Advertising

As a general definition, advertising is defined as any openly sponsored offering of goods, services, or ideas through any medium of public communication. At its simplest, advertising is just an announcement--hey, look over here I've got apples for sale! The idea is simply to get the word out, you have a product and you want as many people as possible to know what you're selling. Of course this is a very simplified view of advertising. Professional sales people will tell you that advertising is a whole different world, a way of thinking, a science of persuasion and marketing strategy. Large businesses that specialize in advertising are called advertising agencies. The largest group of advertisers are those in the food industry. The major routes for advertising are newspapers, magazines, television and radio, business publications, billboards, and direct mail letters. Of course, as the Internet has become more and more popular it also has become a major force in advertising. Online advertising is a multibillion dollar affair. We have all seen and experienced the steady increase in online advertising over the Internet. Although this may be annoying, the Internet was a perfect and obvious choice for advertisers due to the number of people it can reach

each day. The major criticisms of advertising are that it creates false values and encourages people to buy things they neither need nor want and that, in fact, may be actually harmful (such as cigarettes). In reply, its defenders say that advertising is meant to sell products, not create values; that it can create a new market for products that fill a genuine need; and that it furthers product improvement through free competition. After all, we live in a democratic and capitalist society--advertising will always be an ingredient in our lives. The major associations involved in advertising are The Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies.