Advertising and contemporary culture Research Paper

Advertising and contemporary culture - Research Paper Example Advertising also involves a sponsor who is the person who pays for the advertisement. All of these factors work together in an attempt to sell a product, service or concept to a target population through branding. Branding is described as forming an image associated with a certain product in the mind of the consumer. It involves gender studies, semiotics and effective mediums of advertising. Contemporary culture refers to the existence of different genres of something within the same frame of time. When we talk of contemporary culture, we talk about the different ethnicities, religions, societies and economies that exist today. With the world growing smaller due to increased mediums of communication, it seems that the advertiser’s job would be easier. However, it has gotten all the more difficult since not only has the market become more competitive but finances have become limited and while sponsors ask for maximum cost efficiency, designing campaigns that are targeted yet ef fective has become a challenge. Mass campaigns are cost effective but the message might be suitable for one market and outright offensive for the other. Thus, advertising’s relation with contemporary culture has never been as important as it is now. ... sion campaigns as well as new media which have not only pushed the advertisers to come up with new ideas but also increase budgets so that maximum number and types of medium can be used. These include covert advertising which overlaps with branding, mobile bill boards, ads on facebook and twitter, polls, consumer generated-advertising and celebrity branding. digital branding seems to be quite effective across all ages and is widely used in sport events, shopping malls and restaurants (Aimdigitalvisions.com) For example, Tom Cruise is seen using a Nokia phone and wearing a Bulgari watch in the movie Minority Report. This is an example of covert advertisement that was aimed at movie audiences which were predominantly under 35. Similarly, popup, advergaming and emails are also a popular medium of advertisement among the younger lot. The effectiveness of a medium of communication is not just measured by the age of a target audience. It has a lot to do with the size of an audience as well . Crowdsourcing is a very popular approach when the target audience is huge, the ad is supposed to be ‘most-buzzed-about’ (Elliott) and has to be reached within limited finances. Google, Hershey’s, Microsoft and Mini Cooper have adopted this approach. Global advertising is aimed at a much larger audience with a view to expand globally. For this reason, advertisers rely on advertising researches, look for ideas that have the potential to travel (Global Marketing Management) and increase the companies’ pace of implementation. The most important factor in such campaigns is to give an image of one voice. The advertisement campaign of IBM is a clear example of this. Another aspect of advertising industry’s relationship with contemporary culture is based on how it affects genders. Not