Ventura

Carlos Ventura
Prof. Deadrick
ENGL102
18/4/16

Influence of the Publicity?

Advertising and publicity are two very different communication tools that employ
the mass media as a vehicle for reaching large audiences. According to Northern Kentucky
University, the publicity is a non-personal communication, that is typically in the form of a
news story, that is transmitted through the mass media. The purpose of publicity is to draw
favorable attention to a company and/or its products. Through research, analysis and study
of many disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, statistics, and economics, which are
found in market research, specialists such as psychologists, economists and publicists try,
from the sellers point of view, to develop an appropriate message for a public portion of a
medium.
There is a debate according to what kind of message is emitted by the publicity.
Normally this debate is among the consumer, the marketing companies, and the owners of
the product. The consumers argue that the message sometimes is emitted below the
threshold of conscious perception, and tries to encourage the consumption of a product. It
also applies to those visual messages that contain information that is difficult to identify
because it is not implicit on the advertisement such as image ads in illustrated magazines or
posters. But do these types of messages generate some effect on the viewer? The main
purpose of advertising and publicity is to sell the product to the biggest audience possible

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so they try to employ persuasive tactics to attract more consumers. Every advertising has a
hidden message which unconsciously encourages the viewer to go and consume the
product, but other than that dictates many of the social rules, and patterns of our society.
There are certain aspects and examples that helps us understand the effects of the publicity
on the audience.
First of all, Television is a medium suitable for training in consumerism. The public
media and the companies of publicity create a desire or need to consume. According to
Richard A. Heiens in his article The Influence of Publicity on Product Sales in a NonCompetitive Environment explains that, The combination of sight sound and movement,
and the use of experienced journalist can be said to enhance the evidential content and
hence the credibility of the message. But what is really the idea that publicity is seeking?
The most important goal is to sell what is advertised, and deeper, the publicity seeks to train
hedonistic attitudes that ensure the survival of consumption. In short, advertising seek to
convince the individual that he or she is different from the others. This idea usually creates
a social classification or division depending on the audience. As we saw in a lot of
advertisements, the idea of a high economic sustainability or a model with high purchasing
power, accompanies almost every advertisement. To illustrate, in 2016 Chevrolet
announced their All-New 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. The idea of the advertisement is really
simple. In the announcement the people from Chevrolet are trying to make a study. They
present a car to a group of people. They remove all the logos to keep them without any
prejudice. They ask them what is the brand of the car? The people gives answers like
Lexus, Acura, and BMW. For me, the car is just a simple example of how society defines
social class of each individual based on the materials goods that people have. In this case,

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according to add, the new car with a luxurious appearance defines a high social status to the
owner. Usually the brands and the marketing companies try to create a division between the
people with money, the consumers of the product, and the people without money, the nonconsumers of the product. The brands mentioned by the people are luxury cars. In the case
of the car of the announcement, usually the Malibu model has an initial price of $21,625
that compared with the cheapest car of the brands that people mentioned, the price is almost
$15,000 less than its price. The idea sold by this announcement is to ensure the consumer
that the social class, model, and status of the consumer is as high as that of any person who
has the ability to afford a luxury car. This strategy generates social divisions that create
indirect barriers that separate the consumers and a consumerist culture to ensure economic
status of the companies.
Secondly, as previously mentioned, the announcements create divisions and social
status of the audience, but this idea about the consumption of products is accompanied by a
need created by the brands. This types of need are not always related to our basic needs.
With a good structured sales system, the consumer becomes a valuable object for any
advertising medium. Lard Bucket, a blog dedicates to the recompilation of books to
archive Creative Commons-licensed copies of books, gives us a good example of this from
the book Business Ethics. As they mention Our society is affluent. Our economic struggles
arent about putting food on the table; theyre about eating in the most desirable
restaurant. The desire for greater material acquisition transcends beyond the real needs of
American families. Because the United States has a capitalist model, consumerism fits
perfectly into their cultural roots, leaving a vulnerable society to the high bombardment by
advertising medium. This capability, achieved by advertising, is focused on keeping us

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identified with the products. Everybody has experimented a situation when, due an
announcement, we feel the necessity to buy a product because it fits perfect on the
necessities that we have. Sometimes we really need the product, but most of the time, that
necessity is created by the announcements. The pleasant ads for the audience with good
structure, and market analysis can have an effect really effective in generating a necessity
on the audience. This creates the basis of the success of the propaganda. In other words,
this means that our products are not just things we wear to manage our daily life. They are
us. They become the way we act and what we are.
Thirdly, we already know that publicity could have an influence in our social
classification, our interests, and our way to think. Actually, publicity is more than just
advertisements to sell a product. The messages hidden in them also dictate the models and
roles of our society. It is really easy find some sexist patterns on the publicity, or find
certain aspects that, according to their campaigns, influence our way to see and think. For
example, Christmas is one of the most loaded advertising seasons. Most of the ads are
probably directed towards the consumption of products intended to give them on these
dates. Surely everyone has noticed that there are certain differences between mens
products announced for gifts and womens products. In the case of the men, it is always
related to technological items such as computers, televisions, and more. Instead, the woman
is always related to household items. But those are not the only standard. Also one can see
the beauty model stipulated by these adds there. It is rare to see a disabled person in an
advertisement for some product or some woman without athletic bodies. Normally the
standard is muscular men and slim women. The main target for this types of advertisements
are always teenagers because they are consumers easy to mold and influence. Erica Sanders

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in her research The Influence of Media Marketing on Teenage Girls argues that
Adolescents are affected by role models that are set before them; whether the outlet be
magazine models, celebrity influence and gossip, or music videos, teenage girls try to
emulate them.

This creates a misconception of beauty in the viewer, and as Erica

mentions, the roles models stipulated by the adds become an attractive model for the
audience, especially young people, that will try to copy and imitate the people on those
announcements. As Kristina Gregory in her article Celebrities: Who They Are? How They
Gain Popularity? And Why Society Is So Fascinated With Them explains that no matter
how much trouble a celebrity becomes involved in, a celebrity can still serve as a role
model for impressionable people. Indirectly people take such ideas to their attitudes, and
their way to think becoming part of the circle of truths and models created and stipulated by
the advertising medium.
Also, the publicity is always focused on a specific audience. As I previously said,
teenagers are an easy target for the companies, but not all the time are the most
impressionable audience. Advertising always requires a market study, which gradually
generates the bases and sociological arguments to launch a campaign. According to Jessica
Bossari in the article "The Developing Role of Social Media in the Modern Business
World The 94% of all businesses with a marketing department used social media as part
of their marketing platform. This dictates the audience, the type of message and the type
of advertisement to use. According to NIELSEN.com, a web page dedicated to advertising
and media technologies, The advertising landscape is evolving at an unprecedented rate,
influenced largely by two factors: population shifts and media fragmentation. Changes in
the population are creating a younger, more diverse, more tech-savvy consumer base. A

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good example to understand it is one of the ways that publicity companies use certain
groups of audience to launch their campaigns. It is well known that kids are the easiest
target of advertising. As everybody know, the companies try to sell a product using the
children as the medium to reach the pocket of his parents. How? They usually try to show
flashy advertisements with multiple visual aspects that become pleasing to the eye of the
child. The child s influenced by that and goes to his father to ask if he could buy the
product. The father agrees and the product is purchased. After that a new product is
released and the cycle starts all over again. As APA in the article Protecting Children from
Advertising mentions, commercials also often use psychological research to make their
messages more powerful. For example, they draw from developmental psychology
principles to build campaigns that persuade children they need a product and to nag their
parents to buy it. Strategies like these are launched daily not only by material goods, but
food products and services. Advertising companies try to appeal to the desire and needs that
people have. But as we saw, those needs are sometimes created. The constant stimulus also
becomes a hidden message to the audience, which due to the focus, the intended group
becomes a target that is not protected. The lack of control by the audience becomes easier
the task of selling by the advertising agencies.
Finally, the advertising is not always related to selling products, consumerism, and
bad influence over the audience. There are certain types of advertising that are focused on
bringing a message to the audience which does not seek to lure them into a product or to
purchase. It seeks to appeal to the conscience or self-analysis of each individual who
observes the announcement. The perfect example is dedicated to environmental awareness
ads on the future of the planet. Although in reality they seek to convince the viewer, not

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always refer to them as a material for sale. On the contrary they seek to convince generate a
self-criticism of the possible damage that may suffer in the future. Advertising usually
shows great potential for large audiences. Due to easy access to media that we currently
possess. Advertising uses the network as an organized structure to convey a certain
message. The main value showing advertising is that if the idea or message to be sent is
intended for a purpose of self-analysis, the audience response is always greater than the
other informative media. As University of Kentucky mentions, The most common
circumstances involve routine amounts of positive or neutral news stories. In situations like
this, complementary or supporting advertising works with the news coverage to produce an
even more positive impact on public attitudes The same is true when there is an
unusually large amount of positive news coverage. There is a more positive impact on
public attitudes with advertising than there is without it This shows that the problem is not
advertising, it is the message that people want to send.
The advertisements are a good way to transmit any message to massive audiences.
The ability to transmit a message to large audiences makes it a medium with great potential.
Because in this time almost anyone has access to a television, a computer or a phone at a
minimum, it is very easy to convey an idea, or in some cases a product, in order to convince
the receptors. It also has a lot of problems. The companies use publicity with psychological
strategies to sell their products. According to Johan Berger, Alan Sorensen and Scott
Rasmussen in their article Negative Publicity: When Negative is Positive they explain
that, Publicity often starts with the media, but this information then spreads through
interpersonal communication. It is not the cheapest way to do it, but it is really effective
for them. The advertisements sometimes are directed to a specific audience, or has hidden

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messages, but every advertisement is created in order to attract more fans to the product or
the idea transmitted. Normally they use advertisement as a way to exploit untapped markets
or expand its consumer market. These patterns not only determine the amount of products
that the audience will consume. It also creates roles and models for the society. Society
gradually lost an identity, and becomes alienated to the models stipulated by the ads.
Probably the biggest damage generated is the one created in the younger generations. They
grow up believing that these roles are correct and becomes a common idea of their
everyday life. If the messages are transmitted in a responsible manner, or there is a direct
control on it, the advantages that this kind of communication generates are greater. The ads
are not really the problem. The problem is the irresponsible messages that sometimes the
companies involved on the advertisements send to the audience.

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Works Cited:
"Advertising and Publicity." Advertising and Publicity. University of Kentucky, 03 Apr. 2011.
Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
Berger, Johann, Scott Rasmussen, and Alan Sorense. "Negative Publicity: When Negative Is
Positive." (n.d.): n. pag. ROFORUM. ROFORUM. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Bossari, Jessica. "The Developing Role of Social Media in the Modern Business
World." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 8 Aug. 2012. Web. 05 May 2016.
Dittmann, Melissa. "Protecting Children from Advertising." Cover Story. American Psychological
Association, June 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
Gregory, Kristina. "Celebrities: Who They Are? How They Gain Popularity? And Why Society Is
So Fascinated With Them." Digital Commons. Eastern Michigan University, 2008. Web. 1
May 2016.
Heiens, Richard A. "The Influence of Publicity on Product Sales in a Non-Competitive
Environment." Scholar Commons. Institutional Repository of the University of South
Carolina, 1999. Web. 1 May 2016.

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"Reports." Advertising and Audiences: State of the Media. NIELSEN, 12 May 2014. Web. 22
Apr. 2016.
Sanders, Erica Lauren. "Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences." The
Influence of Media Marketing on Adolescent Girls. Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society,
n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.