Advertisements: Ideology And Meaning In Advertising

Jef I. Richards once said “Creative without strategy is called ‘art’. Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising.’” Advertisement has been a part of society, dating back to the 19th century, where you would find clippings mainly in newspapers to promote a book. Today its seen on just about every street corner, website, magazine, basically you turn your head, and you’ll see some sort of advertising for some product. Throughout the last two centuries, advertising has drastically change, especially with the introduction of technology, to make that change. However, in Judith Williamsons book, Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising, she states that although advertising is its obvious functions, it also “in many ways replaces

Product Placement is a marketing idea in which, companies can gain exposure for the products by paying for them to be featured in a program. Television accounts for almost 71.4% of all paid placements- and about 75% of all broadcast-network shows featuring some sort of placement. TV shows like Modern Family, House of Cards, Friends, and most soap drama shows have been known to incorporate product placement into their shows. In two episodes of Modern Family, they have had the episode resolve entirely around Apple products. One where the main dad character wants an iPad, talking about several time throughout the episode, how incredible the iPad is and how anyone who is anyone has one. In another episode, the entire episode is filmed only using Apple products, which made news headlines for week. In an episode of Friends, the storyline resolves entirely around Pottery Barn, in which two characters can’ stop buying all of their products because of that “homey” feel that Pottery Barn products tend to create. Needless to say these were obvious examples of product placement in television, sometimes that’s not always the case. In some cases, you’ll just see characters drinking a Coke, or driving a certain type of car. There is relationship created between media and advertising products. In one way, films and TV get to use products that appeal to their audience, and companies get the exposure that will help create conversation and sales for their company. Obviously TV isn’t the only platform for product placement though. In the film Mean Girls, product placement was used several times strategically. For example, all of the plastics would drink Diet Coke during every lunch scene, although not obviously, but mentally created this image that the “cool girls” would drink Diet Coke, thus creating this following and need for more people to drink Diet Coke. Another famous product placement