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The world around us is replete with advertising
and try as hard as we might,
there is no escape. There are times
when we consciously subject ourselves to it,
but at other times, it catches us unawares. It
is ubiquitous and reaches us wherever we are.
At home, it is in newspapers, on the television
and even on our shampoo bottle. When
we step out of the house, it is on billboards,
hoardings, inside public transport vehicles
and just about everywhere in sight. At work,
it is on every Internet site that we log on to
and on the walls of the caféteria. At restaurants,
it is on the menu card. In the car parking,
it is on the pamphlets on the wind screen
of our cars. We find them in the annual reports
of the companies in which we have
invested. When we try to take loans, it comes
along with the loan processing documents.
We cannot escape them.
Just as advertisements are difficult to escape
from, their influence on our lives is difficult
to resist (Pollay, 2000). Today, they
have became a potent medium of communication
that perpetuates points of view in the society which gradually get translated into
public opinion. They are believed to “profoundly
impact the way people understand
themselves and the world around them, including
values and behavior” (Foley, 1997).
They achieve this through their secondary
role in the society; their primary responsibility
however remains selling products and
in some cases ideas and lifestyles too.
society which gradually get translated into
public opinion. They are believed to “profoundly
impact the way people understand
themselves and the world around them, including
values and behavior” (Foley, 1997).
They achieve this through their secondary
role in the society; their primary responsibility
however remains selling products and
in some cases ideas and lifestyles too.
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