Comm 406

“Ads are a way for soulless companies to have personality and talk to their audience.”

First and foremost, the job of advertising is not to entertain its potential buyers, but to convince them that they are selling a product or idea that they want and have always wanted. Whether they do that through sympathy or action or mass appeal or entertainment and fun is up to the advertising company and its client. Advertisements, whether they be on billboards or on the radio or on the television, their primary goal is communicating with their target demographic. Sometimes the advertisement is wrong for its demographic and sometimes it is wrong for the company employing the advertising company.

For example, as depicted in Art & Copy, an advertisement that stressed family life for a bank, garnered so many new clients that the bank had to stop the ads from running and turn away clients. Too much success is one thing, but too little is another.

The providence of advertising ideas sometimes do not come from a mindset of entertainment. The Nike catchphrase that is so famous now: Just do it. was taken from a man in front of firing squad whose last words were “Let’s do it.” This shows how advertising companies are willing to skew anything to make their campaign work, so long as it has wide application and makes prospective buyers eager to buy.

The Got Milk? campaign is an example of an advertising campaign that did really well despite what many people thought. Something like milk that was not a brand-heavy product and to market something like that seemed impossible, and yet something that seemed so impossible became so famous – even today.

So although advertising companies’ main goal is not to entertain the public, many times the ultimate product of the campaign is entertaining.