Advertisers Sell Images Not Products

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The definition of advertising is outdated. It was previously, to endorse a product and praise goodness to induce the public to buy. They are now brainwashing consumers to buy their products using images to sell the product. The advertiser’s aim is to make the product look as good as it can through an attractive image. There are statistics, which I obtained from a Dolly Magazine, 16th May 2000, which proves that one out of four people in Australia buy a product because of the image shown in the advertisment. The images are eye catching and mention something important about the product. Ultimately it is true that, “Advertisers sell images, not products.”

The environment plays a very important role in advertising. In an advertisment I found in a magazine I will describe to you the reason the environment is one of the most important roles in advertisements. The advertisement I chose is situated in the forest. There is a girl who has a baseball glove on and the caption says, “This girl can catch”. The product is for clothes. But they aren’t just any clothes they are clothes, which make you feel natural and that you can be yourself. Instead of being a pretty little girl and wearing dresses and not playing baseball, this girl wears shorts and a shirt and is playing baseball, therefore she feels good wearing whatever she wants. The environment plays an important part in this advertisement because at the time it is showing this girl can be herself, be natural the environment is a forest, which symbolizes it to be a natural environment. The environment can give meaning to the advertisement and tell the story in some cases.

Advertisements are not the same without gestures and symbols. Gestures can be a simple hand movement or how a person is sitting. All gestures have symbolic meanings. Gestures can be facial expressions, body language. Gestures and symbols communicate to the audience of what the advertisement is about. It associates the product with meaning. Symbols are objects; these are there to make the product look better than anything else on the market, which will attract the public to buy.

An advertisement I chose is of a well-known set of advertisements on television. Around 12 o’clock they start rolling onto our screens. Full of “call me's” and “1800” number’s exploding onto our screen. This is of course is aimed at guys who are horny and want to ring th...

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... clothes and the woman in her dress and dressing gown. It is a bit confusing. The association with this product to the image is that the people are bored but if they get a mobile they will be happier and have a social life. Of course this is all about emotions and how you will feel after buying a product and not at all about what it is ‘saying’ to the public.

Implicit images are images that imply certain things about a product. Explicit images are ones that do not imply anything about an image in an advertisement. Implicit images are used in all advertisements because the advertiser is implying certain things to the public, not necessarily related about a product.

Therefore, Advertisers sell images and NOT products. When buying a product the consumer instantly thinks of the advertisement tied in with it. Gestures and symbols are very important in advertisements because they are the core meaning. Appeals and environment are also particularly important because they are the base on how to draw the public into buying the product.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Advertising J.K.Cole
Dolly magazine
Class Video’s
Products and Advertising Debbie Rodgers
The advertising world Liz Werents and Dennis Pint

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