Essay On Transformation Of Advertising

1003 Words5 Pages

Another meaningful development was that, increasingly, television advertisements especially portrayed products as a kind of magical solution to everyday problems, products that had even the power to perform some incredible transformation of the consumers that would use them, borrowing also from traditions, legends, and other stories (Kellner 1990).

Probably the most decisive transformation was in the object of advertisement. As said before, initially the purpose of advertisements was helping selling products. People bought a jacket to keep warm during the winter, they bought a car so that they could travel longer distances in shorter time and so on. Starting from the ‘90s, advertisement has changed mostly its nature, since it does not have the purpose to sell products, but rather the brand. People don’t buy anymore a car or a pair of shoes, but that specific pair of shoes or that specific car. Advertisements have been selling brands since brands now have acquired a social status into the community. For example, buying a jacket from Armani, or buying a Jaguar car tells the people that the purchaser belongs to a different class, and he has a different status than the rest of the people. The aspiration to belonging to the elite …show more content…

As said before, in the ‘90s the transition from advertising products to advertising brands reached its peak, because the market places were extremely competitive so that the quality of a product was not enough to guarantee success and convince consumers to buy it. There was the need to add other values. The product should carry an identity that would make it stand out among the competitors. It should have an idea behind the brand, in order to sell a story and to represent a lifestyle (Frontline

Open Document