Advertising & Society

Pop Quiz Today

Beginning of class discussion:
Ads in the Super bowl had been more entertaining, professor thinks marketers have lost the meaning of advertising ABOUT the product.


_Advertising & Society_
The American Economy - Three Unique influences:
"Caveat Emptor" - buyer beware
- Commerce is a two-way street
Tolerance
- Philadelphia Quakers
- Immigration of people and ideas
The Marketplace of Ideas
- Competition is OK
- This includes the media

_Power or Information?_
Market Power:
- Advertising...
• Persuades consumer to purchase one brand over another more often
• Excess brand profits
• Higher barriers to entry and more market power
• More advertising leads to greater brand loyalty
• Reduce quality/raise price
• Reduced consumer sovereignty
• Monopoly

Marketing Information:
- Advertising...
• Increased consumer knowledge
• More substitute products consumers can consider
• Lower barriers to entry by new brands
• Reduced market power for any individual brand
• Better pricing/distribution and more product innovation
• Optimal brand profits, consumer choice, and price benefits

Class Discussion Questions:
How does advertising affect the price of a new car?
How does advertising affect the price of a latté from Starbucks?
How does advertising affect the way that you spend your money?
Can ads make people buy things they don't want or need?
Can ads make people more materialistic?
Are the benefits of advertising worth the annoyance?
Ads destroy freedom of choice/ give consumers more choices?

3 Ethical Issues:
Advocacy - What does the advertising advocate?
Accuracy - How accurate is the advertising? Some of this depends on susceptibilty of the audience (i.e Children)
Acquisitiveness - ###

5 Controversial Issues:
1) Puffery - "Nothing beats a Bud" [any reasonable person recognizes that it's pretty much B.S.]
2) Decency - Sexual innuendo, violence
3) Stereotyping - Housewives, women, seniors, racial groups
4) Children - violence, dangerous acts, ###
5) Controversial Products

An Ethical Thought
"All of us who professionally use the mass media are shapers of society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level. - Bill Burnchech

_Controversy as Opportunity_
Puffery vs. Irony
- Hulu "Alec Baldwin" (brains to mush)

Stereotyping as Context
- Dove "Real Beauty"

Social Tension Gets Attention
- Nike "If You Let Me Play"

The Story Behind "Truth"
- The Tobacco Industry's