Chronologies 5 - Advertising

I wasn't able to attend the Advertising lecture because we were at Bradford Animation Festival that week. However, when looking back through the lecture notes on eStudio, the question on the first slide was; Is Advertising Prostitution? However, I find advertising an interesting topic to learn about and it coincides well with some of the previous lectures such as Communication & Mass Media and The History of Print.

Whilst looking through the slides of the presentation I cam across one that read, 'Does sex actually sell?'I linked this back to the idea about advertising being comparative to prostitution and it made more sense. Branding or advertising often includes people with model status to brand and advertise various products, and there are multiple examples of products, from perfume to clothing items and even food that are depicted in what could be considered a 'sexual' way, with the exposed bodies of various people as a focal point. I suppose in this way, 'sex' does sell. Using sexual connotations as a method of branding and as an advertising tool has been a growing practice for decades. It's now at the point where most of us see an advert or a billboard advertisement of that nature, and don't think twice about it because it's such a common practice.

One of the slides also puts forward the idea that advertising is a capitalist tool that is used to change the values of society. Which to an extent is correct. In a way it works both ways, as society changes its values so does advertising and it adapts the way the advert is designed to societies values and way of thinking. On the other hand, the way advertising is done can also change the values of society, like a vicious cycle of continually changing values and trends. Furthermore, the way advertising can operate, especially in a modern society where people care more and more about social status, and their place amongst and in relation to everyone else; advertising can be quite influential and change individual peoples perceptions when it comes to making them think, and behave in a certain way.

Relating back to the question that was raised at the beginning; Is Advertising Prostitution? The idea of sex is often used to sell products to the general population because in modern society it has such a big influence. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, but it can change societies perception of reality to an extent and perhaps change its values. However, advertising can also be a positive influence. At this point, some adverts are very enjoyable to watch and companies go to extreme lengths to produce interesting and well made adverts. Finally, advertising is an extremely powerful tool and has the potential to manipulate society through various means, so it's important to keep this in mind, and think for yourself when considering some of the ideas it portrays through advertising in the media.