As we look at ads and advertising, keep this in mind: Purchases are made from the gut, but we need to feel rationally secure about them. We want what we want, but we don't want to appear inept or unintelligent, to ourselves or others. So, we need a story that places our purchase in the context of our lives in a way that makes sense. This is applicable whether what we are buying is a thing, a service, an idea, or a perspective. We need to feel rationally secure about what we acquire. The next time you are having a political discussion with someone, listen to how s/he (and you) leads with a feeling, but supports it with a selective use of the facts. The facts often don't drive the feeling - it is the other way around. We keep bumping into what appears to be a pervasive aspect of human psychology: We make up our mind based on our prior beliefs before we have the facts. Then, like the Catholic church in the time of Galileo, we use the facts not to challenge the belief system but to support it.

From a more technical point of view...

So, how does this happen?  That is, regardless of how advertisers view us, how do they work their magic?

“Eyeballs on product.” I heard Dr. Isbouts use this phrase to describe what media sponsors were looking for when considering whether they wanted to finance a media project. I am sure if he were involved with a radio project, he would have said ears on product (or inner images, the kind we create when we listen to radio, on product). In the world of theory, theorists talk about Mere Exposure. Jed Walls explains in his QE:

"Mere Exposure is the idea that people develop a preference for things because of familiarity with them (Zajonc, 2001). Through mere exposure, individuals are more likely to associate with a brand or product, even if they are exposed while unaware. Studies have shown that non-aware exposure produced substantially larger exposure effects than stimuli consciously perceived (Bornstein & D’Agostino, 1992). In other words, showing a brand through a non-conscious method can potentially build familiarity and awareness. "

Sometimes this is coupled with "evaluative conditioning." Walls explains:

Another means by which values and branding are combined is through "evaluative conditioning." Evaluative conditioning is the idea that when a stimulus is coupled with desirable objects it is perceived favorably, and when coupled with undesirable objects, it is viewed unfavorably (De Houwer, Thomas, & Bauyens, 2001). Together, mere exposure and evaluative conditioning work to produce unconscious influence over an individual.  

The goal here is clear- audience members can’t buy something they don’t know about. Eyeballs on product solves that problem. It is another way of saying “awareness,” the first step of five in Everett Rogers adoption of innovation, explained in his highly regarded book The Diffusion of Innovation. From there, sellers hope audience members develop curiosity that leads to identifying need fulfillment, which leads to purchasing.

Sometimes there is another step involved: need identification. That is, sometimes consumers need to be told that something is a problem, like body odor, or the need for individualized cell phone plans within one family, or the need for continuous GPS connectivity in a car. Then, having convinced a purchasing public of this need, sellers step forward with a way to fulfill it.

The need for “eyeballs on product” has been true ever since humans have tried to sell things to each other. It is not unlike "location, location, location" as a mantra about where to locate a storefront. What has changed are the means and methods of putting eyeballs on product.

In the days of mass media v 1.0 (broadcast mass media), a good deal of advertising was broadcast advertising. That is, advertisers deliver a scatter shot message into the crowd and hope it connects with someone who cares. Gillette would advertise during a football game because guys watch football, and guys shave. Soap operas, so named because they were funded by detergent companies, advertised things they thought homemakers wanted, because they figured that's who was watching their show. These are best guesses, using the scatter shot approach.

Here are a few other perspectives to consider:

• Advertising as values empathy. Fielding graduate student Jed Walls is exploring the idea that in the "digitoral" (digital + oral) age, advertising is about aligning the values promoted by your ad with the values of your audience. "Pollay’s work stresses advertising as a tool of cultural value transmission. In his work he states that advertising’s primary function is to transmit value into the brand and product, and in essence, turn the product into the brand (Pollay, 1983)." (Walls QE 2015)

• Adversiting as competing stories. The go-to book about this is After the Story Wars by Jonah Sachs. According to Walls: "His (Sach's) claim is succinct: by putting values at the center of their messages, companies stand to gain more of a return from their advertising." Sachs sees advertising as a struggle to have your story rise above the din of the many competing stories and brands crowding our infosphere. A good place to begin in understanding his work is with with the slide show on his site.

• Advertising as seen through the lens of culture theory. From Walls' work:

Overall, these theories help us know how corporate and business interests interplayed with society and helped establish the framework from which advertising narratives were created. Cultural theory helps us understand the transition from monitorial advertising era [JO1] to the digitoral era in which we find ourselves today. Overall, general critical/cultural theory claims that there is no entertainment without prejudice, thus culture is a set of discourses that can be understood by how social artifacts are produced, distributed, and consumed (Durham & Kellner, 2006). In this way, advertising is no different and can be viewed as a powerful social artifact that highlights unique aspects of our culture.

This draws on the work of the Frankfurt School, versions 1 and 2, Habermas, a promiinent member of the 2nd Frankfurt School, viewed advertising this way:

Habermas’ central claim was that private interests prevail over public interests, which lead to a commercial domination of public life. Because of this, the public sphere is made impossible, when private interests have more or less destroyed the primary function of public spaces. To Habermas, newspapers were a prime example, which show that commercial interests trump politics and even trump news, which is shown in the deference that monetized space is given in advertising. (Walls QE 2015)

This was later supported by Barthes:

Roland Barthes discussed structuralism and applied semiology to the study of culture (Barthes, 2006). In his work he assumed that society and culture are texts, and looking at the codes and meanings of its texts, one could understand and articulate its mythologies. In Barthes estimation, commercial interests used tautologies, which are self-justifying sentences, to obfuscate qualities. Tautologies allowed those in power to make statements that could not be falsified but were still seemingly appealing, and subsequently put culture above criticism. Other mythologies were supported by reducing things to quantity alone, and to make the unnatural appear natural. In these ways entire histories could be disappeared, as images were idealized over realities and contingent factors were stripped of their context and essences. (Walls QE 2015)

This is a vast, important theoretical area and we are just skimming along the surface here.

There are other theories, some of which we have already looked at, others we simply don't have time to in this survey course.

Consumer Culture Theory

Another theory you should be aware of is Consumer Culture Theory. From Wikipedia:

Consumer culture theory is the study of consumption choices and behaviours from a social and cultural point of view, as opposed to an economic or psychological one. It does not offer a grand unifying theory but "refers to a family of theoretical perspectives that address the dynamic relationships between consumer actions, the marketplace, and cultural meanings".[1] 

The article goes on to say that CCT is often misunderstood, and has competing definitions.  

The many kinds of marketing

However, as the technology changed, approaches to product awareness changed. In all cases, the goal was to link producers and consumers more intelligently, emotionally and directly. Here are just a few ways that happens.