Yes. Advertising does bring about positive changes
to the world around us
Every now
and then we stumble upon debates on TV where they fight out like cats and dogs
on issues both trivial and significant. At last the so called experts reach on
an agreement – Yes Advertising & Films are the culprits for all the evils
in the society.
Always on
the wrong side of the table it’s high time someone stood up for the ‘Advertising
Professional’.
Yes
Advertising has changed the world we live in.
For hundreds
of years advertising has contributed its part in changing the world around us.
Whatever may the critics voice against advertising they can’t take away the
contributions of advertising in making people’s life more easier, providing
information to the consumer, making the consumer more powerful, providing
solutions for marketing problems, innovating products & services and last
but not the least uplifting the less privileged people.
We
provide solutions:
Even if an advertising campaign provides a wrong solution let us make it clear
– we don’t create problems. Problems are created by the marketers themselves
and we at advertising try to solve those problems, it is not the other way
round. Most of the times it is an idea from an advertising company that
provides solutions for a problem faced in the society or in a market.
We do influence
that too in a positive way: Never ever in the history of advertising have someone created a
product successful through negative communications. So atleast for once please
own up for our own cravings for over consumption, for our own stands &
beliefs getting influenced in a negative
way just through an exposure to an advertisement of a product or service. If it
was so easy to influence people out there, advertising would have been extinct
as a profession or the world would have been a better place to live in by its
own. As advertising professionals we are hired to find something positive about
a product or service, not the opposite.
We do
inform and help consumer: Without advertising, people might not have found how to use oranges in
juice form or how to use even a safety pin. Yes it’s true. These are not
exaggerations but facts that you can browse yourself to find out how advertising
have passed on information about innovations over all these years. Every day it
is through advertisements, whatever be the medium, that consumers find out new
ways to use an existing product/service or find out entirely new
products/services. Also let us be clear about one thing- If we see misguided
information about products, those are the works of such people in advertising
who doesn’t know the basics of advertising. No product can be successful in a
market over the long run through misleading advertisements. Transparency is
what makes all those brands standing out there facing all weathers. Just because
there are some scrupulous doctors out there we don’t blame that the whole medical
profession is without ethics, do we?
We are
always innovating: Every
now and then it is advertising professionals who find innovative ways to a
marketing problem and often entirely new products are devised by marketers from
an idea borne out of an advertising professional’s brain. Innovative
applications of existing products have helped people out there and not to
mention the innovations coming out in service sectors. It is we advertising
professionals who most of the time has to fight it out in board rooms of
corporate companies to include an additional service or something out of the
usual for the customers.
Yes we
change the world: A
good advertising is the one which makes way into people’s hearts. World over we
have lots of examples where advertising have changed the people’s lives for
good. Even a bus shelter made by a brand is a contribution towards the society.
And be reminded that most of such activations are proposed by advertising
companies not only because they are needed for the brand to reach its customers
but also we too try our level best to give something to the society while using
such advertising methods. Be it a brand raising awareness about cleanliness in
Rajasthan through product sampling within a village festival or be it a
government using advertisement campaigns to raise awareness about the need of
vegetable cultivation, we as advertising professionals are involved from
creating such an idea to making it reach among people. Especially in this age
of CSR initiatives gaining importance in marketing mix of a company, we in
advertising world are the happiest folks as now we can propose novel methods of
sponsoring initiatives for uplifting the less privileged people using corporate
money. Earlier we had to fight it out with our clients to allow us such
proposals in our strategy.
Yes we do
our bit to change the world within the limits of our profession just like the
ones who sit there and debate on the floor of a TV channel. Just like any
Doctor, Lawyer, IT guy, Mason or a Carpenter we in advertising world do care
about the public. Sorry friends we have to find the real culprits for the evils
of the society, maybe through individual introspection. Till then leave us alone.
We are bent upon finding positive elements in a product, service and the
society as a whole. Let the debate continue instead of using us as a reason to
end your discussions.
