OUGD501: Essay

To what extent can advertisement influence or persuade its audiences?

As designers, advertisements can be seen as a soulless use of our talents and that to go into producing such things is “selling out” and persuading audiences to spend their money, some can consider it equally unethical. Both versions of the First things first manifesto argue this idea 'We... graphic designers, photographers and students... have been bombarded with publications devoted to... applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as cat food, stomach powders, fattening diets and cigarettes.' (Garland, 1964) but the question remains, just because designers and advertisement agencies will trumpet the benefits of advertising in stimulating consumer purchases do they actually have any effect on audiences?

I will start by looking into the argument that advertising does effect it's audience and I begin with the revised First Things First manifesto from 2000. Like with the 1964 version there is an argument that designers have causes much higher than the pushing of commercial goods but that also the practice of advertising is manipulating the general public into consumer machines 'advertising... [is] supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.' (Adbusters, 2000). Lippke also comments on the effect advertisements have on the general public, his issue with advertisements is not that it pushes products on people but that it makes people into consumers in the first place; adverts that 'consist of messages about, broadly speaking, the consumer lifestyle' (Lippke, 1989) persuade audiences in a way that makes them want a life consistent with the worlds presented in advertisements, one example being Malboro cigarettes. The Malboro Man may make a consumer purchase Malboro cigarettes only because of it's linked connotations to manliness even if the effect is only one he feels himself. Like with Lippke and the First Things First manifesto, Galbraith not only believes the power of graphic designers could be put to better use but that consumerism as a whole causes a change in human behaviour. His theory, the Dependence Effect suggests that the production process not only creates but also satisfies human wants. 'Wants... come to depend on output...The higher level of production has, merely, a higher level of want creation necessitating a higher level of want satisfaction.' (Galbraith, 2001) and that despite products being produced in larger and larger amounts 'they do not seems any less important. On the contrary, it requires an act of will to imagine that anything else is so important.' (Galbraith, 1967).

All these arguments are based on the idea that advertising can change an individual through persuasive techniques and as a result change an entire society and it's priorities towards consumerist based ones. In principle the world they suggest advertising has created is an unethical one and the practices used by advertisers are at their heart unethical as well as influential and manipulative. Lippke, Galbraith and First Things First all have their opinions on how advertising techniques can be used in an ethical way that benefits society. First Things First urges designers to put their talents into social, cultural, environmental or political causes, Galbraith suggests restructuring society so that public and private goods were in a more harmonious balance, but just because they believe advertising is bad and community projects are good, does it make them so? As put by Michael Beruit 'Graphic designers do work that informs, and... advertising agencies do work that persuades. In the First Things First universe the former is good and the latter is bad. But some of the most effective work on behalf of social causes has appropriated nothing more and nothing less than these same “techniques and apparatuses”: think of Guan Fury's work in the fight against HIV, or the Guerilla Girls' agitation for gender equality in the fine arts.' (Bierut, 2007). So it can be said that it is not the techniques that advertisers use that could be considered unethical, despite their manipulative nature, but rather the intention with which they use these techniques- a principle much in line with Kant's theory of ethics.

Kant's principle is based on the will of the person's actions, this determines whether their action is perceived as good or bad; even if the action accomplishes nothing the good will that was behind it 'would still shine like a jewel for its own sake as something which has its full value in itself.' (Kant, 1785). If we apply this theory to the practice of advertising it can be argued both ways that advertisers have good and bad will. It can said to be of good will of the advertisers that their practice is intended to stimulate an economy and keep a system we all rely on moving. On the other hand using people as a means to an end for the purpose of making money can be said to be applying a bad will; or the intention to persuade a general public and influence them into buying products.

It can be argued however that advertising has bad will when advertising towards the vulnerable targets, directly targeting insecurities and their desires as a means to sell products. For women, the main target it beauty products; especially with a younger audience of girls who are entering their teenage years. Makeup and beauty products make claims in their adverts to easily rid a consumer of their physical problems and instantly improve physical appearance. Facial scrubs claim they will rid the user of acne and blackheads, lip glosses display their ability to make a users lips luscious and 'kissable'. In a teenager's world (or even in a grown woman's world) where advertisers display digitally touched up unrealistically beautiful models it appears to the individual that if they use these products they too can be beautiful. In support of this a survey I conducted which asked what advert category participants would consider the most influential, 80% selected health and beauty products (Ethical Advertising, 2015)- they connect directly with an insecurity and claim to be able to fix it.

Children are another vulnerable market; born with a childish naïvety into a world where products and advertisements are everywhere, they believe everything an older child or adult tells them and are easily attracted through bright colours and loud noises, they are a group very susceptible to adverts. If a bright colourful and noisy advert tells a child that this particular toy is the coolest, that all kids love this toy they will want it and feel excluded if they do not have it. Each new generation that is born is brought into a world surrounded by more and more products and the want to own the newest products or fear being left out. For children this expectation to own items is engrained into their lives and to have the latest toy/gadget bought for them so they may be included in their peer group is essential, children want to fit in to their social group and advertisers play on this putting it directly into their messages. In a study conducted by Ad Age International 70% of those questioned believed that advertising brain washes children and manipulates their desires into wanting essentially useless items. (Robinson citing Ad Age International, 1998)

Another market vulnerable to manipulation through advertising are the elderly. The main adverts geared towards the ageing population are products and services intended to help them maintain independence; one only needs to watch any adverts that appear on daytime television to see just how many are aimed directly at this insecurity. Meal delivery services without the 'hassle' of cooking, chairs that make it easier to stand up and sit down, bath tubs the lower you in and showers with seats for ease of use when bathing', stair lifts that make upstairs of their homes easy to reach; all of these adverts pray on the fear of not being able to complete daily tasks anymore and the desire to maintain independence into old age. All adverts directed at these vulnerable markets tap wants, fears, insecurities and needs in order to sell products, however it isn't just these three target audiences that play on our wants and desires, they all do.

A technique used by advertisers is to appeal to our innate human wants and suggest that a particular product may be able to satisfy them. They all target our basic needs for shelter, status, sustenance and sex (known as the 4 s's) and claim that pushing all the right buttons would sell products, 'Once a businessman knows where his product stands in relation to the Four-S's he can gauge his selling appeals with maximum effectiveness' (Robinson citing Dichter, 1998). However, Abraham Maslow developed a more in depth version of the innate wants, by layering five general categories into a Hierarchy of Need. His five levels included the physiological relating to food, water, oxygen, temperature. The second, safety, involving shelter and protection. The third, love maternal love, family love etc. The fourth, esteem, acceptance by others, self respect and recognition and the final layer Maslow coined self-actualisation which is our need for spiritualism, aesthetic appreciation, growth, learning and charity. Higher levels on the hierarchy cannot be attained without layering the initial ones. This more in depth look at the psychology of selling leads advertisers to understand where they can sell products and who to target with what; it was no longer just about pushing buttons it was instead finding the right audience with the right set of buttons. 'There is plainly nothing to be gained by advertising a Rolls-Royce in the barrios of Rio de Janeiro because ghettos are all about food and shelter- first and second level needs' (Robinson, 1998). Or as Galbraith put it 'A man who is hungry need never be told of his need for food' (Galbraith [in Advertising], 2000) Advertisers could more accurately target specific products to specific types of society, their methods for categorising people become more in depth and the ability to influence their audiences apparently stronger.

Taking all of these factors into consideration: the creation of consumers, playing on innate human needs and attempting to falsely satisfy them, the bad will to make money and push products without care of the consequences, making audiences believe they need stuff they don't, targeting our insecurities and desires, we could seriously consider adverts to be an influential creation. In support of this conclusion we can look at survey results I produced, when asked if participants had ever felt persuaded to buy a product because of advertising as a whole 80% said yes and whether they have ever brought a products specifically because of its advert just over half said yes (Ethical Advertising, 2015).

This previous argument; that advertising not only influences people into buying products but can also manipulate them, relies on the premise that consumers are incapable of making a purchase decision without advertising guiding them, however, this cannot be the case. Most advertisers will argue that adverts are at their core informative rather than manipulative. The car company Volvo for example claim their cars will keep a family safe, we could argue that they are merely pulling an emotional string in the consumers heart however, 'The claims are supported by proofs such as armoured plating applied during the body paint process, independent research on automobile safety records and so on.' (Spence, Van Heekeren, 2005) This means when Volvo say their cars will keep a family safe they are merely informing the customer of a researched and proven truth.

Also we must understand as consumers we are capable of independent thought and opinion and are able to choose products based on personal preference rather than advertising; we also know that all advertising must be taken with a pinch of salt. 'the new defence of advertising views [adverts] as primarily informative rather than manipulative. It assumes that consumers are rational, self-interested actors whose product preferences are determined by factors other than advertising' (Phillips, 1997). In 10 footnotes to a manifesto Michael Bierut makes a sarcastic comment on First things first's belief that we purchase products precisely because of its adverts rather than rational thought 'Human beings have little to no critical faculties. They embrace the products of Disney, CM, Calvin Klein, and Phillip Morris not because they like them or the products have any intrinsic merit, but because their designer puppet masters have hypnotised them with things like colours and typefaces.' My survey results support these arguments, when asked what degree they believed advertisements to be untruthful 52% agreed that to some extent adverts were untruthful, only 24% believed them to be somewhat truthful, no one considered them to be wholly truthful (Ethical Advertising, 2015). This statistic is support by research conducted by Ad Age International, they reported that 72%of consumers they questioned believe the companies exaggerate the benefits of their products (Robinson citing Ad Age International, 1998).

Along with the addition of intelligent consumers the main argument against advertising manipulativeness is it's effectiveness, which apparently is something that cannot be accurately measured. Even advertising agencies do not fully understand whether the money they spend on advertising has any effect on their sales as Micheal Schudson says 'I know that at least half of my advertising money is is being wasted. My problem is- I do not know which half' (Robinson citing Schudson, 1998). In a survey conducted in 1992 on Advertising Effectiveness it was summarised that many firms cannot estimate the effectiveness of adversing, that they only use advertising because they do not know of any better or more efficient way of generating sales and that they continue to use advertising out of fear that they will loose sales to competitors who do advertise 'It is reasonable to expect that one's competitors will advertise. Thus, [a] decision maker's firm may be at a disadvantage if it does not do the same... in sum, it may well seem less risky to advertise than to not advertise.' (Phillips, 1997)

For further proof of advertising's ineffectiveness we only need to look at an example- The Edsel. In 1955 a campaign began to promote a ford's entirely new car for the people, and for 24 months before the car had even been made Ford began to carefully leak stories to the press and prime markets. A huge amount of hype was created around this car, Time and Life magazine wrote major features on it, teaser adverts were released showing only the steering wheel and never the full car itself , billboards, newspaper adverts and a total of $8 million (equivalent to $66,000,000 today) was spent on generating hype around the new car. It was a failure, very few of the cars were sold and despite the amount the company had put into advertising the vehicle people just didn't want to buy it. It's downfall was not only in the choice of name but also in its over exaggeration, it couldn't live up to the hype that had been created around it 'The promise of Cone's copywriters- 'There has never been a car like the Edsel'- helped draw huge crowds to showrooms. But once they got there all the public could do was yawn.' (Robinson, 1998)

Perhaps what makes the Edsel's failure all the more catastrophic is that it was produced in a time when adverts were considerably more effective. As time goes on more and more adverts fill the market and invade our daily lives, a result of this is that we become more and more immune to them, in today's world 'advertising messages tend to cancel each other out.' (Phillips, 1997). Adverts have to do so much more to grab our attention and the question now may be not whether they effectively pursuade us but whether they have any effect at all. In a video produced by cracked magazine an argument was made as to why advertising doesn't work anymore, they argued that despite companies attempts at personalising advert delivery methods through search histories and browsing patterns to the point where 'one Atlantic writer... over a 36 hour period his movements were tracked by over 105 different ad companies' that the number of people viewing these personalised adverts is lower than ever. When the first banner ad came out in 1994 it had a click rate of 44%, now that rate has dropped to 0.07% (8 rReasons Why Advertising Doesn't Work Anymore, 2015). They placed the blame on the 'meem effect'- the action of taking an idea and replicating it and rehashing it into new comedic forms; like with the Old Spice adverts, a once funny and original idea that got remixed and remade until it lost all initial appeal. 'The internet kicked it up to... DSL speed, so every occasional actually clever idea got oversaturated and imitated until the company realised they spent millions promoting funny deodorant stud but can't hold onto to these fans because they didn't do the even harder alchemy of leveraging meem into money.' (8 Reasons Why Advertising Doesn't Work Anymore, 2015).

Despite two contrasting arguments, the extent of advertisings influence is a purely individual to individual thing. Although certain consumers will be more vulnerable to certain products and will be more effective as a whole on a more naive person, we are becoming less influenced by advertising. When concerning all products and all adverts, to say we are all influenced and persuaded by them would be an over exaggeration however it is true that different individuals have certain product adverts that have an effect, whether this influences the public into buying particular brands or products is a different matter. It is true however, that we are exposed to a great number of adverts every day of our lives and that anything overdone will loose it's effect, adverts now have to rely on entertaining us to even get us to look or to stop us from clicking away or changing the channel. That being said the bombardment of advertisements and persuasive techniques can become normalised, making them dangerous over a long period of time. Its influence may be subtle and even unrecognised but honestly if it were having an effect would anyone even recognise that when immersed in advertising culture. And in terms of influence is it a form of persuasion that makes us consume, makes us unhappy and fills our innate human wants with stuff, or is it purely advertisers trying to inform us about their product and allowing us to make rational decisions based on their adverts? Advertiser Phil Dusenberry had this to say, 'Is it manipulation? In one way or another all advertising is manipulation. But all we're doing is manipulating people either away from our competition to our brand, or into using our brand more often.' (Robinson citing Dusenberry, 1998)

Bibliography:

8 Reasons Why Advertising Doesn't Work Anymore [televison programme online]

Scmidt, Alex Youtube.com (2015) 6 mins 40 seconds at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcGVbo57bAU (accsessed on 23.01.2015)

Adbusters (1999)

'First Things First Manifesto' In: Eye Magazine Vol: 9 (issue 33)

Bierut, Michael (2007)

Seventy Nine Short Essasys on Design

New York: Princeton Architectual Press

Galbraith, John (2000)

'The Implications of the Dependence Effect' In: Tittle, Peg (ed.)

Ethical Issues in Business

Ontario: Broadview Press Ltd. pp. 99-100

Galbraith, John (1967)

The New Industrial State

New Jersey: Princeton University Press

Galbraith, John (2001)

The Essential Galbraith

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

Garland, Ken (1964)

'First Things First Manifesto' In: The Guardian

Halford, Rosalyn (2015)

Ethical Advertising 26^th January 2015

Kant, Immanuel (2002)

Immanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Methphysics of Morals

London: Routledge

Lippke, Richard (1989)

'Advertising and the Social Conditions for Autonomy' In: Business and Professional Ethics Journal

Vol: 8 (issue 4) pp. 35-58

Phillips, Micheal (1997)

Ethics and Manipulation in Advertising: Answering a Flawed Indicment

West Port: Quorum Books

Robsinson, Jeffery (1998)

The Manipulators: Unmasking the Hidden Pursuaders

London: Simon and Schuster

Spence, Edward and Van Heekeren, Brett (2005)

Advertising Ethics

New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

OUGD501: Final Design and Evaluation

Evaluation

There are a few things I would've done differently for my final practical design. I wish that I had, had more time to source a male model and perhaps set up a range of different shots instead of just the one, applying the produced strategy to a larger range of final images. That being said the final design serves its purpose, incorporating all the key characteristics of status based advertising as identified through my research. Although the final piece may not link entirely to my essay there are many elements that certainly inspired it. The key inspiration was the section where I discussed the advertising strategy of playing on our innate needs to sell products and this is represented clearly through the research and final design where I essentially sold an innate need back to it's audience using the techniques of status related advertising. The broader and stronger connection with my essay was the advertising strategy produced for the final piece. Due to advertising being the key topic behind my essay it was essential to understand the foundations for advertisements and how a company or advertising agency would go about producing an advert from start to finish. There were certainly some elements in my own strategy that were provided already, since what I was producing was an idea that played on existing campaigns the market research, identifying the target audience and developing the appropriate tone of voice in response to research had already been completed, I just had to repurpose them for my own design. This certainly made the job easier but it didn't take away from the understanding of how an advertising strategy is formed and used. 

If I were to repeat this project again I would, as stated previously, produce more designs and images, perhaps even a video response to fully create an entire campaign. I would've also liked to branch out into other innate needs if I had, had the time such as sex based on health and beauty product adverts or safety in the style of either family cars, cleaning products or life insurance advertisements. 

OUGD501: Development

The vast majority of my design decisions throughout development were influenced by my research and the look of previous and existing campaigns. The layout, the monochrome, the font choice, the style of photography were all influenced by what I had identified as trends. The overall look of the image needed to be dramatic and film inspired, I used severe shadows to achieve the necessary drama for the final image. I chose Bodoni 72 Book for my font, I knew a serif font would be the most appropriate choice and Bodoni has a distinct class and elegance to it that suits the style of the advert. 

 

The tag line I chose for the campaign is ‘makes you worth it’ inspired by the Loreal slogan ‘because you’re worth it’. Where as the Loreal slogan informs women that they are worthy of the products, the status version informs audiences that they are unworthy without it. I felt this persuasive and slightly negative tone was necessary for advertising this particular innate need due to the raw yearning to own it. It like the other innate needs are something most people, as it would suggest, need and so the product of status needed to communicate just how essential it is to own it whilst at the same time suggesting what life would be like without it.

OUG501: Sketches/Ideas

Based off of the strategy for STATUS as well as my research into existing campaigns I sketched some ideas for how the poster/advert for STATUS would look. In place of a male model I chose to use a male mannequin for the final shoot. I felt this was not only a suitable parody to poke fun at the other campaigns but it means the shoot has to rely on the style and design decisions of the image in order to give the final piece the appropriate look.

In all the examples I'd looked at the males were random and interchangeable, with the exception of celebrities,  you could've placed any of them into any of the various shots and it wouldn't be noticed and it wouldn't have made a difference. This was another reason I chose to use a mannequin in place of a model, nothing says 'insert random attractive man here' than the literal blank template of a man.

OUGD501: Advertising Strategy

The Advertising Strategy for Status (STATUS)

‘A technique used by advertisers is to appeal to our innate human wants and suggest that a particular product may be able to satisfy them.  They all target our basic needs for shelter, status, sustenance and sex (known as the 4 s’s) and claim  that pushing all the right buttons would sell products, ‘Once a businessman knows where his product stands in relation to the Four-S’s he can gauge his selling appeals with maximum effectiveness’ (Robinson citing Dichter, 1998).’

In response to the essay I am choosing to use the techniques and styles employed by advertisers to sell our innate needs directly back to us. Although advertisements use these innate needs to create a personal connection with the audience and then link that emotion to the product, I will simply be displaying the under lying driving force behind the advert that creates that audience connection in the first place. The innate need I am looking to sell is Status, in the style and aesthetic as products that use status as a key driving force in their advertisements. The product aesthetic I have chosen to replicate are male cologne and watch adverts. The fashion edge to these adverts gives a much more obvious representation of status and they also both rely on very similar and easy to replicate visual devices in order to communicate this innate need directly to the audience. 

From these pre existing adverts we can plan out the strategy for STATUS.

Who will buy STATUS?

STATUS, in the simplest terms, is targeted towards men. Males aged between be 21-35, young workers determined to improve their opinion in the eyes of others. Psychologically we are looking to aim at men who believe the look makes the man. However STATUS doesn’t just aim at this demographic, the campaign will work for various types of men, from the slightly older male fearing he’s past it and determined to reclaim previous power and youth, to the alpha, ‘beating-the-chest male’ who is keen to show off his power through the way he presents himself to the not so confident man who wants to boost their status and power through the use of our ‘product’.

Where will the STATUS campaign be displayed?

We are looking to aim at men who are already interested in improving upon their look and status, male fashion magazines are an obvious home for the adverts, as well as shopping centres and fashion retail outlets, grabbing attention when our audience is out and about on the go. Branching away from printed mediums we would also be keen to create a digital platform for the campaign, product website and social media as well as banner adverts placed in appropriate websites such as fashion websites, gadget websites etc. The campaign will also be translated into a video advert to be displayed on television and the internet (youtube, the product site etc).

What will the Campaign Look Like?

In keeping with the existing campaign aesthetics for various other status related products STATUS will be a photography based advert featuring an attractive male as the central focus point, there could potentially be the inclusion of a ‘draped’ woman to boost the power and influence the man has, the focal point of a man connects the audience to the idea of what the product could do, you could be this man, that could be you with that girl if you use STATUS. The photo will be taken in a severe black and white look creating an artistic and dramatic feel, black and white flatters and adds drama to seemingly uninteresting imagery so it will be perfect to add an extra element to the final ad. It also connotes the idea of simplicity to the audience; have a problem, this is the solution, things are simpler and clearer when you use STATUS. The text will keep a classy and formal feel using a strong, yet elegant serif font, suggesting status mixed with class relating the product to these characteristics. The colour pallet will be simple monochrome, to keep things dramatic and mess free, the message doesn’t need to be obscured with colour based symbolism. Black and white, simplicity and status, crisp and clean- this is the message we need to convey free from outside influence. 

OUGD501: Practical Research- Advertising Strategy

In order to comprehensively link the practical work I'm producing to my essay I need to produce a brand strategy. The main chunk of my practical work will be based on how the advertisement works, what communicative devices it uses and in which contexts will it be displayed. To get my head around this I did some research into what makes up an advertising strategy in order to fully grasp how to produce mine for 'status'.

Advertising Strategy

What’s going on? 

The first step in developing an advertising strategy is market research. History of success, trends in popularity and current situation are the core areas for research, once gathered this information leads to realistic evaluations around risk and opportunity.

SWOT

After the research has been fully gathered and analysed it needs to be organised into a SWOT report that can easily understood by clients or by team members/creative director. The SWOT report identifies, and stands for, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Action

Various actions need to be considered in order to create a campaign that fits its market and has the correct selling point. These can include using before/after demonstrating the products effectiveness or image advertising where the product is little mentioned and instead an image is built around the brand that gives the identity (useful for my particular market). There are many more strategies, the key is finding the right one.

Branding

What follows is the building of the brand and the suitable guidelines for it to exist within built off of the strong foundations of market and product research. In short, this is the graphic design bit, what's the concept? What look and tone will be suitable? Where will it be displayed etc.