Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Public
Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: Excellent, The
University of Surrey (Department of English), course: Language of
Advertising, language: English, abstract: There is advertisement - and
there is advertisement: Most ads have the intention to make people aware
of a product, service or concept followed by the purchase and therefore
"support the free-market economy" (Reschke: 1998, p. 1); but there are
ads whose main aim is to inform people, more precisely to call their
attention to a certain topic. Consequently, advertisements cause
different reactions: Some ads make people smile or even giggle; some
just communicate plane information; whilst others make people think and
reflect; and again others literally shock people. Advertising campaigns
such as the WWF 9/11 one, the "Get unhooked" ads or Antonio Federici's
banned campaign (q.v. Appendix 1-3) are only three examples on the list
of campaigns banned in the 21st century due to unethical content. Those
offensive advertisements include "messages that transgress laws and
customs (e.g. anti-human rights), breach a moral or social code (e.g.
profanity, vulgarity) or outrage the moral or physical senses (e.g.
gratuitous use of violence, use of disgusting images)" (Chan et al.:
2007, p. 608). Researchers found out that adverts, which "are
incongruent with social norms attract attention and are more likely to
be retained in memory" (Gulas and Weinberger: 2006, p. 173). Attracting
interest can be done on different ways: by either using attention
attracting pictures, sounds, signs or just simple words and phrases.
