Blackwell Reference Online

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Advertising is the attempt to bring attention to a product or service using paid announcements in mass media that encourage people to purchase those goods or services.The average person is exposed to innumerable advertisements. In addition to all the normal advertisements selling pharmaceuticals, cars, soft drinks, beer, and fast food, among many others, in an election year there will be many more ads “selling” candidates. Supporters argue that ads help consumers make informed decisions about all sorts of things, and indeed, advertising can provide people with a common basis for common goals, values, and a variety of gratifications. Opponents claim advertising leads to social fragmentation, alienation, hyperconsumption, and the resulting wanton destruction of the environment. All agree that ads are everywhere.Since marketplaces first emerged, sellers have attempted to supply information to consumers to describe and promote their offerings. The in-house pictorial advertisements of Pompeii's brothels involve advertising particular services and their costs. For most of history, advertising consisted of the displays of wares closely tied to the place where sales or trades took place; what you saw was what you could get, whether fruits, vegetables, clothes, jewelry, pottery, prostitutes, or metal tools. By the Middle Ages, certain trades had distinct symbols of their products or services, ... log in or subscribe to read full text