ADVERTISING & POPULAR CULTURE

Advertising shapes popular culture and has a great impact. A conspiracy. A scam. A nuisance. Advertising is practically everywhere, and its been called just about everything. When we look through a magazine or watch television we're surrounded by it. It contributes to the loss of distinct cultures and the formation of a mainstream one, a culture of pop music and Gap clothing. The worst part: many big corporations with good advertising attract consumers who are often willing to pay big money for a brand-name.

Advertising is present in almost all forms of communication; the Internet, the telephone, the print media, the postal system, television, radio. People can even advertise by talking face to face with others. On the Internet, businesses, companies and corporations have their own Web pages advertising their products, their ways of doing business, their employees, or their services. There are ads placed all over various Web pages. Everywhere you go on the Internet, somebody (or something -- another computer maybe?) is trying

 On the telephone, telemarketing brings advertising down to one person trying to persuade the other into buying a product or a service by word of mouth. The print media is probably the most widespread form of advertising; books, newspapers, magazines, flyers, catalogues. Newspapers hold classifieds, personal ads (tall, lanky male enjoys country music and walking in nature), ads for local businesses (car dealers, clothing stores), notices for upcoming events such as plays or

 Magazines have pages and pages of advertisements, whether they're for musical instruments, sports equipment, clothes, food, make-up. Flip through the first 75 pages of a lifestyle magazine and you will find most pages carry ads balanced with a few pages of useful' information. We actually enjoy looking at the ads. The advertisements in fashion magazines are catch your eye because of the photography and design, interesting pictures and beautiful people. Popular culture refers to beliefs and practices and the objects through which they are organized

 Popular culture is what we make out of the products and practices of mass produced culture. It is the expressive content that is produced and consumed. It is light entertainment that is delivered through the channels of mass media and finally, absorbed voluntarily, to be interpreted by the individual who receives it. Information then goes back in the form of ratings or sales figures that will influence the subsequent round of offerings. Popular culture is everything from common culture to folk culture to mass culture.

 Popular culture consists of symbols. Instances of popular culture are television serials, films, comic books, music, slang and so on. Popular culture gives pleasurable sensations upon reception. This pleasure giving feature is a central aspect of the popular culture experience. Advertising, on the other hand refers to paid for messages that attempts to transfer symbols into commodities to increase the possibilities of its purchase. Hence, advertising may be looked at warily. Though advt. comes in many forms; TV, Radio and magazines are normally focused more.

 Advertising is seen as a subset of first order intentions. It is developed with both first order & second order intentions. The first order is when communication occurs. The second order intentions are of purchasing the goods advertised. Advertising aims at changing behavior while popular culture aims to give pleasure & not to change viewers. Advertising is almost briefer than instances of popular culture- 30 seconds of a commercial against 30 minutes of popular culture. This is due

 However, advertising & popular culture share much in common. Both are products of culture industries. Both are understood as artistic & creative products. Both pay great attention to style. Both share the use of same mass media method. Popular culture is more welcome than advertising. Advertising & popular culture have come to occupy central positions with a global economic growth. Both are approached as economic entities as well as symbolic entities.

 Popular culture offers a lavish store to advertisers who try to create attractive messages for consumers. Advertisers will use appropriate popular culture material as celebrities, music, comedy, styles and anything else that can be used as accepted and enhanced symbol for their products. To communicate with consumers, advertisers thus have a fertile and ample mixture of symbolic material to draw upon. The lore of popular culture that advertisers find usable are comedies, music, films and

 Music has the ability to stimulate extraordinary emotional feelings. Adult consumers derive emotional benefit from popular music. It is this appeal that advertisers try to exploit to stimulate consumers interest in their products. An advertisers choice of leading entertainers as spokespeople, as opposed to lesser known individuals, carries with it valuable contextual inferences when the transfer of meanings from the endorser to the product and from the performance of the ad works well, it becomes

 The utility of music is acknowledged within the advertising industry. Background music can set up a mood with targeted consumers & lend an emotional dimension to a brand. Although much of the music in advertising is original, an increasing proportion of it consists of reused popular cultural hits. Advertising is not depleting or obliterating popular culture. The interpenetration of advertising & popular culture is recognized. Highlights from one adds lustre to the other. The target audience are always on the lookout for symbols & meanings which reverberate back & forth between the two domains. Popular

 To communicate with consumers, advertisers have an ample stock of purchasable symbolic material to draw upon. Advertisers turn to popular culture that is pleasurable, emotional and non-coercive. Popular culture is the main link of the stars who can command general recognition from a diverse population. The popular song Dhoom machale became a part of the everyday lingo of the youngsters. It increased the sales for advertisers. Although cultures meet most newness (Kellogs, McDonalds) with some resistance, that can be overcome. Cultures are dynamic & change occurs gradually when resistance slowly yields to

 The awareness of the need for change comes gradually. Ideas that were once too complex becomes less complex because of the cultural gains in understanding. Once the need is recognized, the acceptance cannot be prevented. Possible methods & insights are offered by social scientists that are concerned with concepts of planned social change.