Advertising—How Necessary?
THE blue peacock of India displays a sudden, glorious blaze of color. Feathers, five times the length of his body, resplendent with eyelike markings, rise from his back to stand shimmering in the sunlight. A majestic sight, he slowly parades in front of his prospective mate, the peahen. How could she possibly resist what has been described as “the most magnificent . . . advertisement in the world”? Advertising is a worldwide phenomenon. Our series examines its motivation and its effects, as seen by Awake! correspondent in Britain.
Basically, what is advertising? It is the action of making something known. In nature it is often essential for the preservation and propagation of life.
Howling wolves, for example, advertise their presence to avoid unnecessary encounters with other packs as each searches for food. A female moth can detect a few molecules of a pheromone, a chemical substance, released many miles away by a male of her own species that is advertising for a mate. Predators wisely avoid the cinnabar caterpillar, whose vivid yellow and black stripes advertise that it is not just distasteful but toxic.
What of us humans? We have gone a step further and commercialized the art of advertising. Consider a few examples.
Commercial Advertising
An Egyptian papyrus discovered at Thebes is perhaps the oldest commercial advertisement in existence. Written over three thousand years ago, it advertised a reward for the return of a runaway slave.
The public criers of ancient Greece, later identified with the town criers of European cities, were in effect mobile publicity men, attracting attention to their proclamations.
In medieval England, the symbol of three hanging golden balls, drawn from the coat of arms of the Italian Medici family of financiers, advertised moneylenders. Today, that same sign survives to identify a pawnbroker’s shop.
Over 250 years ago, London’s Dr. Samuel Johnson complained: “Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused. . . . The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement.” But since then, how things have changed! In the last 50 years, the trade has mushroomed into an industry.
Advertising is big business now, very big. Newspapers, billboards, glossy magazine pages, neon lights, radio and television commercials—all vie for our attention in a constant bombardment of persuasion, sometimes blatant and at other times amazingly clever and subtle.
The high-pitched drone of modern airships draws our gaze to enormous floating advertisements. Smaller aircraft trail slogans across the sky. The diversification seems endless! But is it really necessary?
How does advertising work? If there was less of it, would we, the consumers, be better—or worse—off? What part can it play in our lives?