Advertising

Since its inception, advertising has been an integral and influential part of the United States society and economy. With the explosion of new communication and media technology in the last half of the 20th century, it has become even more pervasive, demanded stricter regulation, and received much criticism. The advertising industry at the end of the 20th century is a complex triad of advertisers, the media, and the advertising agencies. All three have a vested interest in influencing consumer choice. Advertisers spent approximately $131 billion in 1992, a quarter of which was spent by the 100 top national advertisers. Although $29.5 billion was spent on TELEVISION advertising, more than half of the total advertising expenditures go to newspapers, magazines, and direct mailings. Direct mail advertising is the fastest growing segment of the industry, primarily because computerized mailing lists enable advertisers to pinpoint potential customers. Automobile manufacturers, retailers, the food industry, restaurants, and the entertainment industry advertise most heavily and accounted for almost 10 percent of the total advertising expenditures in 1992.

The advertising agency produces the advertisements for its clients and serves as a liaison between the advertisers and the media. The 1980s witnessed a number of agency mergers, resulting in the creation of huge mega-agencies that offered their clients integrated advertising, marketing, and public relations services.

Advertising media are a mixture of television, magazines, newspapers, direct mail, and radio, each with its own specific benefits. For example, television offers the most multifaceted delivery because of its visual and auditory components, but it cannot distribute coupons as the print media can. In 1992 newspapers earned the highest proportion of advertising expenditures, 23 percent of the total. Television earned 22 percent; direct mail, 19 percent; magazines, 5.3 percent; and radio, 6.6 percent.

Advertising functions in a legal and regulatory framework that includes government legislation, self-regulation by the industry, and media control. The U. S. Supreme Court interpreted the First Amendment to protect commercial speech in Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976), but to a lesser degree than it protects political expression. In Posados de Puerto Rico v. Tourism Co. (1986), the Court upheld a ban on casino advertising to Puerto Rican residents but did not restrict such advertising to foreign tourists. The Court deemed it in the government’s interest to protect local residents from the evils of gambling and that the restriction was not excessive.

Beyond the courts, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for regulating advertising and restricting deceptive commercial speech. The criterion used is whether the consumer is harmed, not whether the ad is technically false. If an ad is determined to be harmful to the consumer, the advertiser is ordered to cease running the ad and is fined only if it fails to comply with that order. In rare cases, advertisers are ordered to run “corrective advertising,” in which they are required to restate earlier claims accurately or to offer substantiation for their claims. In 1977 the FTC ordered Warner-Lambert to run a $10 million campaign telling consumers that Listerine did not “prevent sore throats and colds or lessen their severity,” as its advertising had claimed. U. S. advertisers are also controlled by their own self-regulatory

Pedestrians walk past large advertisements for sportswear in New York City. While advertising has always been part of the American landscape, in the last decade many parts of the country have seen a proliferation of billboards and advertising in public spaces. Some citizens and public advocate groups are beginning to protest the sexual nature of many ads. (Spencer/Getty Images)

Board, the National Advertising Review Board, that discourages misleading and deceptive practices. The media participate in advertising regulation through their power to refuse ads they consider unfit for their editorial or programming context. Advertisers also respond to organized public pressure.

The intense desire for and need for regulation indicate that advertising exerts a significant force on society and, because of this, advertising has experienced a good deal of criticism, especially since the regulatory pressures decreased in the early 1980s. Billboard advertising has been accused of marring the environment. Advertising, in general, has been charged with creating false demand among consumers through the use of negative emotions such as guilt, anxiety, or fears of inferiority. This criticism revolves around the belief that advertising presents false images of the average citizen as young, attractive, wealthy, and leisured. Strong criticism has also been leveled at the stereotypical images of women and minorities in many advertisements. These criticisms, and many others, have sparked a wide-ranging debate over the role of advertising in our culture by asking whether it is a shaper or a mirror of our society. Such debate has led to intense scrutiny and discussion of products advertised, the character and amount of advertising exposure, advertising content, and its influence on behavior.

An important impact of advertising arises from its financial support of the mass media. Advertising provides about two-thirds of print revenue and virtually all broadcast revenue. This has generated criticism that the media, therefore, do not see the public as their primary audience, but instead see them as bait for attracting potential advertising revenue. It is argued that media content, for the most part, is designed to attract those citizens whose spending power is greatest.