Blog Post 4 - Advertisements

     Advertising, also known as any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor in which gives information about a product, is something that is portrayed almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week whether or not we are aware of it.  In the United States alone, over 263 billion dollars a year are spent on advertising. After observing the amount of advertising done in a 24 hour span, I came to the conclusion that I truly am not aware of the amount of advertising that is placed in front of me on a daily basis. 

At just 7:00 a.m. when I wake up to start my day and turn on the music channels, there are advertisements on side of the screen.  The type of advertisement depends on what time of music station I am listening to. When I turn on the country station, the advertisements that tend to come up are promoting for the country singer such as their cologne and perfume.  On the radio for country, there are a lot of dealership advertisements for trucks. When it comes to the hip-hop stations on television, the ads tend to differ.  They are more focused towards clothing and cosmetic products such as crest white strips, Herbal Essance, and Lancôme products.  When I get on my computer before I go up to class, advertisements that pop up are things such as Verizon Wireless (my cell phone company), and clothing products since I do a lot of online shopping. On my way to class every day I see the same advertisements for all of the restaurants up and down Main Street.

                Around 12:00 p.m. on my way back from class I also see those same advertisements on Main Street.  When I get home from class and turn on the television, I normally tend to turn on Lifetime Movie Network. After doing this project, I realized that the advertisements for this channel are focused more on middle-aged or older women.  Between one and my next class at 3:00, advertisements that were portrayed were Activia, Granola Thins, Prescriptions Savings Card, Laser Spine Institute (for back pain), Toyotas, Anti-depressants (Cymbalta), Exelon Patch (Alzheimer’s), Ourtime.com, Match.com, and Puristics.  All of these advertisements are types of ads that a young woman at my age would not be interested in because most people at my age tend to watch MTV instead of Lifetime.

                After class, I took a trip to the Lehigh Valley Mall where on the way I saw so many advertisements that if I would have tried to keep track by writing them all down I would have caused a car accident.  Everywhere you look there is an old fashion billboard or the new electronic ones with multiple flashing advertisements.  Some that stuck out that I could remember were a Kutztown billboard, a Penn State baseball billboard, Never Quit Smoking billboard, T-Mobil, Verizon Wireless, DeSales University and jewelry billboards.  At nighttime when I get home and turn on MTV, the advertisements drastically change for the age range.  The advertisements are clearly directed more towards adolescents.   Some that showed were Snapple half and half, Twix, Maybelline, 10 minute trainer workout, Head and Shoulders, Febreze, and crest 3D white strips.  There were also advertisements for Hershey Kisses, goldfish grains, Arby’s and Scion.  After doing the observation of advertisements, I found that the signaling that the distributers are trying to get across differs from the different type of station you are listening to or watching.  Channels for younger people direct their messages more towards the “new trends,” while channels directed towards older people focus more on health care and old habits that most probably already follow.