Advertising is an integral part of today’s society. Australian advertisingsymbolises the way we act, the things we do and the attitudes and values weshare. We can tell that advertising symbolises the way we act by the factthat we actually purchase a product to narrow the differences between themodel and yourself. It is important that we realise who we want to be andwho we want to become. Advertising is run on the basis that it is either toinform people about hazards or changes in law and to try to get them topurchase it. Types of advertising include political, government, retail,financial, classified, manufacturers, recruitment and trade.
All of theseads have a target audience. Without the target audience there would be nouse for the ad because there would be no customer to purchase the product. There are many patterns in the type of advertisement we see in Australia. The patterns are changed due to age, sex, location and interests.
Forexample a Garnier ad would be targeted at teenage women and women. Thoughwomen are the target audience for shampoos, men still use them however itis stereotypical for women to be told to use shampoos and conditionerskeeping their hair in pristine condition. The models and celebrities used in hair and make-up ads are beautifuland/or famous. An example of this is Sarah Michelle Gellar in Maybeleneadvertisements. Women see Sarah Michelle Gellar’s beauty and decide theywould like to look like her. Evidentially they end up buying the product.
Although there are models that show off ads, there are also many ads thatdon’t focus on a models or a celebrity. Government and Informative adsdon’t usually parade Nordic women or socially acceptable people. Insteadthey cut straight to the chase. Political ads usually show people beinghappy about voting for their party. This shows that parts of our societytake active interests in the nations business. It is very uncommon for minority groups to be used in advertising inAustralia.
Ads showing minority groups are only shown when the minoritygroup is the target audience. An example of this is the aboriginal mandressed up as a woman advertising sheds for a company in the Kimberley. Because people laugh at it and aboriginal people can relate to it, theywould be the ones taking notice of the ad. Another place you would seeaboriginals are in land conservation and environmental ads. This is becausethe word “aboriginal” connotates a black man looking after the environmentfor most people. People trust native aboriginals with the environment andlisten to them.
An example of this is the new ad by Ernie Dingo. He talksabout how land conservation and water management will help the environmentfor our future descendants. An ad like this is very good because it haschecked off all of the theories to successful advertising, Attention,Interests, Desire and Action (AIDA). Other various minority groups are occasionally shown in ads.
They come intothe ad either to make the ad comical or to attract attention from theminority group. Some of the minority groups include aboriginals, uglypeople, fat people, sad people, injured people and poor people. Injuredpeople are often shown as a deterrent like road safety ads. The other usefor minority groups would be to promote something. The word “nerd”connotates a brainy person that sits near a computer all day.
When a nerdis shown advertising a computer with a smile on his face the targetaudience thinks that the computers must be good because a nerd has chosenthat particular brand of computer. This shows our attitude towards peopleand we are veryText in print and non-print ads is highly important to the success in thead. Short, quick and informative text in ads stay in people’s minds muchlonger and they find themselves reading the text without realising. As dosymbols, slogans, jingles, imperative words and neologisms. Symbols make upa very important part in advertising a product.
Large companies pay largesums of money to patent a symbol. The LG company slogan is very clever inits simplicity and design. The symbol is a head that is winking but it iscomprised on the words L and G. When people see the symbol they know thereputation of LG and know the quality of the brand. This shows that ourattitude toward quality is very appreciative.
Slogans and jingles also playa large part in manipulating an audience into purchasing a product. Anexample of this is the Pringle ad “once you pop you can’t stop”. Therhyming words in the ad make it hard from people to get it out of theirminds. Because these slogans and jingles stay in peoples minds their ownbrains will tell them to buy the product.
Neologisms and Imperatives addthe final touch to text in an advertisement. Neologisms are enough to makepeoples mouths water. With words such as crispy and minty it connotates theactual flavour of the particular food or feeling. Imperatives like “trynow, Limited time only, while it lasts, buy now” etc, make people feel thatthey need to purchase the object while it is still there or they willbecome a less of a person in society.
The Australian dominant values and attitudes reflect around isolation,family, health and fitness and owning respectable possessions. The ads thatmost likely reflect all of Australian attitudes and values would have to bethe Holden commodore ad a few years ago. The ad showed a family going on aholiday across the Nullarbor in a brand new commodore. This representsisolation. It is a big value to most Australians living in the outback.
Australia is a country renowned all around the world for its harsh isolatesoutback. The people in the commodore then arrive at a respectable house anda family of good looking parents and a cute little girl and boy get out. This symbolises the home ownership and health and fitness aspect of ourvalues. Finally the commodore represents the respectable possessions.
Thisexample of a stereotypical family is something all people will aim for whenthey reach that particular time in their lives. All things in our unique Australian society can be shown though ouradvertisements. It is amazing how easily manipulated the human brain canbe. All Australians have their uniquely broad ideas of who they want tobecome. Racist and sexist approaches are seldom shown in ads because itgoes against the values of society and would be frowned upon by mostpeople. Human beings are very selfish and always want to be the bestindividuals we can.
To be happy people want the best of everything. Advertisements show the dreams of the majority of people and set standardsfor people to look the best. The thing people have to realise is to behappy with who they are because advertisements sell dreams and not reality.
