Advertising Shapes Social Trends Research Paper

Advertising Shapes Social Trends - Research Paper Example The trends and the case studies on advertising and promotion showed that if the advertisement of a product or service has big impact, it generates more sales. Advertising is basically a communication process, which influences a person or a group of people to take decision on purchasing a product or service. Media Awareness Network states that the typical US citizen on average will see 3000 ads per day (Media Awareness, 2010). With such a high level of advertising around consumers every day, is it most likely that advertising shapes society. Since the number is high in terms of viewing the advertisements, now the question arises whether the advertising industry shapes and creates social trends or it just mirrors the pre-existing social trends. When one delves deep into the topic, it is witnessed that majority of the advertisements – whether it is print or digital – modern day advertisement shapes and creates social trends and not just follows the pre-existing social tren ds. It is important for the advertisement industry to play a big role in the well-being of the society when one debates whether advertisements shape the social trends in modern days. The messages and behaviours that the advertisers are trying to achieve also should revolve around the ethical issues of the society. Advertising is the vehicle through which the brand, product or service reach the target audience or consumers, sometimes by creating the demand of the product in the society (Edwards, Li & Lee, 2002). Some of the advertisements have certain self-benefits as well. II. Role of Advertising in Shaping Trends in the US a) Print Advertising It is a well-known fact that with the process of advertising, the companies create equity of brands and also in turn generates sale (Butters, 1977). The ultimate result of this is generating wealth. According to the data from the Fortune magazine, as per the World Bank in the year 2005, out of 150 largest economic entities in the world, only 55 are countries and 95 are large corporations. It is seen from the trends that the big corporations are always ready to spend billions of dollars in print advertising in order to bring behavioural change in the society – and they are doing that as well (Ambrus & Resinger, 2006). The intention of creating this behavioural change in the society through advertisement is to increase the market share of the product in the society. In other words, it can be said that print advertising makes more and more people to use their product or service. These advertisements offer the organizations the potential to alter the market. In some aspects, the advertisements also have the potential to alter various social norms and perceptions (Anderson, 2006). Though most of the western countries have banned the advertisement of tobacco, it is not necessary that there is complete shutdown in advertising tobacco products. In the modern day advertising, most of the cigarette companies spend a big am ount of their budget in advertising, which focuses on the exposure of the brand unconsciously to the broader audience (Bhat, Bevans & Sengupta, 2002). The Marlboro Man campaign was conceived by Leo Burnett and was run from 1954 on print media and as hoardings. The use of rugged cowboys to promote filtered cigarettes and replace the earlier feminine tagline of ‘Mild as May’ was an instant hit in the US. The trend of smoking increased manifold and people started smoking at a younger age. The Marlboro Man advertisements were a true trendsetter, which catapulted cigarette sales in the US and made Marlboro the number one cigarette brand by 1972 (Moellinger & Craig, 2001). The impact the print ad