7.2.6 Advertising and Culture

Are people becoming more alike because of globalization?



Advertising occurs in many forms. With newspaper and television ads, billboards, wrap ads on public buses, product placement on television and movies, guerrilla ads on YouTube, and flyers in our mailboxes, we are bombarded constantly by messages to buy goods and services. As more transnational corporations do business around the world, their advertising also becomes global.

Stereotyping is a common aspect of advertising. The word stereotype comes from the old process of making metal plates of each letter in the alphabet for printing purposes. It means a set or fixed image. When applied to people, the word means an instant or fixed picture of a group of people. Stereotypes may be based on gender, race, class, age, disability, and/or occupation.

Advertisers are trying to sell simple messages; therefore, they frequently represent people in simplistic or stereotypical ways. This misrepresentation plays into the appeals on which most advertising is based.

Appeals to emotions: Advertisers use many techniques to sell products. Ads are designed to appeal to our emotions through the use of music, words, images, and cinematography. The following list outlines some of the most commonly used appeals.

  • ideal world — appeals to the human desire to live in the perfect family in the perfect world (If everyone owns this product, the world will be a better place.)
  • fun and excitement — appeals to the desire to have a good time (Buy the product and your life will never be dull.)
  • being cool — appeals to the desire to fit in and be seen as "cool" or socially acceptable (If you buy this product, you not only fit in, but everyone will admire you.)
  • individualism — appeals to the desire to stand out and be an individual
  • sex — appeals to human sexual desire to be and know attractive men and women
  • love — appeals to feelings of family togetherness, love, and tradition
  • bandwagon — appeals to the desire to join and be part of a movement (If everyone is buying this product, shouldn't you?)
  • fame — appeals to the desire to be famous (If you own this product, you will be a celebrity.)
  • fear — appeals to common fears people have (If you buy the product, you will be safe.)
  • science — appeals to the belief that science can answer all our problems (If the scientific evidence says the product is good, you should buy it.)

Courtesy of  Susi Pator (Public Domain) flickr
       
Brand identity: The heavy influence of advertising, especially advertising of certain brands, can lead to a sense of identity and community. Clothing is one example. Other products also have brand identity. For example, people who drink Starbucks coffee are considered to be trendy and upwardly mobile with a strong social conscience. People who shop at the Body Shop do so because it has advertised itself as a company that does not test its products on animals.

Although these appeals work well in North American society, do they work as well with people from cultures with different values?

Coca Cola was developed as a patent medicine in the late 1800s in Atlanta, Georgia, containing both cocaine and caffeine. Today, Coke contains caffeine and is flavoured by using coca leaves, the plant from which cocaine is derived. One of the earliest goals of the Coca Cola company was to make the drink the number one beverage of people throughout the world. Through an extensive marketing campaign, Coca Cola soon became popular in the United States and today is known worldwide. It is sometimes seen as a symbol of globalization. How did Coke grow from a locally-produced soft drink to an internationally recognized brand?

Supply Methods: The exact formula of Coke is a trade secret and the full recipe and methods are known only by the two chief executives of the corporation. Coca Cola produces a concentrate that is shipped around the world to bottlers who hold an exclusive licence under a franchise agreement.

The bottlers combine the extract with sweeteners and filtered water. This allows the local bottlers to cater to local tastes. The drink is distributed to retailers in more nations than belong to the United Nations!

Watch


Click on the link below to watch the video. (If the link doesn't work, do a search on YouTube or Vimeo for "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Christmas commercial.)




Global advertising. This ad for Coke was made in 1971 and was aired in several languages. Extremely popular in its day, it is still shown every year on TV in Iceland. The ad appeals to the emotions by calling on the very human desire to live in a peaceful world where everyone lives in harmony, regardless of race or religion.

Advertising expresses our
norm
a culturally established rule prescribing appropriate behaviour

For example, it is a value in Western society that one should respect the dead; it is a norm that one should dress in dark colours for a funeral. See values.
norms. The Coke ad shows us the world we want —€“ a world of global harmony and peace. Many ads show the world we live in, or at least an idealized version of that world. A television ad for breakfast cereal shows a beautiful home with two kids and a mom who is always around. An ad for an SUV shows it driving through beautiful wilderness landscapes. An ad for jeans shows a gorgeous, thin girl wearing them. Ads show us the world we want to live in —€“ and not necessarily the world that exists.

Advertising sells products such as pop and hamburgers and jeans and cars. It also sells values and beliefs. Although these values rarely are openly stated, the symbolic or underlying messages are evident to anyone who uses critical viewing skills. Consider the Coke ad for a moment. It begins with the face of a pretty white woman followed by faces of people of various religions and cultures. Yet the ad is set at Christmas, which is not celebrated by most of the world's people. In a world dominated by the free market, advertising "sells" the idea that consuming products is good for everyone.

It sells the idea that some products will solve every possible problem.

Digging Deeper


For another Coke ad and an explanation about whether it reflects Korean
culture
Culture refers to the way groups of people live. A culture is created over time and shared by a group with generally an understood shared set of values and beliefs. Cultures are always changing. Some people call culture a "design for living" which includes standards for deciding what is, what can be, how to feel about it, what to do about it, and how to do it. (Goodenough:1961)
culture or shows
assimilation
Where an ethnic group loses its distinctiveness in terms of language and culture and becomes absorbed into a majority culture.

For example, First Nations tribes were assimilated into the dominant white European culture of Canada in imperialist times. In Canada today, visible minorities have experienced slower assimilation than in many other countries because of Canada's official government policy of multiculturalism. Immigrants often choose to assimilate in order to fit in, while groups like the Aboriginal people were forced to assimilate.
assimilation at work, go here.

Reflect


The ultimate pro-globalization ad: Obviously, the Coke ad was trying to get people to stock up on pop for the Christmas season, but could it be saying also, "If everyone in the whole world has access to the same goods and services, they can all live together peacefully as equals"? Does advertising change our values? Does it make the people of the world more alike?