v Assignment paper: E-C-404 Mass Communication and Media
Studies
v Topic : Advertisingitique on "Black Skin, White Masks"
v Student’s Name : Gandhi Pooja S.
v Roll No : 08
v URL : gandhipooja151011.blogspot.com
v Semester : 4
v Batch : 2011-12
Submitted to,
Dr. Dilip Barad
Department of English
Bhavnagar University
v What is advertising?
Advertising is a form of mass communication. It involves a process of transmission of information by the manufacture or a seller of a product or service to modify or stimulate the behavior of the buyer to buy a particular product.
Advertising can be in any form of presentation such as sign, symbol or illustration in print media, a commercial on radio or television, poster, etc. Thus, advertising is the communication link between the seller and the buyer. It has made mass selling possible. The term advertising is derived from the Latin word ‘advertene’. It means to turn the mind to advertising diverts the attention of the buyers to product or service.
Advertising pays the mass media to disseminate its messages and without advertising, our newspaper, magazines and radio and even television programming would be far different. One of the basic ingredients of today’s popular culture is consumption and it is the advertising industry that makes mass consumption possible. Advertising is an important element of our culture because it reflects and attempts to change our life styles. New cultural trends and fashions are first transmitted to the mass culture through advertisements.
v Development of advertising in India:
Advertising in India has created an incredible awareness among the people in the past decade growing in to big industry. It has grown along with the press and today it has found its way into the other two media-Radio and Television. Advertising which was an American concept originally has found its place in a country like India. Advertising in India grew with the Indian press. In the initial period, to advertise meant to inform. The early newspapers and magazines announced births, deaths, arrivals of ships from England, century about sports, sale of household furniture, etc. in the beginning of nineteenth century new products, discounts and special services got their place in advertisements. Thus, gradually advertising started gaining power. It increased with the growth of trade and commerce. The leading newspapers like ‘The Times of India’ and ‘The Statesman’ had their own advertising departments which prepared layouts for advertisements. In early twentieth century the advertising agencies such as Indian Advertising Agency and Calcutta Advertising Agency were started. During second would war press advertising was used extensively to raise funds for the war? The Indian professionals also learnt how to motivate the masses through advertising between1922-1939 many advertising agencies came up such as New India Publicity Co., Paradise Advertising Agency of Calcutta, and National Advertising Agency and so on.
The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) was established in 1945, training an authority to represent the interests and problems of advertising profession. At the time of independence, advertising business was expanding. It grew technically also with the introduction of multi-color printing, and improved printing machines. Commercial art also grew as a profession which boosted the advertising business. In 1951, the Indian Society of Advertisers was formed and in May 1958, the society of Advertising practitioners was formed. During pre-independence era, Indian advertisements were mostly about clothes, travelling, eating and entrainments places, India, hotels, for-wheelers, tea, gramophones and tailoring shops for Britishers in India and the princely families.
In the post-independence period, the focus of advertisements shifted from luxury goods to consumer goods bought mainly for time and labour saving purposes. In 1976, first-commercial spot appeared on Television and in 1980, the first advertisement sponsors were allowed. In modern time, the target audience with the policy of liberalization, the business culture improved all around. This led advertising agencies to raise their creative standards and improvements in functioning of the ad agencies. Moreover, many specializations came up in advertising. Such as financial advertising, direct marketing, social advertising, etc. this resulted in the growth in number and size of the in-house agencies. Mudra Communications was promoted by Reliance Industries; Shristi was set up by ‘Lohia machines’, Ambience by Garden Silk Mills, etc.
v Important features of advertising:
Ø It is directed towards increasing the sales of business.
Ø Advertising is a paid form of publicity
Ø It is non-personal. They are directed neither at a mass audience nor at the individual as is in case of personal selling.
Ø Advertising are identifiable with their sponsors of originator which is not always the case with publicity or propaganda.
v Advertising as Mass Medium:
· Benefits and loss of advertising for customers and society:
Advertising is dynamic as mass medium. It changes with changing markets, changing life styles, changing methods of distribution and changing techniques of communication.
Advertising in general renders a useful service to society and its members. It disseminates information that indicates differences between brands of products and types of services as also the distinguishing characteristics of institutions and manufactures. Advertising serves as a powerful persuasive tool for the manufacturer creating a demand of his product. Many authors have argued that the power of advertising is so great that it deprives consumers of their discretion in the market place and makes it possible for suppliers to manage demand. Advertising contains an element of persuasion. Even purely informative advertisements have all that is needed to persuade a reader or listener to buy the product. It involves a recognition or belief on the part of the reader or listener that the advertised product will satisfy a need or desire. It interprets the hidden qualities of the product in terms of basic human desires.
Advertising communicates about a wide range of choices and facilitates the selection process. It increases consumption, raises standard of living and improves the quality of life people. Thus, it contributes to the development of the society. Advertising also contributes substantially to consumer education. This is vital in a society where a consumer enjoys greater freedom in choosing what to buy. Advertising educates with the help of illustration, comparisons, literature, demonstration, etc. Advertising affects the human values. Sometimes it creates wants for wrong thing such as beer, liquor, cigarettes, chocolates, etc. I create value for luxuries. Thus people become dissatisfied with what they have. They desire for things which are not within their reach. People tend to have things in excess and thus it contributes to the wastage of many things such as food items, appliances, clothes, furniture, cosmetics, etc.
Sandbag and Fryburger has rightly mentioned.”The Power of advertising is not that great. The audience’s predispositions, their attitudes, beliefs, motives, and values largely determine the media they select, the advertisements they see, the messages they accept, and he products they buy. Instead of forcing a response, advertising elicits responses the audience was predisposed to make. Advertising succeeds when it gives people what they want.”
Advertising as a medium is used for creating awareness about social problems. Advertising campaigns by government and social organizations dealing with importance of literacy, adult education, drug abuse, family planning etc. Influence the thinking of society and affect the consumption patterns of the consumers. Nowadays advertising is playing a crucial role all over the world in educating, informing and motivating layman on a number of social issues and themes with casual commercial activities.
Advertising in India is performing a function of developing social conscience. An extensive application of advertising has been noticed in social services like clean Ganga, donation of eyes, immunization, family planning, pollution, anti-drug addiction, etc.
v Types of advertising:
1. Classified Advertising:
At the other extreme is ‘classified advertising’ which provides valuable information about the dry matter-of-fact manner. Useful information about the employment market, about births, deaths, engagements and marriages, about changes of names, about accommodation and housing, about the availability of various services such as tuitions, and about various items on sale is described in advertising. Matrimonial advertisements are frequently downright casteist, racist and sexist but they fill the weekend papers.
2. Public Service Advertising:
Public service advertising known as ‘social service’ advertising and it also known as ‘development advertising’. This type of advertising focuses on social issues like family planning, national integration, pollution, care for the aged and the disabled, cautious driving, campaigns against alcohol, drugs and smoking. Their primary purpose is public education through hard-hitting didactic messages. They do not sell products or services but ‘ideas’ and ‘messages’.
3. Industrial Advertising:
This type differs from others in that machinery and large outlays are involved. The descriptions in such ads are therefore precise and technical; the appeal is down-to-earth and rational. The presentations are mostly factual since the target audience is technical personnel of industrial companies.
4. Corporate r Institutional Advertising:
The aim here is the building up of a good public image for a company. This type focuses on a company’s activities in research, development and quality control, on its sponsorship, of educational, cultural and sports programmes, and on its consumer service and social service programmes. The advertising technique employed for the purpose is information oriented, rather than rhetorical. The large display ads of the ‘achievements’ of State Governments, the telephone and telecommunications authorities, the Indian railways serve a similar purpose.
5. Other Types of Advertising:
In recent years the advertising of issues of corporate shares and bonds has come as a boon to the press. With most corporate shares over-subscribed, the market has become competitive. The business press has begun to flourish as a result. Yet another little known advertising type is that of Legal Tenders and Legal Notices, and other public notices. Display advertising for appointments in the country and overseas, especially in West Asian countries, has also proved popular. Advertising for Hotels and Tourists, particularly by State Governments, Tourism Boards, Airlines, Travel Agencies, Passport and Visa Assistance, has seen big boost in the late ‘eighties’. During election time, political advertising takes pride of place in the press.
v Advertising Industry
The Indian advertising industry is talking business today. It has evolved from being a small-scale business to a full-fledged industry. It has emerged as one of the major industries has broadened its horizons be it the creative aspect, the capital employed or the number of personnel involved. Indian advertising industry in very little time has carved a niche for itself and placed itself on the global map. Indian advertising industry with an estimated value of Rs 13, 200-crore has made jaws drop and set eyeballs gazing with some astonishing pieces of work that it has given in the recent past. The creative minds that the Indian advertising industry incorporates have come up with some mind-boggling concepts and work that can be termed as masterpieces in the field of advertising.
Ø Advertising Agencies:
Advertising agencies in the country too have taken a leap. They have come a long way from being small and medium sized industries to becoming well known brands in the business. Mudra, Ogilvy and Mathew (O&M), Mccann Ericsonn, Rediffussion, Leo Burnett are some of the top agencies of the country. Indian economy is on a boom and the market is on a continuous trail of expansion. With the market gaining grounds Indian advertising has every reason to celebrate. Businesses are looking up to advertising as a tool to cash in on lucrative business opportunities. Growth in business has lead to a consecutive boom in the advertising industry as well.
Ø Indian advertising:
The Indian advertising today handles both national and international projects. This is primarily because of the reason that the industry offers a host of functions to its clients that include everything from start to finish that include client servicing, media planning, media buying, creative conceptualization, pre and post campaign analysis, market research, marketing, branding, and public relation services. Keeping in mind the current pace at which the Indian advertising industry is moving the industry is expected to witness a major boom in the times ahead. If the experts are to be believed then the industry in the coming times will form a major contribution to the GDP. With all this there is definitely no looking back for the Indian advertising industry that is all set to win accolades from the world over.
v What is the role of mass media in development of children?
Without communication an individual could never become a human being; without mass communication an individual could never become part of modern society. Socialisation is a life-long active process, beginning o the day of one’s birth. The child learns to socialise from the parents and the social groups he or she belongs to. As children grow up they come into contact with other social groups, but their basic loyalties are to their own primary and secondary groups which provide them their sets of attitudes, beliefs, and norms of behaviour. Children come under three kinds of social control: (1) Tradition orientation - social control based on tradition; (2) inner orientation - social control achieved through standards, guidelines or values existing in each individual; and (3) external or other orientation – social control achieved by conformity to standards existing in other persons and groups.
The child of today comes into contact with groups other than those in school; for instance, through the mass media, which give him/her access to remote groups and their cultures. Besides, the mass media provide models of behaviour, and norms of living. The child begins to imitate them, particularly in cases where he or she is least integrated into the family or the peer group. Such children rely heavily n media advice and models; while others do not since their activities outside the home provide them greater stimuli and other models.
v Impact of advertising on children:
In any study of media influence on children, r on the influence of children’s interests and needs on the media, the age group is an important variable. Other equally important variables are social class, religious and cultural background, linguistic background and community. It has been found from research by Jean Piaget and others that the pre-operational child, responds differently from the child belonging to the concrete operations stage or to the formal operations stage. To illustrate, young children aged five and below see a series and fragmentary incidents rather than the story of advertising. They do not invariably recognise the identities of the principal character throughout the advertising, and they tend to believe implicitly what they see on T.V. to be real. And, interestingly, they sometimes read incidents and events that they think should have occurred.
The six to eleven year old child, however, understands the story of advertising, but still understands only the concrete physical behaviour of advertising, the performers. Only at the age of ten or eleven, does he usually understand the feelings and motivations and put himself in the shoes of a character.
The eleven to twelve year old child comes to realize the make believe fantasy world of advertising. He also gradually begins to understand the emotional relationship in ads and to appreciate some and dislike other aspects of advertising. Recent studies of children’s interaction with television suggest that children make for a ‘lively audience’ and are highly discriminating and critical viewers. Children below the age of sixteen comprise about forty per cent of the population of India. Yet barely five per cent of total telecast time on general Entertainment Channels is directly aimed at children, this is equally true of other mass media too.
v Conclusion:
According to, Sandbag and Fryburger
“Advertising as medium creates awareness and builds confidence in consumers. Thus advertising helps in making the economic system more responsive to consumer preferences. Ultimately it speeds up the process of resource allocation.”
