Advertising, Ideology, and Capitalist Society: A CMNS 130 Essay

This argumentative essay examines the intricate relationship between advertising, ideology, and capitalist society, focusing on the CMNS 130 course's focus on communication and social change. The essay delves into the analysis of various representational elements within selected print and electronic advertisements, exploring the underlying ideologies and values that support capitalist industries. It investigates the role of the advertising industry within the capitalist system and its connection to the culture industry, discussing how advertising fosters false consciousness, contributes to the standardization of cultural life, and influences consumers. The essay avoids specific topics like alcohol or tobacco advertisements, fast food commercials, or Dove's marketing strategies, instead focusing on the broader societal impacts of advertising within a capitalist framework. The analysis includes the impact of advertising on consumer behavior, the use of celebrity endorsements, and the shift towards user-generated content and personalized advertising in the modern market. Furthermore, the essay addresses the phenomenon of advertisement blockers and the evolving strategies of businesses to engage consumers in a digital age, including the role of social media. It concludes by emphasizing the persuasive nature of advertising and its effects on societal values.

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COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

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According to (Halinen, 2012) advertising is known as the marketing communication form which
is used to promote or sell products and services. The advertisement has become the form of
getting information and promotion. In the form of communication, advertisement is seen as the
promotional culture part that targets to spread the positive remarks on the highlighted product for
capital gains. This is done by private organizations to earn high profits. This remains an effective
approach to influence the market to meet the demand.
(Grewal, et al., 2016) has discussed that people see advertisements on a daily basis. Posters are a
better example of advertising as they promote a new movie, new smartphones, and many more
within the market. These are placed everywhere within the market and hard to pass by. This is
known as the whole point of the advertising since it has helped to gain the attention of customers
even for the split second. This creates curiosity among people's eyes as placed at most of the
places to attract people. Each click on the advertisement allows the parent organization to gain
the traffic and earns money.
This procedure is followed by the organizations at the global level. (Buil, Chernatony, &
Martínez, 2013) have elaborated that organizations have the objective to promote the product
through the advertisement that helps to sell the product to the customers. Advertising cost is
financed by the production organization or individual that specialized within the process of
production. Advertisement is created by the expert’s teams that study the behavior of customers
and patterns of spending regarding product and services of organization.
There are many advertisements which are generally made within the “one size that fits all
ideology and apply to everyone”. According to (Davidson, 2013) organizations have faced many
critical backlashes within the past few years from customers due to misinterpreting their
messages. The boycotting fear establishes the set of rules and regulations. This has forced the
companies to not engage within a sensitive topic and minimize the behaviors of its potential
consumers. Advertisement has filled the gap in which organizations have become more capable
to present themselves appropriately and they can spread effective messages about the product.
The bad reaction from customers leads to loss of a high level of loyal customers and it lowers the
margin of promoting organizations. This kind of situation remains critical as cost of the

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advertisement become very high and it needed lots of market research, sources and required
appropriate time as well.
(Bittner, & Shipper, 2014) has discussed that advertisement plays a very big role within the
market and remains an effective way to improve the mentality of customers. In past,
advertisements were found within the newspapers on the front and cover page as eye-catching
advertisements were placed by the promoting organization. It has enhanced its roots as it now
spread through the posters, radio, television, digital marketing, websites, emails, billboards, news
articles, window display, sponsorship, and flyers. It remains free to consume by audiences. This
is an important factor that makes a successful venture for the businesses that do this kind of form
of work. Organizations relied on customers’ feedbacks and responses to orchestrate the next
move and make more relatable advertisements for the customers.
According to (Wijaya, 2015) advertisements that rely on nostalgia have a sense of childhood
brand exposure. This proves to thrive within most of the market regarding feedback from the
target audience. Advertisement remains active from classic movies of children like DC, Disney,
and Marvel entertainment and receives a huge number of hype. This remains an effective way to
create a personal connection to a huge number of people. Advertisements that render their focus
on the theme such as nostalgia help to gain more producers and broadcasters.
(Nyilasy, Gangadharbatla, & Paladino, 2014) has discussed that the behavior of people and
attitude to the products and brands depends on the given information to customers through
advertisement. Social media is known as one of the prime forms in which teenagers view and
experience the advertisement more effectively. Advertisement through Instagram, Facebook,
Google, Internet, and Snapchat remains effective and typical to miss. Social media helps to
promote the advertisement as the pop-up message or at the top and bottom of the screens of the
phone.
(Lee, & Lau, 2018) has elaborated that advertisement through social media is related to interest
and search result of the user. Social media as a tool appropriately monitor the users’ activity
online. It gains the data about the visiting pages, brand pages used for online shopping, and
overall collect the interest of its users. Through the social media search history, the organization
gains the data and creates the advertisement according to their interest and advertises

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appropriately. This effectively increases the more options for the advertisement organizations to
gain revenue and also leads to increase the products sale. Social media plays a very important
role as it glorifies the concept of consumerism and tries to brainwash customers.
(Rahman, Rodríguez-Serrano, & Lambkin, 2017) has discussed that the celebrities used within
the advertisement and endorsement remain prominent by the promotional culture history. People
like to seek comfort within the familiarity and seem to follow the beloved role model or favorite
heroines and hero. After studying the hypodermic needle theory it can be concluded that the
message is slowly injected subconsciously within the people's mind and change the view on
topic slowly. After some time it is getting accustomed to seeing the standards or platform
regarding it. People that not necessarily stoked regarding mountain biking will view the
advertisement if presented by someone like Tom Cruise, as it creates an effective deal for them.
In today's time organizations regularly use celebrities to endorse the products and services to
gain popularity within the society and it sparks as a trending topic within the news. The more
buzz helps to get the news headlines and remain an effective way to promote the topic.
According to (Ioannou, Boukas, & Skoufari, 2014) past advertisements looked very different
compare to today's time. At that time, it was used to talk about the product only but in today’s
time organizations have the thinking for creative ways to make the product more homogenous
within the properties and definition. In today’s time, organizations have set different objectives
due to the digital days of consumerism and they know about the patterns of customers which has
changed over the years.
In today’s time organizations are using all types of advertising methods to promote products and
it has been founded that all organization is doing it as a competitor. Organizations are
incorporating own methods through the content. The content which is generated by the users
focuses on the community building and increases the awareness of a brand. These create the
mentality to sell the product at a high level through appropriate commercial activities.
Organizations are partnering with the consumers to build the trust in place of one-time purchase
and one time off from the random outlet online. Organizations have grown through the
realization that nothing can increase the sale of the product as compared to the people that
bought it and used it.

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(Deuze, 2016) has elaborated that advertisement speaks about the product at a high level
regarding their effectiveness but people trust more on words of mouth of other people who
already used the product and present the pros and cons about the product. Many organizations
like GoPro and TripAdvisor get a high number of profits by word of mouth while customers to
their posted pictures and videos and review their experience regarding their products and
services. It can be said after the analysis that customer essentially has become a part of the
advertising process.
In modern markets, increasing the loyalty of customers is a brand's objective. A brand knows the
loyal customers and those who are one time purchasers. The organizations care to increase
engagement with the customers as it establishes a positive relationship with them. The content of
users with the brand helps many people to do the advertising for brands. The brands have the
objective to make customers happy and hope that customers will return in the future and increase
the sale of the product to earn the revenue. This remains the effective an increase the trust
between them.
According to (Buil, Chernatony, & Martínez, 2013) in today’s modern time individuals did not
click on the random advertisement on the internet. There is a large number of people that browse
the internet daily and they have installed advertisement blockers that block the advertisement
from the third party which scattered around their screen. Unnecessary advertisement on the
internet distracts, disorient and hide the important elements of the page which people like to
view. This has been founded within the research that people skip and hide commercial
advertisements. People are paying extra costs on applications such as Netflix and Spotify to skip
the advertisement. This is the fact that sponsor organization is avoiding advertisement and they
are giving the people an option to remove the advertisement. This also presents that people have
become tolerant regarding advertisement that has no value and they like to choose deals that did
not take unnecessary time.
Advertisement plays a very big role in the capitalist system. Advertisement helps businesses in a
capitalist system to earn higher profits. The advertisement in a capitalist system brings the
businesses to the driver seat as sometimes present the false and unnecessary innovation through
the products and services. The advertisement brings power in the hands of capitalist system

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businesses to promote the products at a high level wrongly within the culture industry. (Kadry,
2015) has discussed that in today’s modern time, a huge number of online shoppers like to visit
important blogs and spent on their desire items. This present that customer has become picky
compare to the last generation when it comes to the spending wealth on something which they
like more. A business which has a capitalism system within the cultural industry makes many
fake or false presentation within the market compared to early years. The advertisement has
changed the organization's perceptions that how they interact with their audiences and do the
business with audiences who are supporting these kinds of businesses.
In recent, years it has been seen that false advertising by the capitalist system within the cultural
industry misleads customers. Some organizations gain unnecessary publicity and a high level of
profit by the wrong advertisement. For example, if a coffee restaurant banner said that it uses the
freshly ground daily, then it will beat the settled restaurant and gain a competitive advantage.
This is the same for some other organizations and products. There are many products advertised
wrongly such as Monsanto. In it, all product properties chosen are hidden from customers as
people can look for the alternative. Sometimes it beats the advertising purpose if another product
is popular at a high level compared to that which is strategically advertised within the market.
(Zhang, Liang, & Wang, 2016) has elaborated that advertising remains a meaningful tool for
businesses that are already within the market and for new organizations that come in the market.
While it comes to society, the common effect of advertising should remain appropriate and they
should increase the fairness in society. This also enforces people to borrow and spend more
amounts on goods and it also affects normalized behaviors or values. The people are exposed to
so many messages within a single day. The advertisement follows the appropriate concept to
brainwash people and believes that similar ideas and brands remain keen to preach and follow
the same.
In the limelight of the discussion, it can be concluded that advertisement has changed the
meaning to promote the products and services and they remain as the popular form to create and
increase awareness about a product and services. This comes with many applications and very
important aspects of the media in modern time. It can be manipulated and seeded by big
organizations to capitalize on people.

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