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Titus Brandsma Center-Media Progam

Effects of Commercials
October 16, 2004

I. TRUTH ABOUT ADS

(Source: Advertising, Revised Edition – Gregorio S. Miranda)

The Early Beginnings

First Advertisement – Thebes, Upper Egypt (in the form of a poster on a sheet of papyrus
which announced a reward for the return of a runaway slave.)

Advertising Signs
(Babylon, Athens, Egypt and Rome where symbols were used to tell a particular shop or
product) picture of papyrus, calligraphy, Egyptian writings and carvings

Town criers and barkers (pictures) – “one voice’ sales presentation” (peddlers describing
his wares to the buyers

Barkers – common sight in our public markets and loading zones of jeepneys and buses.

Advertising – derived from the Latin “adverto” formed by two words: “ad” meaning
“toward” and “verto” signifying “to turn”

Advertising - “any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas,

goods, or services by an identified sponsor.” Thus, advertising consists of those activities
by which visual and oral messages are addressed to selected publics for the purpose of
influencing them to buy products or services, or to act or to be inclined favorably towards
ideas, persons, trademarks or institutions.

Three major methods used for demand creation – advertising, sales promotion and
personal selling

Characteristics of Advertising:

Message maybe oral or visual and addressed to selected publics;

Paid form of presentation to the public;

Sponsored by identified and identifiable sponsor;

Non-personal communication of a sales message to actual or potential
purchasers.

Role of Advertising

Products are available in such wide varieties;

New products are offered in such great numbers;
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Existing products must be called to the attention of new consumers who are added
to the market as a result of expansion of incomes, population explosion, and
changes in tastes.

Appealing to the consumer

Making it easy for the consumer to act – coupons for the convenience of the consumers
Offering inducements to act immediately – discounts

The Advertising Concept

A – attract audience
I – create interest
D – stimulate desire
A – induce action

Learning – trying to know what the product is;

Feeling – sensuous impression toward the product; and
Acting – putting forth the decision supported by concrete action.

Factors to consider in advertising

Market – target customer

Motives – reasons which should prompt the consumers to buy
Message – what the product or service is all about; (key ideas, information, attitudes)
Media – medium used to reach the target customers
Money – the amount of money that is appropriated for advertising
Measurement – testing the effectiveness of advertising

AIDA with another concept which involves interrelated stages in the communication
process designed to achieve the ultimate goal of advertising. These stages are:

ACCA
Awareness
Comprehension
Conviction (to buy the product)
Action

Contents of Advertising

Headline
Copy
Details (Body)
Call to Action
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Activity: Guess What Commercial has the following Headlines?

Advertising Media

1. Periodicals

a. Newspapers
b. Magazines
c. Trade journals

2. Direct Advertising

a. Direct mail
b. Letters
c. Pamphlets
d. Folders
e. Handbills
f. Handouts
g. Shopping bags
h. Tags, labels, booklets, wrappers, containers

3. Signs (Outdoor Advertising)

a. Billboards and electronic signs

b. Posters, including those on delivery trucks (transit ads)
c. Streetcar, train, bus and jeepney ads
d. Skywriting

4. Broadcast Advertising

a. radio
b. television

5. Assembly Advertising

a. Motion pictures and slides

b. Education lectures

6. Special Publications

a. Telephone directories
b. Yearbooks
c. Handbooks
d. Menus
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7. Point-of-sale Advertising

a. Window displays
b. Handouts

I.I TRUTH ABOUT ADS 2

(Dagdag Kaalaman Tungkol sa Ads – Maria Luz T. Morada)

Hard Sell – direct selling (showing the benefits of the product outrightly)

Soft Sell – indirect selling (showing the benefits of the product subtly through feelings of
pleasure and taste/ appealing to your senses)

1. Advertisements are “constructed realities”.

2. Advertisements use powerful techniques to sell the products (use of slogans,
jingles, layout and design – plain folks technique, “makamasa”, testimonial
power).
3. Advertising is a business enterprise. (media values vs. family values – p.17
Advertising)
4. Advertisements promote values, ideologies, beliefs.

II. SITUATION OF THE YOUTH

(Change to Observations about youth and media)

The Situation of the Filipino Youth: A National Survey 1996

Gerardo Sandoval, Mahar Mangahas, and Linda Luz Guerrero (Social Weather Stations)

Republic Act 8044 or the “Youth in Nation-Building Act” in 1995, the National Youth
Commission (NYC) was created to serve as the sole policy-making and coordinating
body of all youth programs and government projects.

Conduct national studies on the situation of the youth and reviews, evaluation and reform
of all organizations delivering services to the youth.”

Youth defined as those who are 15-30 years old (20.7 million / 1/3 of the country’s total
population.

Findings:

Proud to be Filipinos and are willing to defend the country in case of war.

Marriage, family, education, work, religion, friends, society and money are
important, but not much importance is given to recreation, hobbies and politics.
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Religious and perform religious activities like praying and attending religious
services regularly, although they are only moderately involved in religious
organizations.

Generally satisfied with government’s performance, especially on areas of their
own needs.

Consider Jose Rizal as the male role model and mothers as the female role model.

American youth – Filipino youth have more confidence and satisfaction with their
life; get along with their parents and neighbors; get together with friends less
frequently and they are as satisfied with this relationships as Americans are.

More content with their educational experiences, their standard of living, their
jobs and their life in general.

Get less exercise and are less exposed to television and movies.

American youth – they read books, magazines and newspapers less regularly than
the American youth do.

Filipino adults = Filipino youth – consider their health as good, feel generally
happy and are very sensitive to how parents and children make personal sacrifices
for each other; economy as the most pressing problem are in the country but the
youth think that they can do little about this.

More youth feel less poor.

Consider their quality of life to improve over the past year and are more
optimistic of the coming year than adults.

Smoke and drink less, although for both youth and adults, females do these less
frequently than males.

High incidences of youth involvement in criminality, illegal drug use and illicit
sex.

Survey 2000 by McCann Erickson

The Youth Defined
The youth of today are more sociable (pictures of active youth)

New Social Environment

From the previous generation (10 years back)

Infrastructure has developed so rapidly, giving the youth today access to activities
the previous generation could envy (or even fathom).

Telephones are more accessible now. Cellular phones were also unheard of
among the previous generation.

Computer games, Internet and the proliferation of mass media are also making a
profound impact on the lifestyle and psyche of today’s youth.

Interactive Generation

More social and connectivity-driven than those who came before them.

Traditional activities – watching television (88%), listening to the radio, reading
books and doing household chores are still the most prevalent, it is also
noteworthy that using technology toys and gadgets such as cellphones and the
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internet to connect with other people and the outside world are already starting to
encroach on the youth’s lifestyle.

Activities like eating out, playing billboards, going to the mall, talking on the
phone and going to a friend’s house are more popular now than in 1992.

Post-school activities that involve interaction or socializing with others and the
outside world are much more popular among this generation of youth.

Leaving the Field in Technology

Technology usage today is not anymore only for the affluent.

Internet cafes have enabled them to make contact with cyberspace for only a few
pesos every hour

Substantiated the incidence of texting going on among the youth.

Learning, Redefined

The youth generally enjoy going to school

They go to school mainly to take part in activities that involve interaction with
their friends and classmates such as doing group projects, joining sports activities
and so on.

Students in Metro Manila are not studying as much as before.

Incidence of accomplishing schoolwork has also declined significantly. There are
just more things – the mall, fast food chains, text messaging, internet cafes, cable
TV – competing for the attention of the youth today.

Clearly, the youth may no longer respond well to traditional methods of learning.
This implies that new teaching approaches are necessary.

Money Rules

Money remains to be an important item for the youth.

Financial-related issues as the most pressing problem of the country.

Lower classes – overall satisfaction with their way of life is being pulled down by
their lower perception of their standard of living, health and living conditions.

Equally satisfied with their school life.

Lower classes – school life is a very significant source of emotional well-being.
While they are not as happy with their standard of living, family life, health and
physical surroundings, school provides them a venue to interact with friends and
classmates. School also represents their hope for a brighter future through
education, making it a ‘psychological equalizer’.

Rich in Ambitions

The youth want to land good jobs.

III. ETHICS IN ADVERTISING

(Source: Pontifical Council for Social Communication, Ethics in Advertising,
Paulines)
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Advertising has a profound impact on how people understand life, the world and
themselves, especially in regard to their values and their ways of choosing and
behaving.

Benefits of Advertising

Economic Benefits of Advertising

It is a necessary part of the functioning of modern market economies, which today

either exist or are emerging in many parts of the world and which – provided they
conform to moral standards based upon integral human development.

“The Church looks with favor on the growth of man’s productive capacity, and
also on the ever widening network of relationships and exchanges between
persons and social groups. . . .From this point of view she encourages advertising,
which can become a wholesome and efficacious instrument for reciprocal help
among men.”

Informing people about the availability of rationally desirable new products and
services and improvements in existing ones. Helping them to make informed,
prudent consumer decisions, contributing to efficiency and the lowering of prices,
and stimulating economic progress through the expansion of business and trade.

Pay for publications, programming and productions – including those of the

Church – that bring information, entertainment and inspiration to people around
the world.

Political Advertising

“The Church values the democratic system in as much as it ensures the

participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed
the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who govern them,
and replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.”

Political advertising can make a contribution to democracy analogous to its

contribution to economic well being in a market system guided by moral norms.

Informing people about the ideas and policy proposals of parties and candidates,
including new candidates not previously known to the public.

Cultural Benefits of Advertising

Advertisers have an opportunity to exert a positive influence on decisions about

media content. This they do by supporting material of excellent intellectual,
aesthetic and moral quality presented with the public interest in view, and
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particularly by encouraging and making possible media presentations which are

oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go unserved.

Contribute to the betterment of society by uplifting and inspiring people and

motivating them to act in ways that benefit themselves and others.

Moral and Religious Benefits of Advertising

For the Church, involvement in media-related activities, including advertising, is

today a necessary part of a comprehensive pastoral strategy. This includes both
the Church’s own media – Catholic press and publishing, television and radio
broadcasting, film and audiovisual production and the rest – and also her
participation in secular media.

The media “can and should be instruments in the Church’s program of re-
evangelization and new evangelization in the contemporary world.”

The Harm Done by Advertising

“If harmful or utterly useless goods are touted to the public, if false assertions are
made about goofs for sale, if less than admirable human tendencies are exploited,
those responsible for such advertising harm society and forfeit their good name
and credibility

Unremitting pressure to buy articles of luxury can arouse false wants that hurt
both individuals and families by making them ignore what they really need.

Those forms of advertising which, without shame, exploit the sexual instincts
simply to make money or which seek to penetrate into the subconscious recesses
of the mind in a way that threatens the freedom of the individual . . . must be
shunned.

Economic Harms of Advertising

Advertising can betray its role as a source of information by misrepresentation

and by withholding relevant facts.

“Brand-related” advertising. Advertising may attempt people to move people to

act on the basis of irrational motives (“brand loyalty,” status, fashion, “sex
appeal,” etc.) instead of presenting differences in product quality and price as
bases for rational choice.

“Phenomenon of Consumerism.” It is not wrong to want to live better; what is

wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward
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‘having’ rather than ‘being,’ and which wants to have more, not in order to be
more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself.”

Artificially created “wants.”

Harms of Political Advertising

The costs of advertising limit political competition to wealthy candidates and

groups, or require that office-seekers compromise their integrity and
independence by over-dependence on special interests for funds.

Instead of being a vehicle for honest expositions of candidates’ views and

records, political advertising seeks to distort the views and records of opponents
and unjustly attacks their reputations. It happens when advertising appeals more
to people’s emotions and base instincts – selfishness, bias and hostility toward
others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like – rather than to a reasoned sense
of justice and the good of all.

Cultural Harms of Advertising

Fosters consumerism and destructive patterns of consumption.

Cultural injury done to those nations and their peoples by advertising whose
content and methods, reflecting those prevalent in the first world, are at war with
sound traditional values in indigenous cultures.

Domination and manipulation via media rightly is a “concern of developing

nations in relation to developed ones (minorities within particular nations).

Setting aside high artistic and moral standards and lapse into superficiality,
tawdriness and moral squalor.

Communicators are tempted to ignore educational and social needs of certain

segments of the audience.

Contribute to invidious stereotyping of particular groups that place them at a

disadvantage in relation to others.

Moral and Religious Harms of Advertising

Vulgar and morally degrading

Appeals to such motives as envy, status seeking, and lust.

Seek to shock and titillate by exploiting content of a morbid, perverse,
pornographic nature.
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Communications media have made pornography and violence accessible to a

vastly expanded audience, including young people and even children and a
problem which at one time was confined mainly to wealthy countries has now
begun to corrupt moral values in developing nations.

Include religious themes or use images or personages to sell products. It is

possible to do this in tasteful and acceptable ways but the practice is obnoxious
and offensive when it involves exploiting religion or treating it flippantly.

Advertising sometimes promotes products and inculcate and inculcate attitudes

and forms of behavior contrary to moral norms.

SOME ETHICAL AND MORAL PRINCIPLES

Moral Order – order of the law of human nature, binding upon all because it is “written
on their hearts” and embodies the imperatives of authentic human fulfillment.

“To form our conscience, to make it the object of a continuous conversion to what
is true and to what is good.”

Move people to choose and act rationally in morally good ways that are of true
benefit to themselves and others, persons involved in it do what is morally good.

Moral Principles

Truthfulness in Advertising – without truth as the basis, starting point and

criterion of discernment, judgment, choice and action, there can be no authentic
exercise of freedom. Avoid manipulation of truth for any reason.

Dignity of the Human Person – “imperative requirement” that advertising respect

the human person, his right duty to make a responsible choice, his interior
freedom; all these goods would be violated if man’s lower inclinations were to be
exploited, or his capacity to reflect and decide compromised.

Advertising and Social Responsibility – ecological issue. Advertising that fosters a

lavish life style which wastes resources and despoils the environment offends
against important ecological concerns. Man consumes the resources of the earth
and his own life in an excessive and disordered way. Authentic and integral
human development is thwarted when advertising reduces human progress to
acquiring material goods and cultivating lavish life styles expresses a false,
destructive vision of the human person harmful to individuals and society alike.

Activity: What values are promoted by these advertisements?

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IV. CALL TO ACTION

A. How to test/study commercials?

Questions to ask:

1. What product is advertised?

2. What is the ad trying to say? What is the underlying message?
3. Do you confirm the statements mentioned in the ads? Do you agree?
4. Do you believe in the advertisements/commercials because it is endorsed by your
favorite star or somebody who is real famous?
5. Are the statistics about the benefits of the product used in commercials have
credibility or can it be tested to confirm it?
6. Do both benefits and harmful effects of the product advertised?
7. Am I going to buy something just because everybody is using it?

B. Needs vs. Wants

Questions to ask:

1. What is the philosophy and relevance shared by the advertising slogan?

2. What shall I gain or lose if ever I will not use the advertised product?
3. Is the product really for me? Or for the younger ones? Will it really help me
physically, psychologically, morally and spiritually?
4. What are the benefits that will give me?
5. How much benefits will the product give me?
6. Can I relate the philosophy being promoted to Christian-like importance and
priorities?
7. Will my support to this product bring any good or help to myself, family, Church
and God?

Others:

Involve your parents in your media education.

Critical thinking through media education.

Social Marketing

IDVD – EDSA
Different Samples of Ads