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Selling an idea
Advertising: Is it an art or science? Is it a business or profession? It is all this and probably more. It is an art because of the creativity of talented advertising men. It is a science because of scientific marketing research. Advertising serves primarily as a tool of marketing and its purpose is not to entertain but create sales. The word "advertising" is derived from Latin word "advert", which means to turn toward. Advertising helps turn one’s mind or attention towards a product. For creating an advertisement, a vast amount of groundwork needs to be done, the creative side being only one aspect, though admittedly, a vital one, of a large and complex plan. Advertising in the simplest term means communication or giving publicity to goods or a service so as to create awareness. This is a form of fine arts that man has perfected over the years though its type and form has undergone phenomenal changes. According to an old definition, advertising is a form of paid public announcement intended to promote the sales of a commodity or service to advance an idea or bring about some other effect desired by the advertiser. Our ancestors relied on ‘word of mouth’ (oral) advertising. With industrial revolution, advertising started growing. The 19th century saw a number of positive developments in advertising, the description of advertising was dramatically changed to "salesmanship in print", obviously focused on true advertising for the first time. Now, it has taken different forms like advertising through the press and electronic media, outdoor media and, most recently, through internet. An applied artist is related to advertising profession and is responsible for giving visual images to the message of communication through media, which are subject to technical, economical and social control with a creative ability. He as a fine artist, is not of lesser professional degree, he has to serve the specific purpose with aesthetic excellence. Public relations play a very significant role in advertising. It is said the louder you speak, the better you are heard. The buyer can be induced to buy a particular brand by effective advertising. It has also opened up new horizons and removed all forms of geographic, linguistic and social barriers. The affect of advertising in our daily lives is all-pervasive. At the dawn of the day, a common man reads newspaper with a cup of tea full of advertisements. On the way to office, he is attacked by large-size hoardings, kiosks, posters and moveable publicity. In the evening, satellite channels bombard him with a variety of advertising films. Willingly or unwillingly, people mostly in countryside and cities are influenced by advertising everyday. Thus, advertising has not only contributed to our economic growth but also helped in the field of healthcare, education, awareness and entertainment. It has proved to be an effective tool for the spread of knowledge and has contributed vastly to improving the value of our modern life. However, in the recent times, we are seeing multi-national companies resorting to excessive advertising that is leading to the promotion of an alien lifestyle, different to our ethos. Gender bias The 20th century has witnessed a phenomenal growth of advertising. Today, there is no denying the facts that advertising has become a basic factor in merchandising. Every single day of our lives, the art of selling wares on the television does not fail to attract our attention. Advertising is a necessary instrument for business to operate and economy to run. However, the imagery in visual and print media use project women to befool people and create a false world of beauty and use this concept of beauty for commercial purposes. Feminine charm and sex is projected to boost the sale of product. Almost every advertising in prestigious periodicals use the female body. Though the product is more important and she is only secondary element, still her body is highlighted to enhance the face value of advertisement instead of showing the manufactured goods. The commercial slot of product for men on TV has nothing to do with women but still a woman must expose. These advertisements clearly demonstrate a gender bias. A woman’s presence is there only to increase the visual appeal of the advertisement. If we comprehend the whole scenario in a commercial framework, media-related questions occur in mind: To whom does a particular advertisement speak? To whom is it addressed? Who controls the media, sponsors advertisement, and who benefits from it? There must be a censor board to keep a regular check on these types of disgraceful advertisements under the framework of legal aspects of advertising. For women to register a meaningful presence in the crosscurrent of our public and private life, popular media has to work towards a transformative vision, even through the immensely effective means of advertising for positive social change and of human interest at large. Is it a cultural pollution vomiting against the aesthetics of advertising to attract the attention? One has to come up with aesthetic design idea that people can understand and which evokes sufficient interest in them. An applied artist must know how to communicate through media that is subject to technical and social control.
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