Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade its viewers, readers or listeners to take some action. It
usually includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to
persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume that particular brand. Modern advertising developed with the
rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[1]

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through branding,
which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in
the minds of consumers. Different types of media can be used to deliver these messages, including traditional media
such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, billboards or direct mail. Advertising may be placed by
an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.

Organizations that spend money on advertising promoting items other than a consumer product or service include
political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Non-profit organizations may rely
on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement.

Public service advertising

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announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest
percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time
commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.

Public service advertising reached its height during World Wars I and II under the direction of several governments.

Types of advertising
Paying people to hold signs is one of the oldest forms of advertising, as with this Human directional pictured above

A bus with an advertisement for GAPin Singapore. Buses and other vehicles are popular mediums for advertisers.

A DBAG Class 101 with UNICEF ads at Ingolstadt main railway station

Virtually any medium can be used for advertising. Commercial advertising media can include wall
paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television
adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, human
billboards, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes
("logojets"), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts
and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable
diapers,doors of bathroom stalls,stickers on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening
section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an
"identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.

Television
Main articles:  Television advertisement and  Music in advertising

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format, as is reflected by the
high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super
Bowl football game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising event on television. The average
cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached US$3 million (as of 2009).

The majority of television commercials feature a song or jingle that listeners soon relate to the product.

Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through computer graphics. It is typically
inserted into otherwise blank backdrops[10] or used to replace local billboards that are not relevant to the remote
broadcast audience.[11] More controversially, virtual billboards may be inserted into the background[12] where none exist
in real-life. Virtual product placement is also possible.[13][14]
Infomercials
Main article:  Infomercial
An infomercial is a long-format television commercial, typically five minutes or longer. The word "infomercial" is a
portmanteau of the words "information" and "commercial". The main objective in an infomercial is to create an impulse
purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation and then immediately buys the product through the
advertised toll-free telephone number or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and
their features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and industry professionals.

Radio advertising
Radio advertising is a form of advertising via the medium of radio.

Radio advertisements are broadcasted as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a
receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for airing the commercials. While radio
has the obvious limitation of being restricted to sound, proponents of radio advertising often cite this as an advantage.

Print advertising
Print advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper, magazine, or trade journal. This
encompasses everything from media with a very broad readership base, such as a major national newspaper or
magazine, to more narrowly targeted media such as local newspapers and trade journals on very specialized topics. A
form of print advertising isclassified advertising, which allows private individuals or companies to purchase a small,
narrowly targeted ad for a low fee advertising a product or service.X

Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the expressed purpose of
delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads that
appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in text ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network
advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.X

Billboard advertising
Billboards are large structures located in public places which display advertisements to passing pedestrians and
motorists. Most often, they are located on main roads with a large amount of passing motor and pedestrian traffic;
however, they can be placed in any location with large amounts of viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in
stations, in shopping malls or office buildings, and in stadiums.X

Mobile billboard advertising

The RedEye newspaper advertised to its target market atNorth Avenue Beach with a sailboat billboard on Lake Michigan.

Mobile billboards are truck- or blimp-mounted billboards or digital screens. These can be dedicated vehicles built
solely for carrying advertisements along routes preselected by clients, or they can be specially-equipped cargo trucks.
The billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and others employing spotlights. Some billboard displays are
static, while others change; for example, continuously or periodically rotating among a set of advertisements.X

Mobile displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout the world, including:

 Target advertising
 One-day, and long-term campaigns
 Conventions
 Sporting events
 Store openings and similar promotional events
 Big advertisements from smaller companies
 Others
In-store advertising
In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes placement of a product in visible locations
in a store, such as at eye level, at the ends of aisles and near checkout counters, eye-catching displays promoting a
specific product, and advertisements in such places as shopping carts and in-store video displays.

Covert advertising
Main article:  Product placement

Covert advertising, also known as guerrilla advertising, is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and
media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the
movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderton owns a phone with the Nokia logo clearly
written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo. Another example of advertising in film is in I,
Robot, where main character played by Will Smith mentions his Converse shoes several times, calling them
"classics," because the film is set far in the future. I, Robot and Spaceballs also showcase futuristic cars with
the Audi and Mercedes-Benz logos clearly displayed on the front of the vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the
movie The Matrix Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac cars were used. Similarly,
product placement for Omega Watches, Ford, VAIO, BMW and Aston Martin cars are featured in recent James
Bond films, most notably Casino Royale. In "Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer", the main transport vehicle
shows a large Dodge logo on the front. Blade Runner includes some of the most obvious product placement; the
whole film stops to show a Coca-Cola billboard.X

Celebrities
Main article:  Celebrity branding

This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain recognition for their
products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers often advertise their products, for example, when
celebrities share their favorite products or wear clothes by specific brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved
in advertising campaigns such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general products.

The use of celebrities to endorse a brand can have its downsides, however. One mistake by a celebrity can be
detrimental to the public relations of a brand. For example, following his performance of eight gold medals at the 2008
Olympic Games in Beijing, China, swimmer Michael Phelps' contract with Kellogg's was terminated, as Kellogg's did
not want to associate with him after he was photographed smoking marijuana.

Media and advertising approaches

Increasingly, other media are overtaking many of the "traditional" media such as television, radio and newspaper
because of a shift toward consumer's usage of the Internet for news and music as well as devices like digital video
recorders (DVR's) such as TiVo.X

Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent
on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives.X
Digital signage is poised to become a major mass media because of its ability to reach larger audiences for less
money. Digital signage also offer the unique ability to see the target audience where they are reached by the medium.
Technology advances has also made it possible to control the message on digital signage with much precision,
enabling the messages to be relevant to the target audience at any given time and location which in turn, gets more
response from the advertising. Digital signage is being successfully employed in supermarkets.[15]Another successful
use of digital signage is in hospitality locations such as restaurants.[16] and malls.[17]X

E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as "e-mail spam".
Spam has been a problem for email users for many years. But more efficient filters are now available making it
relatively easy to control what email you get.X

Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of booster rockets and
the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness ofsubliminal advertising (see mind
control), and the pervasiveness of mass messages (see propaganda).X

Unpaid advertising (also called "publicity advertising"), can provide good exposure at minimal cost. Personal
recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat of equating a brand with a common
noun (in the United States, "Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex" = tissue, "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly, "Hoover"
= vacuum cleaner, "Nintendo" (often used by those exposed to many video games) = video games, and "Band-
Aid" = adhesive bandage) — these can be seen as the pinnacle of any advertising campaign. However, some
companies oppose the use of their brand name to label an object. Equating a brand with a common noun also risks
turning that brand into a genericized trademark - turning it into a generic term which means that its legal protection
as a trademark is lost.X

As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid downloadable content appeared on
mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter of time until mobile advertising followed, also first launched in Finland
in 2000. By 2007 the value of mobile advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers such as Admob delivered
billions of mobile ads.X

More advanced mobile ads include banner ads, coupons, Multimedia Messaging Service picture and video
messages, advergames and various engagement marketing campaigns. A particular feature driving mobile ads is
the 2D Barcode, which replaces the need to do any typing of web addresses, and uses the camera feature of modern
phones to gain immediate access to web content. 83 percent of Japanese mobile phone users already are active
users of 2D barcodes.X

A new form of advertising that is growing rapidly is social network advertising. It is online advertising with a focus on
social networking sites. This is a relatively immature market, but it has shown a lot of promise as advertisers are able
to take advantage of the demographic information the user has provided to the social networking site. Friendertising is
a more precise advertising term in which people are able to direct advertisements toward others directly using social
network service.X

From time to time, The CW Television Network airs short programming breaks called "Content Wraps," to advertise
one company's product during an entire commercial break. The CW pioneered "content wraps" and some products
featured were Herbal Essences, Crest, Guitar Hero II, CoverGirl, and recently Toyota.X

Recently, there appeared a new promotion concept, "ARvertising", advertising on Augmented Reality technology.X

Criticism of advertising
While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social costs. Unsolicited
Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent as to have become a major nuisance to
users of these services, as well as being a financial burden on internet service providers.[18] Advertising is
increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation.[19] In
addition, advertising frequently uses psychological pressure (for example, appealing to feelings of inadequacy) on the
intended consumer, which may be harmful.X
Hyper-commercialism and the commercial tidal wave
Criticism of advertising is closely linked with criticism of media and often interchangeable. They can refer to its audio-
visual aspects (e. g. cluttering of public spaces and airwaves), environmental aspects (e. g. pollution, oversize
packaging, increasing consumption), political aspects (e. g. media dependency, free speech, censorship), financial
aspects (costs), ethical/moral/social aspects (e. g. sub-conscious influencing, invasion of privacy, increasing
consumption and waste, target groups, certain products, honesty) and, of course, a mix thereof. Some aspects can be
subdivided further and some can cover more than one category.

As advertising has become increasingly prevalent in modern Western societies, it is also increasingly being criticized.
A person can hardly move in the public sphere or use a medium without being subject to advertising. Advertising
occupies public space and more and more invades the private sphere of people, many of which consider it a
nuisance. “It is becoming harder to escape from advertising and the media. … Public space is increasingly turning into
a gigantic billboard for products of all kind. The aesthetical and political consequences cannot yet be
foreseen.”[20] Hanno Rauterberg in the German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’ calls advertising a new kind of dictatorship that
cannot be escaped.[21]X

Ad creep: "There are ads in schools, airport lounges, doctors offices, movie theaters, hospitals, gas stations,
elevators, convenience stores, on the Internet, on fruit, on ATMs, on garbage cans and countless other places. There
are ads on beach sand and restroom walls.”[22] “One of the ironies of advertising in our times is that as commercialism
increases, it makes it that much more difficult for any particular advertiser to succeed, hence pushing the advertiser to
even greater efforts.”[23] Within a decade advertising in radios climbed to nearly 18 or 19 minutes per hour; on prime-
time television the standard until 1982 was no more than 9.5 minutes of advertising per hour, today it’s between 14
and 17 minutes. With the introduction of the shorter 15-second-spot the total amount of ads increased even more
dramatically. Ads are not only placed in breaks but e. g. also into baseball telecasts during the game itself. They flood
the internet, a market growing in leaps and bounds.X

Other growing markets are ‘’product placements’’ in entertainment programming and in movies where it has become
standard practice and ‘’virtual advertising’’ where products get placed retroactively into rerun shows. Product
billboards are virtually inserted into Major League Baseball broadcasts and in the same manner, virtual street banners
or logos are projected on an entry canopy or sidewalks, for example during the arrival of celebrities at the
2001 Grammy Awards. Advertising precedes the showing of films at cinemas including lavish ‘film shorts’ produced
by companies such as Microsoft or DaimlerChrysler. “The largest advertising agencies have begun working
aggressively to co-produce programming in conjunction with the largest media firms”[24] creating Infomercials
resembling entertainment programming.X

Opponents equate the growing amount of advertising with a “tidal wave” and restrictions with “damming” the
flood. Kalle Lasn, one of the most outspoken critics of advertising on the international stage, considers advertising
“the most prevalent and toxic of the mental pollutants. From the moment your radio alarm sounds in the morning to the
wee hours of late-night TV microjolts of commercial pollution flood into your brain at the rate of around 3,000
marketing messages per day. Every day an estimated twelve billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials and more
than 200,000 television commercials are dumped into North America’s collective unconscious”.[25] In the course of his
life the average American watches three years of advertising on television.[26]X

More recent developments are video games incorporating products into their content, special commercial patient
channels in hospitals and public figures sporting temporary tattoos. A method unrecognisable as advertising is so-
called ‘’guerrilla marketing’’ which is spreading ‘buzz’ about a new product in target audiences. Cash-strapped U.S.
cities do not shrink back from offering police cars for advertising.[27] A trend, especially in Germany, is companies
buying the names of sports stadiums. The Hamburg soccer Volkspark stadium first became the AOL Arena and then
the HSH Nordbank Arena. The Stuttgart Neckarstadion became the Mercedes-Benz Arena, the Dortmund
Westfalenstadion now is the Signal Iduna Park. The former SkyDome in Toronto was renamed Rogers Centre.
Other recent developments are, for example, that whole subway stations in Berlin are redesigned into product halls
and exclusively leased to a company. Düsseldorf even has ‘multi-sensorial’ adventure transit stops equipped with
loudspeakers and systems that spread the smell of a detergent. Swatch used beamers to project messages on the
Berlin TV-tower and Victory column, which was fined because it was done without a permit. The illegality was part of
the scheme and added promotion.[21]X
It’s standard business management knowledge that advertising is a pillar, if not “the” pillar of the growth-orientated
free capitalist economy. “Advertising is part of the bone marrow of corporate capitalism.”[28] “Contemporary capitalism
could not function and global production networks could not exist as they do without advertising.”[1]X

For communication scientist and media economist Manfred Knoche at the University of Salzburg, Austria, advertising
isn’t just simply a ‘necessary evil’ but a ‘necessary elixir of life’ for the media business, the economy and capitalism as
a whole. Advertising and mass media economic interests create ideology. Knoche describes advertising for products
and brands as ‘the producer’s weapons in the competition for customers’ and trade advertising, e. g. by the
automotive industry, as a means to collectively represent their interests against other groups, such as the train
companies. In his view orial articles and programmes in the media, promoting consumption in general, provide a ‘cost
free’ service to producers and sponsoring for a ‘much used means of payment’ in advertising.[29] Christopher
Lasch argues that advertising leads to an overall increase in consumption in society; "Advertising serves not so
much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life."[30]X

Advertising and constitutional rights

Advertising is equated with constitutionally guaranteed freedom of opinion and speech.[31] Therefore criticizing
advertising or any attempt to restrict or ban advertising is almost always considered to be an attack on fundamental
rights (First Amendment in the USA) and meets the combined and concentrated resistance of the business and
especially the advertising community. “Currently or in the near future, any number of cases are and will be working
their way through the court system that would seek to prohibit any government regulation of ... commercial speech (e.
g. advertising or food labelling) on the grounds that such regulation would violate citizens’ and corporations’ First
Amendment rights to free speech or free press.”[32]An example for this debate is advertising for tobacco or alcohol but
also advertising by mail or fliers (clogged mail boxes), advertising on the phone, in the internet and advertising for
children. Various legal restrictions concerning spamming, advertising on mobile phones, addressing children, tobacco,
alcohol have been introduced by the US, the EU and various other countries. Not only the business community resists
restrictions of advertising. Advertising as a means of free expression has firmly established itself in western society.
McChesney argues, that the government deserves constant vigilance when it comes to such regulations, but that it is
certainly not “the only antidemocratic force in our society. ...corporations and the wealthy enjoy a power every bit as
immense as that enjoyed by the lords and royalty of feudal times” and “markets are not value-free or neutral; they not
only tend to work to the advantage of those with the most money, but they also by their very nature emphasize profit
over all else….Hence, today the debate is over whether advertising or food labelling, or campaign contributions are
speech...if the rights to be protected by the First Amendment can only be effectively employed by a fraction of the
citizenry, and their exercise of these rights gives them undue political power and undermines the ability of the balance
of the citizenry to exercise the same rights and/or constitutional rights, then it is not necessarily legitimately protected
by the First Amendment.” In addition, “those with the capacity to engage in free press are in a position to determine
who can speak to the great mass of citizens and who cannot”.[33] Critics in turn argue, that advertising invades privacy
which is a constitutional right. For, on the one hand, advertising physically invades privacy, on the other, it increasingly
uses relevant, information-based communication with private data assembled without the knowledge or consent of
consumers or target groups.X

For Georg Franck at Vienna University of Technology advertising is part of what he calls “mental capitalism”,[34]
[35]
 taking up a term (mental) which has been used by groups concerned with the mental environment, such
as Adbusters. Franck blends the “Economy of Attention” with Christopher Lasch’s culture of narcissm into the
mental capitalism:[36] In his essay „Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse“, Sut Jhally writes: “20. century
advertising is the most powerful and sustained system of propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural
effects, unless quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we know it.[37]X

The price of attention and hidden costs

Advertising has developed into a billion-dollar business on which many depend. In 2006 391 billion US dollars were
spent worldwide for advertising. In Germany, for example, the advertising industry contributes 1.5% of the gross
national income; the figures for other developed countries are similar.[citation needed] Thus, advertising and growth are
directly and causally linked. As far as a growth based economy can be blamed for the harmful human lifestyle (affluent
society) advertising has to be considered in this aspect concerning its negative impact, because its main purpose is to
raise consumption. “The industry is accused of being one of the engines powering a convoluted economic mass
production system which promotes consumption.”[38]X
Attention and attentiveness have become a new commodity for which a market developed. “The amount of attention
that is absorbed by the media and redistributed in the competition for quotas and reach is not identical with the
amount of attention, that is available in society. The total amount circulating in society is made up of the attention
exchanged among the people themselves and the attention given to media information. Only the latter is homogenised
by quantitative measuring and only the latter takes on the character of an anonymous currency.”[34][35] According to
Franck, any surface of presentation that can guarantee a certain degree of attentiveness works as magnet for
attention, e. g. media which are actually meant for information and entertainment, culture and the arts, public space
etc. It is this attraction which is sold to the advertising business. The German Advertising Association stated that in
2007 30.78 billion Euros were spent on advertising in Germany,[39] 26% in newspapers, 21% on television, 15% by
mail and 15% in magazines. In 2002 there were 360.000 people employed in the advertising business. The internet
revenues for advertising doubled to almost 1 billion Euros from 2006 to 2007, giving it the highest growth rates.X

Spiegel-Online reported that in the USA in 2008 for the first time more money was spent for advertising on internet
(105.3 billion US dollars) than on television (98.5 billion US dollars). The largest amount in 2008 was still spent in the
print media (147 billion US dollars).[40] For that same year, Welt-Online reported that the US pharmaceutical industry
spent almost double the amount on advertising (57.7 billion dollars) than it did on research (31.5 billion dollars). But
Marc-André Gagnon und Joel Lexchin of York University, Toronto, estimate that the actual expenses for advertising
are higher yet, because not all entries are recorded by the research institutions.[41] Not included are indirect advertising
campaigns such as sales, rebates and price reductions. Few consumers are aware of the fact that they are the ones
paying for every cent spent for public relations, advertisements, rebates, packaging etc. since they ordinarily get
included in the price calculation.X

Influencing and conditioning

Advertising for McDonald's on the Via di Propaganda, Rome, Italy

The most important element of advertising is not information but suggestion more or less making use of associations,
emotions (appeal to emotion) and drives dormant in the sub-conscience of people, such as sex drive, herd instinct,
of desires, such as happiness, health, fitness, appearance, self-esteem, reputation, belonging, social status, identity,
adventure, distraction, reward, of fears (appeal to fear), such as illness, weaknesses, loneliness, need, uncertainty,
security or of prejudices, learned opinions and comforts. “All human needs, relationships, and fears – the deepest
recesses of the human psyche – become mere means for the expansion of the commodity universe under the force of
modern marketing. With the rise to prominence of modern marketing, commercialism – the translation of human
relations into commodity relations – although a phenomenon intrinsic to capitalism, has expanded
exponentially.”[42] ’Cause-related marketing’ in which advertisers link their product to some worthy social cause has
boomed over the past decade.X

Advertising exploits the model role of celebrities or popular figures and makes deliberate use of humour as well as of
associations with colour, tunes, certain names and terms. Altogether, these are factors of how one perceives himself
and one’s self-worth. In his description of ‘mental capitalism’ Franck says, “the promise of consumption making
someone irresistible is the ideal way of objects and symbols into a person’s subjective experience. Evidently, in a
society in which revenue of attention moves to the fore, consumption is drawn by one’s self-esteem. As a result,
consumption becomes ‘work’ on a person’s attraction. From the subjective point of view, this ‘work’ opens fields of
unexpected dimensions for advertising. Advertising takes on the role of a life councillor in matters of attraction. (…)
The cult around one’s own attraction is what Christopher Lasch described as ‘Culture of Narcissism’.”[35][36]X

For advertising critics another serious problem is that “the long standing notion of separation between advertising and
orial/creative sides of media is rapidly crumbling” and advertising is increasingly hard to tell apart from news,
information or entertainment. The boundaries between advertising and programming are becoming blurred. According
to the media firms all this commercial involvement has no influence over actual media content, but, as McChesney
puts it, “this claim fails to pass even the most basic giggle test, it is so preposterous.”[43]X

Advertising draws “heavily on psychological theories about how to create subjects, enabling advertising and marketing
to take on a ‘more clearly psychological tinge’ (Miller and Rose, 1997, cited in Thrift, 1999, p. 67). Increasingly, the
emphasis in advertising has switched from providing ‘factual’ information to the symbolic connotations of commodities,
since the crucial cultural premise of advertising is that the material object being sold is never in itself enough. Even
those commodities providing for the most mundane necessities of daily life must be imbued with symbolic qualities
and culturally endowed meanings via the ‘magic system (Williams, 1980) of advertising. In this way and by altering the
context in which advertisements appear, things ‘can be made to mean "just about anything"’ (McFall, 2002, p. 162)
and the ‘same’ things can be endowed with different intended meanings for different individuals and groups of people,
thereby offering mass produced visions of individualism.”[1]X

Before advertising is done, market research institutions need to know and describe the target group to exactly plan
and implement the advertising campaign and to achieve the best possible results. A whole array of sciences directly
deal with advertising and marketing or is used to improve its effects. Focus groups, psychologists and cultural
anthropologists are ‘’’de rigueur’’’ in marketing research”.[44] Vast amounts of data on persons and their shopping
habits are collected, accumulated, aggregated and analysed with the aid of cr cards, bonus cards, raffles and internet
surveying. With increasing accuracy this supplies a picture of behaviour, wishes and weaknesses of certain sections
of a population with which advertisement can be employed more selectively and effectively. The efficiency of
advertising is improved through advertising research. Universities, of course supported by business and in co-
operation with other disciplines (s. above), mainly Psychiatry, Anthropology, Neurology and behavioural sciences,
are constantly in search for ever more refined, sophisticated, subtle and crafty methods to make advertising more
effective. “Neuromarketing is a controversial new field of marketing which uses medical technologies such as
functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) -- not to heal, but to sell products. Advertising and marketing firms
have long used the insights and research methods of psychology in order to sell products, of course. But today these
practices are reaching epidemic levels, and with a complicity on the part of the psychological profession that exceeds
that of the past. The result is an enormous advertising and marketing onslaught that comprises, arguably, the largest
single psychological project ever undertaken. Yet, this great undertaking remains largely ignored by the American
Psychological Association.”[45]Robert McChesney calls it "the greatest concerted attempt at psychological manipulation
in all of human history."[46]X

Dependency of the media and corporate censorship

Almost all mass media are advertising media and many of them are exclusively advertising media and, with the
exception of public service broadcasting are privately owned. Their income is predominantly generated through
advertising; in the case of newspapers and magazines from 50 to 80%. Public service broadcasting in some countries
can also heavily depend on advertising as a source of income (up to 40%).[47] In the view of critics no media that
spreads advertisements can be independent and the higher the proportion of advertising, the higher the dependency.
This dependency has “distinct implications for the nature of media content…. In the business press, the media are
often referred to in exactly the way they present themselves in their candid moments: as a branch of the advertising
industry.”[48]X

In addition, the private media are increasingly subject to mergers and concentration with property situations often
becoming entangled and opaque. This development, which Henry A. Giroux calls an “ongoing threat to democratic
culture”,[49] by itself should suffice to sound all alarms in a democracy. Five or six advertising agencies dominate this
400 billion U.S. dollar global industry.X

“Journalists have long faced pressure to shape stories to suit advertisers and owners …. the vast majority of TV
station executives found their news departments ‘cooperative’ in shaping the news to assist in ‘non-traditional revenue
development.”[50] Negative and undesired reporting can be prevented or influenced when advertisers threaten to
cancel orders or simply when there is a danger of such a cancellation. Media dependency and such a threat becomes
very real when there is only one dominant or very few large advertisers. The influence of advertisers is not only in
regard to news or information on their own products or services but expands to articles or shows not directly linked to
them. In order to secure their advertising revenues the media has to create the best possible ‘advertising
environment’. Another problem considered censorship by critics is the refusal of media to accept advertisements that
are not in their interest. A striking example of this is the refusal of TV stations to broadcast ads by Adbusters. Groups
try to place advertisements and are refused by networks.[51]X

It is principally the viewing rates which decide upon the programme in the private radio and television business. “Their
business is to absorb as much attention as possible. The viewing rate measures the attention the media trades for the
information offered. The service of this attraction is sold to the advertising business”[35] and the viewing rates
determine the price that can be demanded for advertising.X

“Advertising companies determining the contents of shows has been part of daily life in the USA since 1933. Procter &
Gamble (P&G) …. offered a radio station a history-making trade (today know as “bartering”): the company would
produce an own show for “free” and save the radio station the high expenses for producing contents. Therefore the
company would want its commercials spread and, of course, its products placed in the show. Thus, the series ‘Ma
Perkins’ was created, which P&G skilfully used to promote Oxydol, the leading detergent brand in those years and
the Soap opera was born …”[52]X

While critics basically worry about the subtle influence of the economy on the media, there are also examples of blunt
exertion of influence. The US company Chrysler, before it merged with Daimler Benz had its agency, PentaCom,
send out a letter to numerous magazines, demanding them to send, an overview of all the topics before the next issue
is published to “avoid potential conflict”. Chrysler most of all wanted to know, if there would be articles with “sexual,
political or social” content or which could be seen as “provocative or offensive”. PentaCom executive David Martin
said: “Our reasoning is, that anyone looking at a 22.000 $ product would want it surrounded by positive things. There
is nothing positive about an article on child pornography.”[52] In another example, the „USA Network held top-level ‚off-
the-record’ meetings with advertisers in 2000 to let them tell the network what type of programming content they
wanted in order for USA to get their advertising.”[53] Television shows are created to accommodate the needs for
advertising, e. g. splitting them up in suitable sections. Their dramaturgy is typically designed to end in suspense or
leave an unanswered question in order to keep the viewer attached.X

The movie system, at one time outside the direct influence of the broader marketing system, is now fully integrated
into it through the strategies of licensing, tie-ins and product placements. The prime function of many Hollywood films
today is to aid in the selling of the immense collection of commodities.[54] The press called the 2002 Bond film ‘Die
Another Day’ featuring 24 major promotional partners an ‘ad-venture’ and noted that James Bond “now has been
‘licensed to sell’” As it has become standard practise to place products in motion pictures, it “has self-evident
implications for what types of films will attract product placements and what types of films will therefore be more likely
to get made”.[55]X

Advertising and information are increasingly hard to distinguish from each other. “The borders between advertising
and media …. become more and more blurred…. What August Fischer, chairman of the board of Axel
Springer publishing company considers to be a ‘proven partnership between the media and advertising business’
critics regard as nothing but the infiltration of journalistic duties and freedoms”. According to RTL-executive Helmut
Thoma “private stations shall not and cannot serve any mission but only the goal of the company which is the
‘acceptance by the advertising business and the viewer’. The setting of priorities in this order actually says everything
about the ‘design of the programmes’ by private television.”[52] Patrick Le Lay, former managing director of TF1, a
private French television channel with a market share of 25 to 35%, said: "There are many ways to talk about
television. But from the business point of view, let’s be realistic: basically, the job of TF1 is, e. g. to help Coca Cola sell
its product. (…) For an advertising message to be perceived the brain of the viewer must be at our disposal. The job of
our programmes is to make it available, that is to say, to distract it, to relax it and get it ready between two messages.
It is disposable human brain time that we sell to Coca Cola.”[56]X

Because of these dependencies a widespread and fundamental public debate about advertising and its influence on
information and freedom of speech is difficult to obtain, at least through the usual media channels; otherwise these
would saw off the branch they are sitting on. “The notion that the commercial basis of media, journalism, and
communication could have troubling implications for democracy is excluded from the range of legitimate debate” just
as “capitalism is off-limits as a topic of legitimate debate in U.S. political culture”.[57]X
An early critic of the structural basis of U.S. journalism was Upton Sinclair with his novel The Brass Check in which
he stresses the influence of owners, advertisers, public relations, and economic interests on the media. In his book
“Our Master's Voice – Advertising” the social ecologist James Rorty (1890–1973) wrote: "The gargoyle’s mouth is a
loudspeaker, powered by the vested interest of a two-billion dollar industry, and back of that the vested interests of
business as a whole, of industry, of finance. It is never silent, it drowns out all other voices, and it suffers no rebuke,
for it is not the voice of America? That is its claim and to some extent it is a just claim...”[58]X

It has taught us how to live, what to be afraid of, what to be proud of, how to be beautiful, how to be loved, how to be
envied, how to be successful.. Is it any wonder that the American population tends increasingly to speak, think, feel in
terms of this jabberwocky? That the stimuli of art, science, religion are progressively expelled to the periphery of
American life to become marginal values, cultivated by marginal people on marginal time?"[59]X

The commercialisation of culture and sports

Performances, exhibitions, shows, concerts, conventions and most other events can hardly take place without
sponsoring. The increasing lack arts and culture they buy the service of attraction. Artists are graded and paid
according to their art’s value for commercial purposes. Corporations promote renown artists, therefore getting
exclusive rights in global advertising campaigns. Broadway shows, like ‘La Bohème’ featured commercial props in its
set.[60]X

Advertising itself is extensively considered to be a contribution to culture. Advertising is integrated into fashion. On
many pieces of clothing the company logo is the only design or is an important part of it. There is only little room left
outside the consumption economy, in which culture and art can develop independently and where alternative values
can be expressed. A last important sphere, the universities, is under strong pressure to open up for business and its
interests.[61]X

Inflatable billboard in front of a sports stadium

Competitive sports have become unthinkable without sponsoring and there is a mutual dependency. High income with
advertising is only possible with a comparable number of spectators or viewers. On the other hand, the poor
performance of a team or a sportsman results in less advertising revenues. Jürgen Hüther and Hans-Jörg Stiehler talk
about a ‘Sports/Media Complex which is a complicated mix of media, agencies, managers, sports promoters,
advertising etc. with partially common and partially diverging interests but in any case with common commercial
interests. The media presumably is at centre stage because it can supply the other parties involved with a rare
commodity, namely (potential) public attention. In sports “the media are able to generate enormous sales in both
circulation and advertising.”[62]X

“Sports sponsorship is acknowledged by the tobacco industry to be valuable advertising. A Tobacco Industry journal in
1994 described the Formula One car as ‘The most powerful advertising space in the world’. …. In a cohort study
carried out in 22 secondary schools in England in 1994 and 1995 boys whose favourite television sport was motor
racing had a 12.8% risk of becoming regular smokers compared to 7.0% of boys who did not follow motor racing.”[63]X

Not the sale of tickets but transmission rights, sponsoring and merchandising in the meantime make up the largest
part of sports association’s and sports club’s revenues with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) taking the
lead. The influence of the media brought many changes in sports including the admittance of new ‘trend sports’ into
the Olympic Games, the alteration of competition distances, changes of rules, animation of spectators, changes of
sports facilities, the cult of sports heroes who quickly establish themselves in the advertising and entertaining business
because of their media value[64] and last but not least, the naming and renaming of sport stadiums after big
companies. “In sports adjustment into the logic of the media can contribute to the erosion of values such as equal
chances or fairness, to excessive demands on athletes through public pressure and multiple exploitation or to deceit
(doping, manipulation of results …). It is in the very interest of the media and sports to counter this danger because
media sports can only work as long as sport exists.[64]X

Occupation and commercialisation of public space

Every visually perceptible place has potential for advertising. Especially urban areas with their structures but also
landscapes in sight of through fares are more and more turning into media for advertisements. Signs, posters,
billboards, flags have become decisive factors in the urban appearance and their numbers are still on the increase.
“Outdoor advertising has become unavoidable. Traditional billboards and transit shelters have cleared the way for
more pervasive methods such as wrapped vehicles, sides of buildings, electronic signs, kiosks, taxis, posters, sides of
buses, and more. Digital technologies are used on buildings to sport ‘urban wall displays’. In urban areas commercial
content is placed in our sight and into our consciousness every moment we are in public space. The German
Newspaper ‘Zeit’ called it a new kind of ‘dictatorship that one cannot escape’.[21] Over time, this domination of the
surroundings has become the “natural” state. Through long-term commercial saturation, it has become implicitly
understood by the public that advertising has the right to own, occupy and control every inch of available space. The
steady normalization of invasive advertising dulls the public’s perception of their surroundings, re-enforcing a general
attitude of powerlessness toward creativity and change, thus a cycle develops enabling advertisers to slowly and
consistently increase the saturation of advertising with little or no public outcry.”[65]X

The massive optical orientation toward advertising changes the function of public spaces which are utilised by brands.
Urban landmarks are turned into trademarks. The highest pressure is exerted on renown and highly frequented public
spaces which are also important for the identity of a city (e. g. Piccadilly Circus, Times Square, Alexanderplatz).
Urban spaces are public commodities and in this capacity they are subject to “aesthetical environment protection”,
mainly through building regulations, heritage protection and landscape protection. “It is in this capacity that these
spaces are now being privatised. They are peppered with billboards and signs, they are remodelled into media for
advertising.”[34][35]X

Socio-cultural aspects: sexism, discrimination and stereotyping

“Advertising has an “agenda setting function” which is the ability, with huge sums of money, to put consumption as the
only item on the agenda. In the battle for a share of the public conscience this amounts to non-treatment (ignorance)
of whatever is not commercial and whatever is not advertised for. Advertising should be reflection of society norms
and give clear picture of target market. Spheres without commerce and advertising serving the muses and relaxation
remain without respect.[neutrality  is  disputed] With increasing force advertising makes itself comfortable in the private sphere
so that the voice of commerce becomes the dominant way of expression in society.”[66] Advertising critics see
advertising as the leading light in our culture. Sut Jhally and James Twitchell go beyond considering advertising as
kind of religion and that advertising even replaces religion as a key institution.[67] "Corporate advertising (or is it
commercial media?) is the largest single psychological project ever undertaken by the human race. Yet for all of that,
its impact on us remains unknown and largely ignored. When I think of the media’s influence over years, over
decades, I think of those brainwashing experiments conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron in a Montreal psychiatric
hospital in the 1950s (see MKULTRA). The idea of the CIA-sponsored "depatterning" experiments was to outfit
conscious, unconscious or semiconscious subjects with headphones, and flood their brains with thousands of
repetitive "driving" messages that would alter their behaviour over time….Advertising aims to do the same
thing."[25] Advertising is especially aimed at young people and children and it increasingly reduces young people to
consumers.[49] For Sut Jhally it is not “surprising that something this central and with so much being expended on it
should become an important presence in social life. Indeed, commercial interests intent on maximizing the
consumption of the immense collection of commodities have colonized more and more of the spaces of our culture.
For instance, almost the entire media system (television and print) has been developed as a delivery system for
marketers its prime function is to produce audiences for sale to advertisers. Both the advertisements it carries, as well
as the orial matter that acts as a support for it, celebrate the consumer society. The movie system, at one time outside
the direct influence of the broader marketing system, is now fully integrated into it through the strategies of licensing,
tie-ins and product placements. The prime function of many Hollywood films today is to aid in the selling of the
immense collection of commodities. As public funds are drained from the non-commercial cultural sector, art galleries,
museums and symphonies bid for corporate sponsorship.”[54] In the same way effected is the education system and
advertising is increasingly penetrating schools and universities. Cities, such as New York, accept sponsors for public
playgrounds. “Even the pope has been commercialized … The pope’s 4-day visit to Mexico in …1999 was sponsored
by Frito-Lay and PepsiCo.[68] The industry is accused of being one of the engines powering a convoluted economic
mass production system which promotes consumption. As far as social effects are concerned it does not matter
whether advertising fuels consumption but which values, patterns of behaviour and assignments of meaning it
propagates. Advertising is accused of hijacking the language and means of pop culture, of protest movements and
even of subversive criticism and does not shy away from scandalizing and breaking taboos (e. g. Benneton). This in
turn incites counter action, what Kalle Lasn in 2001 called ‘’Jamming the Jam of the Jammers’’. Anything goes. “It is a
central social-scientific question what people can be made to do by suitable design of conditions and of great practical
importance. For example, from a great number of experimental psychological experiments it can be assumed, that
people can be made to do anything they are capable of, when the according social condition can be created.”[69]X

Advertising often uses stereotype gender specific roles of men and women reinforcing existing clichés and it has
been criticized as “inadvertently or even intentionally promoting sexism, racism, and ageism… At very least,
advertising often reinforces stereotypes by drawing on recognizable "types" in order to tell stories in a single image or
30 second time frame.”[38]Activities are depicted as typical male or female (stereotyping). In addition people are
reduced to their sexuality or equated with commodities and gender specific qualities are exaggerated. Sexualized
female bodies, but increasingly also males, serve as eye-catchers. In advertising it is usually a woman being depicted
asX

 servants of men and children that react to the demands and complaints of their loved ones with a bad
conscience and the promise for immediate improvement (wash, food)
 a sexual or emotional play toy for the self-affirmation of men
 a technically totally clueless being that can only manage a childproof operation
 female expert, but stereotype from the fields of fashion, cosmetics, food or at the most, medicine
 as ultra thin, slim, and very skinny.
 doing ground-work for others, e. g. serving coffee while a journalist interviews a politician[70]
A large portion of advertising deals with promotion of products that pertain to the "ideal body image." This is mainly
targeted toward women, and, in the past, this type of advertising was aimed nearly exclusively at women. Women in
advertisements are generally portrayed as good-looking women who are in good health. This, however, is not the
case of the average woman. Consequently, they give a negative message of body image to the average woman.
Because of the media, girls and women who are overweight, and otherwise "normal" feel almost obligated to take care
of themselves and stay fit. They feel under high pressure to maintain an acceptable bodyweight and take care of their
health. Consequences of this are low self-esteem,eating disorders, self mutilations, and beauty operations for those
women that just cannot bring themselves eat right or get the motivation to go to the gym. The EU parliament passed a
resolution in 2008 that advertising may not be discriminating and degrading. This shows that politicians are
increasingly concerned about the negative impacts of advertising. However, the benefits of promoting overall health
and fitness are often overlooked.

Children and adolescents as target groups

The children’s market, where resistance to advertising is weakest, is the “pioneer for ad creep”.[71] “Kids are among the
most sophisticated observers of ads. They can sing the jingles and identify the logos, and they often have strong
feelings about products. What they generally don't understand, however, are the issues that underlie how advertising
works. Mass media are used not only to sell goods but also ideas: how we should behave, what rules are important,
who we should respect and what we should value.”[72] Youth is increasingly reduced to the role of a consumer. Not
only the makers of toys, sweets, ice cream, breakfast food and sport articles prefer to aim their promotion at children
and adolescents. For example, an ad for a breakfast cereal on a channel aimed at adults will have music that is a soft
ballad, whereas on a channel aimed at children, the same ad will use a catchy rock jingle of the same song to aim at
kids. Advertising for other products preferably uses media with which they can also reach the next generation of
consumers.[73] “Key advertising messages exploit the emerging independence of young people”. Cigarettes, for
example, “are used as a fashion accessory and appeal to young women. Other influences on young people include
the linking of sporting heroes and smoking through sports sponsorship, the use of cigarettes by popular characters in
television programmes and cigarette promotions. Research suggests that young people are aware of the most heavily
advertised cigarette brands.”[63]X

“Product placements show up everywhere, and children aren't exempt. Far from it. The animated film, Foodfight, had
‘thousands of products and character icons from the familiar (items) in a grocery store.’ Children's books also feature
branded items and characters, and millions of them have snack foods as lead characters.“[74] Business is interested in
children and adolescents because of their buying power and because of their influence on the shopping habits of their
parents. As they are easier to influence they are especially targeted by the advertising business. “The marketing
industry is facing increased pressure over claimed links between exposure to food advertising and a range of social
problems, especially growing obesity levels.”[75] In 2001, children’s programming accounted for over 20% of all U.S.
television watching. The global market for children’s licensed products was some 132 billion U.S. dollars in 2002.
[44]
 Advertisers target children because, e. g. in Canada, they “represent three distinct markets:X

1. Primary Purchasers ($2.9 billion annually)

2. Future Consumers (Brand-loyal adults)
3. Purchase Influencers ($20 billion annually)
Kids will carry forward brand expectations, whether positive, negative, or indifferent. Kids are already accustomed to
being catered to as consumers. The long term prize: Loyalty of the kid translates into a brand loyal adult customer”[76]X

The average Canadian child sees 350,000 TV commercials before graduating from high school, spends nearly as
much time watching TV as attending classes. In 1980 the Canadian province of Québec banned advertising for
children under age 13.[77] “In upholding the consititutional validity of the Quebec Consumer Protection
Act restrictions on advertising to children under age 13 (in the case of a challenge by a toy company) the Court held:
‘...advertising directed at young children is per se manipulative. Such advertising aims to promote products by
convincing those who will always believe.’”[78] Norway (ads directed at children under age 12), and Sweden (television
ads aimed at children under age 12) also have legislated broad bans on advertising to children, during child
programmes any kind of advertising is forbidden in Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Flemish Belgium. In Greece there
is no advertising for kids products from 7 to 22 h. An attempt to restrict advertising directed at children in the USA
failed with reference to the First Amendment. In Spain bans are also considered undemocratic.[79][80]X

Opposition and campaigns against advertising

Billboard in Lund, Sweden, saying "One Night Stand?" (2005)

According to critics, the total commercialization of all fields of society, the privatization of public space, the
acceleration of consumption and waste of resources including the negative influence on lifestyles and on the
environment has not been noticed to the necessary extent. The “hyper-commercialization of the culture is recognized
and roundly detested by the citizenry, although the topic scarcely receives a whiff of attention in the media or political
culture”.[81] “The greatest damage done by advertising is precisely that it incessantly demonstrates the prostitution of
men and women who lend their intellects, their voices, their artistic skills to purposes in which they themselves do not
believe, and …. that it helps to shatter and ultimately destroy our most precious non-material possessions: the
confidence in the existence of meaningful purposes of human activity and respect for the integrity of man.”[82] “The
struggle against advertising is therefore essential if we are to overcome the pervasive alienation from all genuine
human needs that currently plays such a corrosive role in our society. But in resisting this type of hyper-
commercialism we should not be under any illusions. Advertising may seem at times to be an almost trivial of
omnipresent aspect of our economic system. Yet, as economist A. C. Pigou pointed out, it could only be ‘removed
altogether’ if ‘conditions of monopolistic competition’ inherent to corporate capitalism were removed. To resist it is to
resist the inner logic of capitalism itself, of which it is the pure expression.”[83]X

“Visual pollution, much of it in the form of advertising, is an issue in all the world's large cities. But what is pollution to
some is a vibrant part of a city's fabric to others. New York City without Times Square's huge digital billboards or
Tokyo without the Ginza's commercial panorama is unthinkable. Piccadilly Circus would be just a London roundabout
without its signage. Still, other cities, like Moscow, have reached their limit and have begun to crack down on over-the-
top outdoor advertising.”[84] “Many communities have chosen to regulate billboards to protect and enhance their scenic
character. The following is by no means a complete list of such communities, but it does give a good idea of the
geographic diversity of cities, counties and states that prohibit new construction of billboards. Scenic America
estimates the nationwide total of cities and communities prohibiting the construction of new billboards to be at least
1500. A number of States in the USA prohibit all billboards:X

 Vermont - Removed all billboards in 1970s

 Hawaii - Removed all billboards in 1920s
 Maine - Removed all billboards in 1970s and early 80s
 Alaska - State referendum passed in 1998 prohibits billboards[85]
 Almost two years ago the city of São Paulo, Brazil, ordered the downsizing or removal of all billboards and
most other forms of commercial advertising in the city.”[86]
Technical appliances, such as Spam filters, TV-Zappers, Ad-Blockers for TV’s and stickers on mail boxes: “No
Advertising” and an increasing number of court cases indicate a growing interest of people to restrict or rid themselves
of unwelcome advertising.

Consumer protection associations, environment protection groups, globalization opponents, consumption critics,
sociologists, media critics, scientists and many others deal with the negative aspects of advertising. “Antipub” in
France, “subvertising”, culture jamming and adbusting have become established terms in the anti-advertising
community. On the international level globalization critics such as Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky are also
renown media and advertising critics. These groups criticize the complete occupation of public spaces, surfaces, the
airwaves, the media, schools etc. and the constant exposure of almost all senses to advertising messages, the
invasion of privacy, and that only few consumers are aware that they themselves are bearing the costs for this to the
very last penny. Some of these groups, such as the ‘The Billboard Liberation Front Creative Group’ in San
Francisco or Adbustersin Vancouver, Canada, have manifestos.[87] Grassroots organizations campaign against
advertising or certain aspects of it in various forms and strategies and quite often have different roots. Adbusters, for
example contests and challenges the intended meanings of advertising by subverting them and creating unintended
meanings instead. Other groups, like ‘Illegal Signs Canada’ try to stem the flood of billboards by detecting and
reporting ones that have been put up without permit.[88] Examples for various groups and organizations in different
countries are ‘L'association Résistance à l'Agression Publicitaire’[89] in France, where also media critic Jean
Baudrillard is a renown author. [90] The ‘Anti Advertising Agency’ works with parody and humour to raise awareness
about advertising.[91] and ‘Commercial Alert’ campaigns for the protection of children, family values, community,
environmental integrity and democracy.[92]Media literacy organisations aim at training people, especially children in
the workings of the media and advertising in their programmes. In the U. S., for example, the ‘Media Education
Foundation’ produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources.[93] ‘MediaWatch’, a
Canadian non-profit women's organization works to educate consumers about how they can register their concerns
with advertisers and regulators.[94] The Canadian ‘Media Awareness Network/Réseau éducation médias’ offers one of
the world’s most comprehensive collections of media education and Internet literacy resources. Its member
organizations represent the public, non-profit but also private sectors. Although it stresses its independence it accepts
financial support from Bell Canada, CTVGlobeMedia, CanWest, TELUS and S-VOX.[95]X

To counter the increasing criticism of advertising aiming at children media literacy organizations are also initiated and
funded by corporations and the advertising business themselves. In the U. S. ‘The Advertising Educational
Foundation’ was created in 1983 supported by ad agencies, advertisers and media companies. It is the “advertising
industry's provider and distributor of educational content to enrich the understanding of advertising and its role in
culture, society and the economy”[96] sponsored for example by American Airlines, Anheuser-Busch, Campbell Soup,
Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Walt Disney, Ford, General Foods, General Mills, Gillette, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson,
Kellogg, Kraft, Nestle, Philip Morris, Quaker Oats, Nabisco, Schering, Sterling, Unilever, Warner Lambert, advertising
agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi Compton and media companies like American Broadcasting Companies, CBS,
Capital Cities Communications, Cox Enterprises, Forbes, Hearst, Merh, The New York Times, RCA/NBC, Reader’s
Digest, Time, Washington Post, just to mention a few. Canadian businesses established ‘Concerned Children's
Advertisers’ in 1990 “to instill confidence in all relevant publics by actively demonstrating our commitment, concern,
responsibility and respect for children”.[97] Members are CanWest, Corus, CTV, General Mills, Hasbro, Hershey’s,
Kellogg’s, Loblaw, Kraft, Mattel, McDonald’s, Nestle, Pepsi, Walt Disney, Weston as well as almost 50 private
broadcast partners and others.[98] Concerned Children's Advertisers was example for similar organizations in other
countries like ‘Media smart’ in the United Kingdom with offspring in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
New Zealand has a similar business-funded programme called ‘Willie Munchright’. “While such interventions are
claimed to be designed to encourage children to be critical of commercial messages in general, critics of the
marketing industry suggest that the motivation is simply to be seen to address a problem created by the industry itself,
that is, the negative social impacts to which marketing activity has contributed…. By contributing media literacy
education resources, the marketing industry is positioning itself as being part of the solution to these problems,
thereby seeking to avoid wide restrictions or outright bans on marketing communication, particularly for food products
deemed to have little nutritional value directed at children…. The need to be seen to be taking positive action primarily
to avert potential restrictions on advertising is openly acknowledged by some sectors of the industry itself….
Furthermore, Hobbs (1998) suggests that such programs are also in the interest of media organizations that support
the interventions to reduce criticism of the potential negative effects of the media themselves.”[75]X

Taxation as revenue and control

Public interest groups suggest that “access to the mental space targeted by advertisers should be taxed, in that at the
present moment that space is being freely taken advantage of by advertisers with no compensation paid to the
members of the public who are thus being intruded upon. This kind of tax would be a Pigovian tax in that it would act
to reduce what is now increasingly seen as a public nuisance. Efforts to that end are gathering more momentum, with
Arkansas and Maine considering bills to implement such a taxation. Florida enacted such a tax in 1987 but was forced
to repeal it after six months, as a result of a concerted effort by national commercial interests, which withdrew planned
conventions, causing major losses to the tourism industry, and cancelled advertising, causing a loss of 12 million
dollars to the broadcast industry alone”.[38]X

In the U. S., for example, advertising is tax deductible and suggestions for possible limits to the advertising tax
deduction are met with fierce opposition from the business sector, not to mention suggestions for a special taxation. In
other countries, advertising at least is taxed in the same manner services are taxed and in some advertising is subject
to special taxation although on a very low level. In many cases the taxation refers especially to media with advertising
(e. g. Austria, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Turkey, Estonia). Tax on advertising in European countries:[99]X

 Belgium: Advertising or billboard tax (taxe d'affichage or aanplakkingstaks) on public posters depending on
size and kind of paper as well as on neon signs
 France: Tax on television commercials (taxe sur la publicité télévisée) based on the cost of the advertising
unit
 Italy: Municipal tax on acoustic and visual kinds of advertisements within the municipality (imposta
communale sulla publicità) and municipal tax on signs, posters and other kinds of advertisements (diritti sulle
pubbliche offisioni), the tariffs of which are under the jurisdiction of the municipalities
 Netherlands: Advertising tax (reclamebelastingen) with varying tariffs on certain advertising measures
(excluding ads in newspapers and magazines) which can be levied by municipalities depending on the kind of
advertising (billboards, neon signs etc.)
 Austria: Municipal announcement levies on advertising through writing, pictures or lights in public areas or
publicly accessible areas with varying tariffs depending on the fee, the surface or the duration of the advertising
measure as well as advertising tariffs on paid ads in printed media of usually 10% of the fee.
 Sweden: Advertising tax (reklamskatt) on ads and other kinds of advertising (billboards, film, television,
advertising at fairs and exhibitions, flyers) in the range of 4% for ads in newspapers and 11% in all other cases. In
the case of flyers the tariffs are based on the production costs, else on the fee
 Spain: Municipalities can tax advertising measures in their territory with a rather unimportant taxes and fees of
various kinds.
In his book “When Corporations Rule the World” U.S. author and globalization critic David Korten even
advocates a 50% tax on advertising to counterattack what he calls "an active propaganda machinery controlled by the
world's largest corporations” which “constantly reassures us that consumerism is the path to happiness,
governmental restraint of market excess is the cause of our distress, and economic globalization is both a historical
inevitability and a boon to the human species."[100]X

Regulation
Main article:  Advertising regulation

In the US many communities believe that many forms of outdoor advertising blight the public realm.[101] As long ago as
the 1960s in the US there were attempts to ban billboard advertising in the open countryside.[102] Cities such as São
Paulo have introduced an outright ban[103] with London also having specific legislation to control unlawful displays.X

There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by regulating the content and the influence of
advertising. Some examples are: the ban on television tobacco advertising imposed in many countries, and the total
ban of advertising to children under 12 imposed by the Swedish government in 1991. Though that regulation
continues in effect for broadcasts originating within the country, it has been weakened by the European Court of
Justice, which had found that Sweden was obliged to accept foreign programming, including those from neighboring
countries or via satellite.X

In Europe and elsewhere, there is a vigorous debate on whether (or how much) advertising to children should be
regulated. This debate was exacerbated by a report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in February 2004
which suggested fast food advertising that targets children was an important factor in the epidemic of childhood
obesity in the United States.X

In New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and many European countries, the advertising industry operates a system of
self-regulation. Advertisers, advertising agencies and the media agree on a code of advertising standards that they
attempt to uphold. The general aim of such codes is to ensure that any advertising is 'legal, decent, honest and
truthful'. Some self-regulatory organizations are funded by the industry, but remain independent, with the intent of
upholding the standards or codes like the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK.X

In the UK most forms of outdoor advertising such as the display of billboards is regulated by the UK Town and County
Planning system. Currently the display of an advertisement without consent from the Planning Authority is a criminal
offense liable to a fine of £2,500 per offence. All of the major outdoor billboard companies in the UK have convictions
of this nature.

Naturally, many advertisers view governmental regulation or even self-regulation as intrusion of their freedom of
speech or a necessary evil. Therefore, they employ a wide-variety of linguistic devices to bypass regulatory laws (e.g.
printing English words in bold and French translations in fine print to deal with the Article 120 of the 1994 Toubon
Law limiting the use of English in French advertising).[104] The advertisement of controversial products such as
cigarettes and condoms are subject to government regulation in many countries. For instance, the tobacco industry is
required by law in most countries to display warnings cautioning consumers about the health hazards of their
products. Linguistic variation is often used by advertisers as a creative device to reduce the impact of such
requirements.X

Future
Global advertising
Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export, international, multi-national, and
global. For global advertisers, there are four, potentially competing, business objectives that must be balanced when
developing worldwide advertising: building a brand while speaking with one voice, developing economies of scale in
the creative process, maximising local effectiveness of ads, and increasing the company’s speed of implementation.
Born from the evolutionary stages of global marketing are the three primary and fundamentally different approaches to
the development of global advertising executions: exporting executions, producing local executions, and importing
ideas that travel.[105]X

Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or region. The ability to identify which
elements and/or moments of an ad that contributes to its success is how economies of scale are maximised. Once
one knows what works in an ad, that idea or ideas can be imported by any other market. Market research measures,
such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion and branding moments provide insight into what is working in an ad in
any country or region because the measures are based on the visual, not verbal, elements of the ad.[106]X

Trends
With the dawn of the Internet came many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner,
Popunder, advergaming, and email advertisements (the last often being a form of spam) are now commonplace.X

In the last three quarters of 2009 mobile and internet advertising grew by 18.1% and 9.2% respectively. Older media
advertising saw declines: -10.1% (TV), -11.7% (radio), -14.8% (magazines) and -18.7% (newspapers ).

The ability to record shows on digital video recorders (such as TiVo) allow users to record the programs for later
viewing, enabling them to fast forward through commercials. Additionally, as more seasons of pre-recorded box
sets are offered for sale of television programs; fewer people watch the shows on TV. However, the fact that these
sets are sold, means the company will receive additional profits from the sales of these sets. To counter this effect,
many advertisers have opted for product placement on TV shows like Survivor.X

Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people may like an advertisement enough to wish to
watch it later or show a friend. In general, the advertising community has not yet made this easy, although some have
used the Internet to widely distribute their ads to anyone willing to see or hear them.

Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance of the niche market using niche or
targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet and the theory of The Long Tail, advertisers will have an increasing
ability to reach specific audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the
largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of
niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provide advertisers with audiences
that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for
companies' marketing products. Among others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser employing this method in
their video on demand menus. These advertisements are targeted to a specific group and can be viewed by anyone
wishing to find out more about a particular business or practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the
viewer to become proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.[107]X

In the realm of advertising agencies, continued industry diversification has seen observers note that “big global
clients don't need big global agencies any more”.[108] This trend is reflected by the growth of non-traditional agencies in
various global markets, such as Canadian business TAXI and SMART in Australia and has been referred to as "a
revolution in the ad world".[109]X

In freelance advertising, companies hold public competitions to create ads for their product, the best one of which is
chosen for widespread distribution with a prize given to the winner(s). During the 2007 Super Bowl, PepsiCo held
such a contest for the creation of a 30-second television ad for the Doritos brand of chips, offering a cash prize to the
winner. Chevrolet held a similar competition for their Tahoe line of SUVs. This type of advertising, however, is still in
its infancy. It may ultimately decrease the importance of advertising agencies by creating a niche for independent
freelancers.[citation needed]X

Advertising education has become widely popular with bachelor, master and doctorate degrees becoming available
in the emphasis. A surge in advertising interest is typically attributed to the strong relationship advertising plays in
cultural and technological changes, such as the advance of online social networking. A unique model for teaching
advertising is the student-run advertising agency, where advertising students create campaigns for real companies.
[110]
 Organizations such as American Advertising Federation and AdU Network partner established companies with
students to create these campaigns.X
Advertising research
Main article:  Advertising research

Advertising research is a specialized form of research that works to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of
advertising. It entails numerous forms of research which employ different methodologies. Advertising research
includes pre-testing (also known as copy testing) and post-testing of ads and/or campaigns—pre-testing is done
before an ad airs to gauge how well it will perform and post-testing is done after an ad airs to determine the in-market
impact of the ad or campaign on the consumer. Continuous ad tracking and the Communicus System are competing
examples of post-testing advertising research types.