“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”
Somya Jain
Dr. Dr. Dilip Kumar
This is the famous quote from the father of advertisements, David Mackenzie Ogilvy. By now, we all understand that the concept of advertisement comes with the aim to promote products, services, or ideas to a target audience. Advertisements have been around for centuries and have covered all the mass mediums like newspapers, television, radio, and now digital platforms too. Be it the first page of the newspaper, breaks in between the news programs, or posts on your Instagram feeds, advertisements are present all around. It ‘turns our mind’ into buying the product, which is an actual meaning of the Latin word advert ere for advertisement.
It has been widely said that advertisements are manipulative and promote materialism. Yes, they do. But while saying this, aren’t we forgetting various campaigns led by big brands which brought a change in the mindsets of people? For instance, the campaign #ShareTheLoad by Ariel (a detergent brand) in which the idea of gender equality is promoted. If this is the creativity that has the tiniest bit of potential to bring a big change, then why such a negative word such as ‘manipulative’ be used to define advertisements?
On the contrary, there is another widespread concept of Paid news that is taking over the world of credible Journalism. Using the word credible is important as the proliferation of such concepts and their motives to promote or propagate are changing their true meaning. Paid news has been a wider concern since the early 2000s. With the rise of corporate media and increasing pressure on media organizations to create revenue resulted in the popularity of paid news. The acceptance of payment to cover favorable news comes at the expense of journalistic integrity.
The financial gain made the informers turn a blind eye to the credibility and objectivity of journalism and it further hampers the democratic structure of the country. The proliferation of fake news and information has made it difficult for audiences to distinguish between credible news and false information. It is important for media organizations to prioritize ethical standards and transparency to combat these problems. The politicians are here to run the country towards a bright future and not towards the future of coated lies and disagreements.
Both advertisement and paid news are different concepts. They have different purposes to fulfill in the media industry. While advertisements focus on promotions, paid news focuses on propagation. Advertisements are meant to influence consumer behavior whereas paid news is meant to influence public opinion which favors the powerful politicians and businesses. The creativity that advertisements bring in is a legitimate part of media but this same can not be said for the paid news as it just undermines the objectivity and credibility of media.
The advertising industry is growing rapidly. There are a lot of instances when we try to skip the ads, close them or block them permanently. It seems like we can not escape the advertisements anymore. Whether you flip a page of a magazine, newspaper or watch a video on YouTube, advertisements just won’t leave you alone. The industry is expected to grow immensely in the coming years with the advent of the digital age. The advertorials are next in line to cover the pages of print media extensively. It is true that no one is interested in ads but we can not deny the fact that some ads have a great impact on our subconscious minds. Whenever we go out to purchase a particular product, that ad remains in our memory. It influences us to try something new by providing numerous choices.
I remember as a child I really used to think that if I put one Kaccha mango bite candy into a photocopy machine, I can get hundreds of them and stock them to eat later on. To become taller, I made sure that my mother feed me a full glass of Complan milk. I remember rushing home from a bus stand in summer to drink Glucon-D as I thought that the sun would have sucked all the glucose in me through a straw. As a child, it was so easy to get influenced by such ads and start behaving in a particular way. All three ads’ target audiences were kids. The variety of choice of flavors influenced the kids further. The creativity of the advertisers to sell the product worked as the cherry on the cake and it still does.
However, there have been several cases of paid news in India, especially during election campaigns. Seeing the emerging concept of paid news and being the major concern of journalism, it is not at all shocking when Elon Musk is making the Twitter blue tick, a paid achievement. The Indian government has taken steps to tackle this problem with the Press Council issuing guidelines on the same and Election Commission putting regulations to prevent such practice during the elections.
Evolving consumer behavior, digital advertising, personalization of advertising with AI (Artificial Intelligence) to improve brand loyalty, video advertising for social media and other online platforms, the emergence of 5G technology, regulatory changes, particularly with food and beverages, alcohol, pharmaceuticals industries, etc., comprise the future of advertising. And yes, I can not forget how Influencer marketing is taking over online platforms like Instagram, nowadays. This new way for businesses to connect with influencers to reach their target audience leaves an unforgettable impact on our minds.
To reach the rural parts of India, once Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL) introduced Project Shakti in 2001 with an aim to prettify to spruce up the demands for its products in small villages. Under its scheme called Shakti Amma, HUL created livelihood opportunities for women. Products were sold from small shop-like set up in homes or through door-to-door services. The project allowed the brand to reach different states and lakhs of villages. This type of advertising of products ranging from biscuits to soaps does not only have a bright future. But it will bring connectivity in the parts of India where there is still no awareness of hygiene. This is an incredible way of taking the country forward by engaging people at the ground level.
In this era of capitalism, the concept of paid news might still flourish more but it is still uncertain and comples to analyse. Due to the free acess to news through various digital platforms, there is a constnat pressure on tradional media to find alternatives to remain afloat by finding revenue sources. All of these activities has lead to the proliferation of clickbait articles and sponsored content mostly. Now the questions emerges that isn’t it blurring the lines between journalism and advertising? Where there is a growing demand of ethical journalism and transparency, there is a need of greater scrutiny and regulations on paid news. Ultimately, the future of paid news depends majorly on the media organisations themselves. Its on them to find a way to create a balance between their financial gains or prevelance of true journlism for the audience.
Advertisements and paid news are like two different lamps but with same light. They both have different purposes, sources, and, target audience but comes with the same objective to influence or shall I say turn people’s minds in a desired direction. The future for one seems bright whereas its difficult to say same for the latter as in the current scenario, the society has become more aware, educated and informed. In such scenario, it is difficult to propagate and monopolising any idea.
(The authors are English Journalism, IIMC, Jammu and Associate Professor Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Northern Regional Campus Jammu)
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