Culture and Advertising
The traditional meaning of culture refers to the way of life for a society or community. Culture comprises of beliefs, value, laws, ideas, and knowledge governing the living condition of individuals within the context of the society. In the contemporary world, this meaning of culture is losing its course. This is because of emergence of numerous components of culture in the modern world. These components include corporate culture, culture of journalism, and culture of poverty to mention a few. This trend shifts the definition of culture to describe the emotional context or setting and organizational character in relation to the word bearing the term culture. For instance, corporate culture describes the atmosphere or activities within the context of the corporate world. The way things happen within the context determines the meaning of culture. Advertisement involves the promotion of products or services with the aim of increasing consumer or societal awareness.
Advertisements aim at improving or enhancing the volume of production or sales thus development of significant revenue. This would enable companies or corporate entities to sustain their production and distribution methods and process. In the contemporary world, it is critical to carry out effective and efficient advertisement. This would enhance the connection of the society to the products and services of the organization thus relationship between the market and the business entity. In order to conduct effective and efficient advertisement, it is crucial to determine the target group or audience. This makes advertising necessary to adopt contemporary culture in order to capture the intended market group.
Contemporary advertisement revolves around celebrity as the growing culture within the corporate market. Celebrity refers to the person enjoying fame just for the fact of being famous. Celebrity depends on being famous to relate continuously to the society. “Sports celebrities are widely used in product advertisement to drive sales, by improving consumers’ product recall and positively influencing their brand choice behavior” (Brody et al., p 133). Members of the society look upon the celebrities as prominent individuals because of their fame. This commitment to celebrities makes most societal members want to associate with them. The contemporary world revolves around the influence of the celebrities.
Youths, who are the majority of the modern world, associate themselves with the celebrities. They want to live or put themselves in similar shoes just like the famous societal members (celebrities). Since most advertisements target the youths or working members of the economy, celebrities become vital tools and items for promotion. Advertisement has the effect of influencing the spending habits of consumers or society members. The main objective of advertisement is to convince the society members to adopt or apply the commodities or services of the organization conducting the promotion into their daily lives. The nature of advertisement would determine its impact on the society through the volume of transactions and revenues. Effective and efficient advertisement would improve on the production levels of the business entity thus enhancing the total revenues at the end of annual financial year. Advertisement also aims at reducing the overall cost of production and distribution of services and goods in the market.
There are numerous advertisement methods reflecting positive change within the society. These methods include television advertisement, press or newspaper advertisement, radio advertisement, meet-the-audience advertisements or promotions, and online advertisement. All these modes relate to the contemporary culture (celebrity) thus have a substantial impact on the decisions of consumers in relation to spending. Television advertisement involves the creation of a promotional video in relation to the product in the context. Traditional, television advertisement would involve any creative member of the society to participate in the promotional video. In the contemporary world, corporate advertisement undergoes radical changes in relation to promotional videos.
Society members no longer view these creative individuals in the promotional videos as effective and efficient to convince them on how to spend. This makes the situation necessary for the corporate culture to adopt the use of celebrities in their advertisements. Celebrities vary from different sporting activities to entertainment programs. This would explain the growing trends of television advertisement or promotional videos by football, wrestling, and rugby, music, and movie celebrities. Society value these celebrities to the extent that they would want to look like them or act like them. This forces or dictates their reactions to television advertisement. Celebrities have set the bar high enough when it comes to television advertisement thus it is critical to adopt the use of this contemporary culture in order to relate to the target groups.
In press or mass media advertisement, billboards and newspapers are full of celebrities’ picture to attract the attention of consumers or target groups. Celebrities coin business contract with companies and organizations in order to participate in such promotions. Since society knows these celebrities, they think and feel that the relationship of commodities and the famous persons make them who they are. “Various researches have focused on the frequency of African-American endorsers appearing in the magazine advertising, from the standpoint of product type, role portrayals, occupations, media type, and gender” (Brody et al., p 134). This raises their curiosity to try the products and services according to the promotions. This curiosity benefits the company through improvement in revenues and production levels. This explains why numerous football and wrestling stars participate in promotions or advertisements. Members of the society want to associate themselves with the celebrities by purchasing or procuring goods and items they help promote.
Meet- the — audience advertisements oversee participation of celebrities who take the opportunity to help promote the commodities of the organization in the context. When celebrities accompany the promotional team, members of the society take it seriously, as they want to associate with their idol and mentor. This feeling and thought generate effective outcome in relation to the aims of the organization. These promotions and advertisement are in the manner to relay a picture to the society that these celebrities use the products. In order to appear like their idols, it is crucial to adopt the products by the society hence enhancement in the relationship with the commodities. Online advertisement also applies the use of celebrities in order to woe new and potential consumers to procure products and services. This would entail relaying the information to the society through the help of famous individuals (celebrities).
Advertisement has the impact of turning the interest of the target group to the subject of promotion. Advertisement allows the society to have clear insight on what is in the market. Advertisements also inform consumers on relevant product prices and variety of commodities at their disposal. This makes the celebrities crucial to have effective and efficient plan to reach the target group. Corporate culture has to understand the contemporary culture or modern trends to know the needs and preference of the society. This would enable corporate entities to reap the benefits of effective and efficient advertising through low cost of production and high revenues. The contemporary culture that proves to have a positive influence on the outcome of advertisement is celebrity. It acts as the important tool to reach the society in the context of the advertisement. This makes celebrities necessary and indispensable in modern advertisement and promotions. Contemporary culture and advertising prove to have a strong bond in the form of celebrity hence positive influence on the spending decision of the society. “A body of literature shows that using a celebrity can capture consumers’ attention, enhance a message recall at purchasing time, make the advert more effective, help to overcome cultural differences between countries, create positive emotion toward endorsed product, shorten the time in creating a company’s credibility, and introduction stage of new products” (Ibrahim, p 258).
Works Cited
Ruihley, Brody J., Rodney C. Runyan, and Karen E. Lear. “The Use of Sport Celebrities In
Advertising: A Replication And Extension.” Sport Marketing Quarterly 19.3 (2010):
132-142. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 July 2012.
Ibrahim, A.M. Alnawas. “The Influence of Using Celebrities On Consumers Buying Behavior.”
Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business 2.1 (2010): 257-282.
Business Source Complete. Web. 4 July 2012.
Joseph Epstein. The Culture of Celebrity: Let us now praise famous airheads. Vol. 11, No. 05,
OCT 17, 2005.
