advertisers’ goods or services so that

consumers can make informed buying decisions. We know, however, that ads mean more than what

advertisers intend. Advertisements are one of the more obvious ways of showing us what we “need,” what

we ought to desire, and who we should be. Ads operate on a symbolic level to affirm cultural values,

selling us a particular idea of “normal”: what’s normal for our age group, for our particular station in life,

or for the values we aspire to.

In this Critical Process exercise, you’ll be focusing your powers of analysis and observation on print

advertisements from magazines. You’ll make explicit these ads’ techniques for selling their products, and

you’ll compare and contrast ads across different target markets.

Your job: Compare and critique two different magazine ads. The ads should feature the same type of

product but should be taken from contrasting magazines (e.g., two alcohol ads, one from a women’s

magazine and one from a men’s magazines; or two car ads from two different publications).

1. Provide an analysis of the content for each ad. In this part, you will consider how the ad is

constructed and how it aims to reach its particular audience. Consider the following questions and

ideas:

• What types of appeals and persuasive strategies are being used here? (Refer to the Chapter 11 text

for ideas.)

• What types of images are used in the ad? What effects are they intended to have on the audience?

Do we see the actual product, or is the company concentrating on selling a brand or an idea?

• You may want to consider layout/design, text/language, and placement. What grabs your

attention in this ad, and why?

• How exactly does the ad appeal to its target audience? In other words, if your ad is from a men’s

magazine, what types of ideas, images, and slogans are used to appeal to guys? If it is an ad from

Rolling Stone, how does it appeal to those interested in music?

2. You need to take a closer look at the ads to provide a cultural critique. In your critique, use the

association principle or myth analysis to deal with the ads’ cultural meanings. Think about these

questions in regard to the ads you have chosen:

• What different sets of values are being sold (e.g., ideas about patriotism, family, ethnicity, sex,

beauty, femininity, masculinity, age, nature, technology, tradition)?

• Are the ads selling a particular vision (or stereotype) of what it means to be male or female?

Young, old, or middle class? A member of a particular racial or ethnic group? In essence, what do

these ads “normalize” for us?

Particulars:

• Prepare approximately four pages, typed, double-spaced, twelve-point font, stapled.

• Include copies of advertisements you analyze (they may be originals or photocopies).

—Developed by Karen Pitcher, University of Iowa

TRACKING RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY: A SEMESTER-

LONG CRITICAL PROCESS EXERCISE AND PAPER

In this exercise students discover the most recent developments in the industry, and they become familiar

with industry trade sources. The paper they produce is due in sections, which correspond with the steps in

the Critical Process.

1. Description. Read industry trade sources to get a sense of the main issues affecting the advertising

industry. Look at the Web sites of industry trade associations and professional societies. (Links to

Web sites of some industry trade sources are given in the Classroom Media Sources below.) Take

notes on topics that have multiple stories or mentions in the current year. What issues or

developments in the industry have received a lot of recent attention, discussion, or commentary in

industry sources? (Focus only on information from the current year—and only from trade sources.)

Write a one-page synopsis of the information you found about current topics in the industry. Cite your

sources properly.

2. Analysis. Look for one development or pattern that has received significant attention on trade sites

and from trade journalists in the current year. Choose one specific trend, and write one or two pages

with details about the information you found about that trend. Continue to track news about your

topic as the semester progresses. Cite sources properly.

3. Interpretation. What does the trend mean for the state of the industry? Is it evolving? How? What

does it tell you about media in general at the current time? What might it say about our culture or our

society? Can your information help us interpret the role of the industry in our lives? Write up your

interpretation in a five-page paper. (The first page should be a synopsis of the trend, with proper

citations.) You might not have to provide information from your sources for the next four pages

because this section is your interpretation of the trend. (Save any ideas you have about whether the

trend is “good” or “bad” for the Evaluation step of the Critical Process.)

4. Evaluation. Is the trend “good” or “bad?” For the industry? society? culture? democracy? us? What

do you think might happen in the future?

5. Engagement. Are there any actions you can take (related to your trend and the industry)? Possibilities

include posting your views on social media, creating a petition, contacting people in the industry to

see what they think of your interpretation and evaluation, or going to an industry event if any are held

nearby. (This step need not be required if students are not motivated to take action.)

Note: This exercise works well if each step of the Critical Process is due two weeks after the prior step is

due. Limiting students to only trade sources and only information from the current year helps keep them

on track. Your institution’s librarians should be able to provide students with information on how to

access industry trade sources.

CLASSROOM MEDIA RESOURCES

LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/mediaculture11e

Advertising in the Digital Age (2010, 2:04 minutes). Jeff Goodby and Richard Campbell discuss how

advertisements are evolving to keep up with consumers’ changing media-consumption habits and

resistance to advertising.

Advertising and Effects on Children (2009, 4:23 minutes). Featuring Richard Campbell, Jeff Goodby, and

Liz Perle. Scholars and advertisers analyze the effects of advertising on children, with attention to the

Budweiser Frogs campaign.

Product Placement in the Movies: E.T. (1982, 1:40 minutes). A brief clip from the 1982 film E.T. shows

how product placement can play a crucial role in a film.

Blurring the Lines: Marketing Programs across Platforms (2010, 2:22 minutes). MTV’s VP of New

Media, David Gale, discusses a flexible format cross platform show, $5 Cover.

VIDEOS/DVDS/CDS

Big Bucks, Big Pharma (2006, 46 minutes). This video pulls back the curtain on the multibillion-dollar

pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some

instances created for capital gain. Distributed by the Media Education Foundation, 800-897-0089;

http://www.mediaed.org.

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2008, 67 minutes). With virtually no government

or public outcry, the multibillion-dollar youth marketing industry has been able to use the latest

advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of

the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Distributed by the Media

Education Foundation, 800-897-0089; http://www.mediaed.org.

Deadly Persuasion: The Advertising of Alcohol and Tobacco (2003, 60 minutes). In this video, Jean

Kilbourne exposes the manipulative marketing strategies and tactics used by the tobacco and alcohol

industries to keep Americans hooked on their dangerous products. Distributed by the Media

Education Foundation, 800-897-0089; http://www.mediaed.org.

Emergence of Advertising in America: Advertising Ephemera (2007, 4-CD set). This set of CDs has

brought together hundreds of examples of early advertisements, dating from the early 1840s, that

appeared in newspapers, in independent publications, as posters, and even as concert hall ticket stubs.

Available at Duke Digital Library: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa.

Emergence of Advertising in America: A Historic Review (2005, 1 CD). This CD presents examples of

advertisements from the early twentieth century. Drawing heavily on the works of J. Walter

Thompson, the CD helps in understanding the thought processes of people at the turn of the century.

Available at Duke Digital Library: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa.

No Logo: Brands, Globalization and Resistance (2003, 40 minutes). Adapted from Naomi Klein’s book

The Persuaders (2004, 90 minutes). An analysis of marketing and advertising methods. Includes

interview with Frank Luntz, who almost single-handedly shifted American public opinion on key

issues. A Frontline presentation, this DVD is available from PBS: http://www.shoppbs.org.

Sell and Spin: A History of Advertising (1999, 100 minutes). Explores the techniques that have pushed

everything from patent medicines to Volkswagens; revisits the slogans, jingles, and catch lines that

have become part of our culture; and presents comments from some of the biggest names in the

business. Available on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/95813029.

WEB SITES

Ad Council: http://www.adcouncil.org

Adbusters: http://www.adbusters.org

Ads of the World: http://adsoftheworld.com

Advertising & Marketing International Network: https://www.aminworldwide.com

Advertising Age: http://www.adage.com

Advertising Educational Foundation: http://www.aef.com

The Advertising Research Foundation: http://thearf.org

Adweek: http://www.adweek.com

American Advertising Federation: http://www.aaf.org

American Association of Advertising Agencies: http://www.aaaa.org

Association of National Advertisers: http://www.ana.net

B&T: http://www.bandt.com.au

BrandChannel.com: http://www.brandchannel.com

Clio Awards: http://clios.com/awards

Communication Arts: http://www.commarts.com

Common Sense Media: http://www.commonsensemedia.org

Gender Ads Project: http://www.genderads.com

Interactive Advertising Bureau: https://www.iab.com

Naomi Klein’s No Logo: http://www.naomiklein.org/no-logo

National Association for Media Literacy Education – political advertising resources:

https://namle.net/2016-presidential-election

Outdoor Advertising Association of America: http://www.oaaa.org

Phillip Morris Document Site (tobacco settlement documents): http://www.pmdocs.com

Radio Advertising Bureau: http://www.rab.com

VALS Survey: http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/presurvey.shtml

Video Advertising Bureau: http://www.thevab.com