As a Marketing major I have been exposed to many classes regarding advertising. One of these classes included Advertising Management. One major topic that was talked about in this class is the fact that you are being exposed to advertising whether you may know it or not. Advertisers also like to be sneaky in getting your attention and exposing ads to particular people based on their interests. Advertising is everywhere; it is often even disguised as being something other than advertising. While keeping a record of the advertising I saw within a 24 hour period, I really took notice to this.
I was exposed to ads almost as soon as I woke up in the morning and heard the radio on downstairs. I heard an ad for Lehigh Valley Hospital. I then turned on my computer and went on Facebook. As soon as I logged on I saw ads on the side of my screen for products that I had viewed the previous day. I was watching an old episode of Laguna Beach and noticed that they play heavily into product placement. The girls were applying make up and the camera zoomed directly into the Maybelline logo on each of the products. This happened about two or three times throughout the episode. As I was eating lunch, there were ads all over the table from the Sunday paper for different retail locations throughout the Lehigh Valley. I was cleaning up some magazines from my room and noticed ads for clothing, beauty products and the magazine itself displayed throughout.
On my way back to school I saw many ads including ones on the sides of cars/vans for businesses. A large amount of the advertising I saw was on billboards. There were billboards for Coordinated Health, various branches of Lehigh Valley Hospital, Wawa, and Northampton Community College. It was interesting for me because I noticed that I had heard an ad that morning for Lehigh Valley Hospital and then I was seeing a billboard advertising the same thing. Another interesting aspect about the billboards was the fact that Northampton Community College had a billboard advertising the college and a particular student at one section of the highway and then further down the highway they displayed another ad with a different student and major of study.
I think the reason for doing this type of advertising on the billboards is to utilize the tool of reinforcement. The more someone is exposed to an ad, the more likely they are to remember it. The same goes with hearing an ad on the radio in the morning and then seeing it on a billboard. I've also heard ads played multiple times throughout the day. I assume this is due to a pre set advertising schedule. Advertisers are very particular about when and where they place their ads.
One thing that we do need to remember when talking about the advertising we see each day is the fact that "advertising" means that it is being paid for for an intended audience. Whether or not the right audience is reached is the goal of the media industry. We are constantly being bombarded day in and day out with ads. It is the advertisers and media planners jobs to make sure they can cut through the clutter and develop successful advertising campaigns.
Advertising is something that is always going to be prominent in our society and I believe it is only going to increase with the evolution of technology and social media.
