Advertisement (Jan. 18, 2012)

Advertising, is defined, as a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to continue or take some new action. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. The purpose of advertising may also be to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various traditional media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television commercial, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages. But I believe it is more than that.

The most important part of advertisement is the audience. Getting to know your target audience is the most important process to the success of the product/idea being advertised. During this process, research and analysis is very crucial, the better you know your audience, the more successful your ad will be. The idea of all this is to send a message to your intended audience, to convince them your product/idea is the product/idea for them. As a fellow victim of this manipulation, I understand the control that the media has on it's audiences. Creating an attractive design is key. However, even though design plays a big part in the process of advertisement, it is not the most important aspect, Language is.

Choice of words play a huge role in audience manipulation. Short slogans and simple quotes usually work very well with this manipulation. Nike, for example, has had a huge success in its advertisement using this approach. "Just do it" has had major success in the manipulation of it's audience. Besides the many attractive shoe designs and its many ads/commercials, Nike's success comes from its slogan and its simple logo design. Its extremely simple which makes it very memorable. I'm sure that there is not one person in the country who doesn't recognize the Nike slogan or its logo. The idea is to get your audience interested and thinking about your product/idea, to give them a reason to purchase your product. "Just do it" can imply many ideas to it's audience, one of them can imply "Just buy our product. You know you want to. Just do it." which seems to be the logical idea behind the brand. Product Recognition is key to all ad success.