New Approaches to Advertising

Flash mobs are the cool new thing.

Advertisers could use this technique to enhance their public relations.

This one was to the Sound of Music.




They can be used in any different way, but more importantly to us, as advertisements. Take this one for example. It could've been used to promote the movie Ghostbusters.




There are many new social media examples, but this one could trump them all if used correctly.

T-Moblie took the charge and put out this mob flash that they tagged their name onto:




Pretty fun stuff.

Now to start planning one for the BYU campus...

Advertising Ethics

Approximately how many advertisements do you see each day? What would you guess? 20? 50? 100? According to the Media Awareness Network, each and every day, North Americans are exposed to 3000 ads! (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/advertising_everywhere.cfm) This includes advertisements that are on shirts, billboards, toothbrushes, and bicycles, just to name a few. We are surrounded by advertisements everywhere we turn. In the room in which I now sit, I can’t count the number of visible advertisements. With all these persuasions around us, we are brought to ask, “Is it ethical?” Does advertising fit the American standard and do those advertisements we see and hear inhibit our ability to choose? In this scholarly research paper, I intend to point out some of the negatives and positives to advertising, and show my audience why advertising is indeed ethical.

Many people consider advertising as a means whereby dishonest people can connive their way into an unsuspecting victim’s head and place little triggers that go off when this victim sees a product or service. These people have an excellent point. Advertising, especially soft sell advertising, is meant to help consumers to have a positive view of a company, also known as the company’s brand. Advertising is persuasive. There is no getting around this fact. Persuasion is probably the main objective of advertising.

Not only is the main objective of advertising to manipulate the viewer’s mind, but oft times the advertisers are wicked people. Most of them do not have standards and therefor, the advertisements take the blame. With such a greedy world, it is hard to find advertisers with morals, so we get ads that contain scantily-clad women, drugs, and inappropriate content. We find problems today that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. With the debauchery of our society, we see things that not only would be indecent to the LDS population, but also to the general public.

As with every profession, there are people that have low standards, and then those that rise above the scum. The key is to find those people and then help them to become more influential. Advertising is not evil or unethical in itself. There is also much good that comes from advertising, mainly informing people of things they weren’t aware of. How would you know that the iPod was even invented unless you saw a friend using it or an advertisement for it? This is the argument I take sides with.

Let’s take a look at the history of advertising. William M. O’Barr says, “long before America was colonized, commerce flourished in the Old World where various methods were used to promote trade. Notice boards placed outside houses indicated what could be had within. Wine sellers gave free samples in the streets. And actors paraded in the streets attempting to entice onlookers into theatres (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/asr/v006/6.3unit02.html).” Advertising has been around for many centuries and has played an important role in society. Even our opposition will agree that advertising played an important role long ago. It helped entrepreneurs to show consumers what they had to offer. This helped to establish better communities where free trade could flourish. Free trade is a principle that is associated with Democracies. Communist countries do not enjoy the same privileges that we have here in the United States. Since advertising has contributed to the free trade system, I think it's fair to say that it is partly responsible for the positive government that we have today. We are very blessed to be in a time where we live under such favorable circumstances.

According to the Constitution of the United States, anyone living inside the country has unalienable rights. One of these inevitable rights is freedom of press. In the first amendment, we read “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Contained within that law, we see that we have the ability to print and say what we please. Especially in the case of advertising (assuming situations slander or libel is not being used), this right is just that- a right. We are entitled by law to advertise as we would like to. Having established that fact, we still are left to the question, “is it ethical?”

Mike Catherall of American Chronicle says, “On one hand you have an industry bent on persuading consumers to buy things they don't need by prying into their insecurities, reinforcing oppressive stereotypes and pouring gasoline on the fires of capitalism. On the other, you have an industry with a sudden new desire to make the world a better place.

Where these values intersect is the latest boom in the advertising world: ethical advertising. Targeted at Conscious Consumers, ethical advertising taps into the residual idealism and guilt of activists at heart, and Boomers who have rediscovered their romantic 60s values lost or replaced temporarily by vapid consumerism, only to see the light again in their twilight years” (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/10795). Opportunity for growth and improvement in the advertising world has presented itself. There are chances for things to become as they once had been through wholesome advertising. Companies are taking these opportunities. For example, take Dove. Dove is a company that has made beauty products since 1979 and continues to influence people everywhere. They are owned by Unilever and they have some positive advertising techniques. One of their most recent is the campaign “Evolution”, which has won two awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and continues to influence women and girls around the world (www.dove.com). The campaign is meant to show females that they are beautiful no matter what they may look like. It has helped to build confidence in young women and has also gone against the grain as far as advertising goes. Ads with morals like this are becoming more prevalent as time goes on. Hopefully, we can continue to see an increase in these uplifting ads. One of the ironic things about the Evolution campaign is that Dove makes products that help to beautify women. The advertisement definitely reflects a positive light on Dove and it's brand. This is a prime example of a soft sell campaign. The objective here is not to sell lotion to people right away after they see this commercial. It is meant to shed positive publicity on Dove. Some would even argue that the campaign was a public relations project, and there is a lot to be said for that. Maybe the day has come where advertising is starting to shift into public relations.

One of the main reasons I believe that advertising is ethical is because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints uses it.

In August 2008, the LDS Church launched a campaign called “Mormon Messages”. These short films were designed to share prophets' and apostles' stories with visual representation. Over time, many have been made and the total viewership has reached over 10 million views (http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article/mormon-messages-on-youtube-reaching-millions)! Currently, there are an assortment of different topics that you can watch and enjoy. This is a form of advertising for the Church. Missionary work could also be classified as advertising. Without that initial exposure, we wouldn't have the truth and light that we do. The LDS Church is a prime example of an organization that has used advertising to bless the lives of others. Advertising isn't unethical; it's a form of communication. It has helped to bring the gospel to many converts' lives and continues to affect the Church positively.

There are things that can be improved on in the advertising world, but overall, the industry is improving as a whole. The principle of advertising is ethical, although some of it's representatives are not. We see examples all over the world of good advertisements that redeem the industry. Examples like Dove's Evolution and the Latter-Day Saint's Mormon Messages are becoming more predominant as time goes on, and hope is coming back to the American public. The demise of the society has not completely consumed our American living yet and with the addition of strapping young lads like myself, the advertising realm will continue to brighten. Advertising is meant to inform, giving us knowledge and a greater understanding. Usually, the products that advertise well are the ones that perform well, so we have little need to fear being coerced into buying something that wouldn't help us. The product will sell itself. Advertising just helps to make it known. With the 3000 advertisements we see each day, we are merely picking up 3000 more bits of information.

Works Cited Page

Advertising: It's Everywhere. November 14, 2010. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/marketing/advertising_everywhere.cfm

Dove Evolution, November 16, 2010, www.dove.com

Ethical Advertising at a Glance, American Chronicle, November 15, 2010, http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/10795

Mormon Messages on Youtube Reaching Millions, November 16, 2010, http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article/mormon-messages-on-youtube-reaching-millions

O'Barr, William. A Brief History of Advertising in America. November 15, 2010. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/asr/v006/6.3unit02.html