My Position... More to Come!

Since the 1950s, advertising and marketing have been considered one of the most important tools of shaping our society and culture. With the launch of the Radio and more importantly the television, advertising picked up speed and hasn’t slowed down since. The main goal of advertising has remained the same, to relate a product to an audience and consequently increase profits through sales. However, according to Joseph Turow, a Communication professor at Penn’s Annenberg School of Communication, the method has shifted from “society making” to “segment making.” Over the past few decades there have been a handful of trends that have dictated the role advertising has taken. However, the most drastic change has been between “Segment making” and “society making.” Segmented media causes people to experience a more individualized type of advertising, whereas “society making” gives people a sense of belonging. Throughout this essay I will explain why “segment making” took over “society making and will illustrate the impact “segment making” media and advertising has taken on our society and even our world.
Advertising has always been about telling a particular story to sway an audience towards a specific product, idea or lifestyle. According to Goldman & Papson, two notable communication scholars, advertisements “boost the value of the commodity brand name by attaching them to images that possess social and cultural values” (81). The result of this formula is a commodity sign, which people use to create or add to their identity. This basic structure has remained the same; however, there has been a shift in the audience focus of advertising – from the mainstream to a more individualized style.