Sociology 2172
Marshall McLuhan
 Advertising is a very considerable part of our total culture. It is separate from any of the
other activities of our world
 First father of electronic age
 Wrote the Medium is the message
 Advertising is considered to be a social institution is society
Why advertising study sociology
 1. Distribution of resources
 Eg: Rent storage to make room for new Christmas presents (make room for more
stuff
 Told we always need more stuff
 Social capital: creativity, awards for best advertising
 Huge investment in super bowl ads
 2. Impacts on society
 massive impact of society as whole
 before internet,3500-4000ads a day on average
 with internet, considerably more (no estimate)
 considerable impact on people
 3.determinant of human behaviour
 agent of social control (forces that tell us how to behave,eg:parents
 peers are example of social control (dress a certain way determined by peers)
 advertising tell us how we must behave (how to look, how to wear, men always
in control and in charge to be successful)
 establish rules and norms of behaviours
 reinforces values of other value of other social institution
 shows us who are the valued members of society
 effective ads contain stereotypes (eg.Barbie dolls, most people bought Barbie
doll over Barbie doll that was average size)
Privileged forms of discourse
 where you get your lesson from
 a century ago
 church sermons
 political oratory
 elders
 people above don’t have as much impact in the past
 Now
 Discourse through and about objects
 More about what they wear and what they have more important than who they
are as a person
 Eg. Judge by what purse a woman is wearing,or what car is driving
 Much more interested in stuff
 Communications is all about what we have
Ambient advertising
 Intrusive ads you see everywhere
 We are suffer from ad fatigue (exhausted from large amount of advertisement)
 Ad clutter (environment so filled with advertisement)
 Things like Facebook are a good place
 Bob Garfield: suggesting a backlash from consumers saying enough is enough

Cannot sell a product and a message at the same time (cannot sell alcohol and say don’t
drink and drive)
First billboard: for coca cola
Billboards
 Use comedy and humor which doesn’t always go well
 Might be offensive if use comedy
 Mobile billboard effective because can bring where people are most likely to be (go to
where potential customers might be)
 Floating billboards, appropriate for what they are advertising
 On umbrella and swimming pools
 Sports events behind home plate so expensive to get ads
 Smoking advertisement are thought to be banned form sports events but would be huge
blow to race car industry
 On buildings people would argue that don’t want to see these pictures walking down
street.
 Instead of renovating with boring walls LV used their products
 Aerial advertisement are successful, hot air balloons 80% readership 80%retention, down
side is expensive
 Outer space, space marketing incorporated, put ad on Russian half a mile wide and can
shine ads on them, expensive (coke, Nike, etc. Interested) they would be visible around
the world, still trying to get through, should be somewhere we can go where we don’t
see ads
Stealth endorsers
 Don’t actually endorse, people just get paid to wear so they do
 Endorsers need to behave themselves
Naming rights
 Buying naming rights, every time you name event name the brand(rogers center)
 If don’t have a lot of money give naming rights to make more money.
Body tattooing
 People are offering to sell their body parts for advertising
 One of latest ebay crazes
 More offers for body parts then companies asking
 Only suitable for certain types of company(online companies, brand awareness, young
people, sketchier type)
Tattooing on athletes
 Up to $100000 to tattoo on boxer bodies
 Banned tattoos on body due to distracting to judges, degrading to sport, henna tattoo
material could get in eyes and bad for that
Product placement
 Huge increase in sales after toy story
 E.T and Reese Pieces, company took off after movie
New technologies:
 Will and grace, had a key character wearing a pink polo shirt, polo is owned by 50%by
NBC, end of show ad saying go buy this pink polo shirt, 3000 sold
 Developing interactive TV where you can watch a show, can click on pants that a
character is waring and buy it.
According to singer(1994)
 Sociology department at western/wrote an advertising text
Preliterate period:3000-400BC
 Adverting has been around forever
 All about locations and services(parties, entertainment, provider to make boots)
 1200BC painted or received message on tones
 town criers predominant form of advertising throughout history(oral advertising)
 downside was expensive, bad weather, not very convincing
classical period 400-1400AD
 slight move towards literacy
 street advertising, start to see this type of advertising
 beginning of personal classified ads(notice find wife, rent room)
 1200’s start to come up with trademark for a way to protect consumer
late middle ages:1400-1600
 had an advertising campaign, first advertising campaign(say what you need to say to get
people to come over)
 key invention is printing press
 invented first in china in 1051,but Gutenberg was given credit because better
 literacy increased
 poster created first advertisement for books was 1480
early mass media period 1600-1900
 periodical-the new advertising medium(magazine, newspaper)
 advertising inform people of new product(coffee)
 newspaper advertisement was best and moat cost effective method
 advertising for healthy product
 mid1800s age of newspaper
 this kind of advertising lead to concerns because making false claim
Mid 1800s
 filled critical niche in American market
 middleman between manufacturers and local stores
 door-to door
 on street corners and public venue
 advertising agency- marketed a lifestyle, rather than just a product(Arrow)
 learned about the product(Schlitz beer)
late 1800s move from salesmanship to media advertising
 brands-name, logos, packaging, designs/ a history ,reputation, meaning to consumers/ a
personality
20th century mass media: 1900-1920
 the great transition
 better and faster printing
 can make color, glossy picture, more details, produce cheaper
 institutionalization of advertising(more formalized)
 code of ethics and regulatory boards, similar to what we have now
early1900s-advertising and war
 message about joining war
 ads to get women into factories
 after 2nd world war, men went back to work, women home and started feminist movement
 economy is good after war so surge on buying(cars)
mid1900s-period of social insecurity
 become a determinant of human consciousness

hard sell approach
 bullied and hustled consumers
 played on consumers’ fear
 consumer created
 1st market research director-George Gallup—develop various techniques
 scientific advertising- John B.watson
mid1900s-electronic age
 TV
 Synchronized the behavior of millions of viewer
 Show realistic image
 Celebrities and experts used to sell
mid1900s-modern Ad agency
 David Ogilvy-bold creativity and risk-taking
 Clear, simple and direct connection between customer and brand
 “Hathaway man” shirts connected to lifestyle/ become1st best selling shirt
 first to start idea of storytelling(Guru of modern advertising)
2000s-information society
 successor to industrial age-creation, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of
information
 economy based on knowledge, not material goods-knowledge became a commodity
 competitive edge was to use information and technology in creative ways
commercializing cyber base
 target message to individuals and not just household
 “repersonalization” of message
3 Eras in advertising
 1. Production orientated Era
 demand exceeded supply
 more people that needed cars that were cars available
 production line begins and know you are going to sell
 2. Sales oriented Era
 supply exceeded demand
 convince people to buy vehicles now
 3.marketing oriented Era
 find out what consumers want
hard sell approach-1940s and 1950s
 Rosser reeves says consumers can’t consume that much info
 Beat consumer over the head with one fact or idea
 So had to come up with one idea to sell your product and repeat to consumer
Positioning approach-1960s
 See how that product fit into the marketplace
 Establish your product with the competing brands(coke vs Pepsi)
 Parity product: not that much difference between products
 Must create an image that is different than other product
 McDonald’s hasn’t done very well until started competing with Starbucks
Soft sell approach
 Want to feel a certain way emotionally
 Quietly persuasive, tapping more into emotions rather than intellectually. Extra gum
commercial (don’t know anything about gum, but touches your heart)
consumerism
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Malls became place not just to buy things, places just to hangout(west Edmonton mall)
Places where you buy stuff has turned into a place where you hangout(cherry hill mall)
With the introduction of “the shop” it became more of a leisure activity instead of a
chore
What is consumerism
 Can be diagnosed with addiction to shopping as a way to feel less empty
 Think of this as a social issue not just independent people
 Why do we feel the need to do this?
 Have we developed unsustainable consumption pattern
 Use up 80%of resources in developing country
 USA consumes 30x as much as India.
 We are producing as much stuff, we are relying on advertising to sell
 When buy a computer can’t just by little box, have to buy screen and mouse as
well
 How have we reached this point?
 3500 ads a day seen by people
 consumerism has taken place over other things such as family
cycle of consumerism
 see an advertisement—make the purchase
 now you are indebted somehow, lost money, have to pay for what you bought
 alienation because you are unhappy what u bought—cycle continues
role of advertising
 to manipulate us into buying with little reflection
 advertisement
 appeal to our insecurities(you will look better, be happier)
 solve our problem(if there is a solution to problem we can buy it)
 achieve happiness & freedom(young people expect to have nicer things because
we grew up with that)
 restrain our distastes(try to make us buy without making us think of whether we
actually want to buy)
 buying a even though bad for environment
 in car ads, usually driving through nature so forget about that
lower class marketing
 market experts
 associate success & social standing with a product
 techniques good at targeting people with little money
 lower income individuals buy nicer cars and clothes so they don’t look poor
 feel good in the moment, but not good in long run
 marketers know this and target this
what are the consequences?
 Consumer debt
 Household debt levels have hit a record high(spending is out of control)
 Personal bankruptcies
 Credit card ownership
Store being born
 1870s built these 2 stores
 this was the beginning of shopping being a leisure activity
 first place a woman could go without a man and be socially acceptable
 had paintings on wall, tea rooms, orchestras playing
buy now, pay latter
 first time see this is general motors in 1919
 first time you got to buy a vehicle and pay it off in time
beginning of consumer culture
 Henry ford(more demand than supply)
 1925 introduced yearly model change
 first time people buy product even though they already have one
post world war 2
 in 1945
 pent up consumer energy—advertisers said wait until war was over and have many new
thing—new different innovative product came out
 optimism
 economic growth
credit cards
 designed to buy something and pay for it later
 1950s-diners club—if you just have a credit card easy and companies can pay for bill
when you get back from business trip
 early 1960s- other companies started doing this
 meant to be time saving devices
1960s
 hippies rebelled
 fighting against racism, gay rights, anti-politics, consumerism
 mainstream Americans
 viewed them with contempt
 adopted hippie look
 ironically
 millions made by marketing hippie culture
doubts re consumer culture-1970s
 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo
 the biggest wake up call to gas consumers
 ecology—taught in schools & university
 flood of writing
 hundreds of environmental groups
Jimmy carter 1979
 didn’t address what the companies were doing. but blaming individuals
decade of greed-1980s
 Ronald Reagan
 Contempt for reducing consumption
 Disdain for environmental movement
 By 1984
 Big is better---yuppies replace hippies
 US News & world report—big is better, die with lots of things
 Gordon Gekko—1987film,wall street/ greed is good was message sent out
 Lifestyles of rich and famous—go into rich people’s home and show what they have
 End of 1980s—33%of all personal wealth in US was in 1% of its household
Buy nothing day
 Meant to have people think about the unnecessary things we buy on a regular basis
 Are products made with care for people and/or for the environment
Subliminal advertising
 Something is there but you are not aware of it at the subconscious level
 Most of the subliminal advertising we look at is sexual imagery
James vicary
 70% people say they work
 popcorn and coke studies—flashed eat popcorn and drink coco-cola—sales increase
Wilson byran
 when u see product, which have sexual subliminal ad, you will feel good and then when
you come across product you will remember feeling because it is because sex
controversy for decades
 inconsistent use of the term subliminal—don’t know what subliminal really means
 lack of precise and standardized processed to measure—can’t measure because if we
see it then not subliminal
 lack of adequate conception of unconscious processes—don’t know if this work
product placement
 video games used to have ads for alcohol and cigarettes, but they’ve stoped that
 in history would try not to show products
 90% of all movie and TV product placements don’t exchange money
 product can be put movie, and then that product is advertised in movie(win-win)
1800s – French ad was first product placement
wings1927—Hershey’s chocolate bar/pair of socks on floor, and chocolate bar happens to be there
when zoom in
E.T.
 reese’s pieces was used
 become successful advertisement tool
1980s CBC soap Riverdale producer
 important to portray product in good light—have to make sure character using product
placement is not offensive
Risky Business1983
 wearing Ray Bun—after release huge increase in number of Ray Ban sunglasses sold(this
particular line of sunglass)
top gun1986- Aviators increased 40% in sales
Home alone1992
 talk boy, recording device/huge demand for this that didn’t exist so made
Modern family/ipad commercial--not an official product placement because apple didn’t condone using
when product placement go bad
 edited out full length promotion promised for Reebok only left a part complaining bout
reebok.
Secret life of American teenager—almost like mini commercial within show
Oakley radars
 when y come up in sunlight after being in dark for long time, can damage eyes
 Ogilvy gave each one pair of sunglasses—bought miners up one at a time and each time
wearing sunglasses
 Is this a lucrative deal where they did something nice, or marketing technique