Ads Fads and Consumer Culture

1. Select a brief passage from the reading and post it on your blog. Explain why you thought it was interesting.

"One can broadly be defined as cultural behavior and the other as people's or perhaps the collective unconscious. Focusing on individuals or groups of individuals in test studies frequently concludes that advertising plays no significant role in decisions making. An examination of advertising as a cultural phenomenon, on the other hand, suggests something quite different..."

I find this passage very interesting because I have always thought of advertising as a way to deceive the consumer. I feel that advertising plays a huge role the decision making process and is one of the main contributors to a consumer purchasing a product. TV has played a huge role in the deception and advertising of products. I feel that television tends to lean towards the second diagram describing how revenues are increased due to advertising. Businesses use television as their main source of advertisement and therefore revenues get larger and larger.

2. What do you think were the author's key points?

The author's key points about advertising were basically outlining the idea of deception and subliminal messages to the viewer. For example on TV, advertisements are very psychologically deceiving and trick the viewer into feeling something that the company wants them to feel. He understands that everything in our world today is based around the television and advertisements are seen all over the TV. This is a great way for companies to get their idea across while entertaining the possible customer.

3. Why is it important to have a psychological understanding when it comes to advertising?

Advertising is intending to be entertaining and through this entertainment the company can deceive and trick the consumer into feeling a certain way. Nearly all commercials, posters, billboards and ads try to force the consumer or recipient to have a feeling about their product or company. This psychological game is very tough to realize. If you have a good understanding of advertising and different techniques used to deceive the consumer then you will be able to recognize the advertising that is trying to trick you vs the advertising that is legitimate.


Link to Wikipedia Paper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_State_Aztecs_football