NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINE
Social and Psychological Aspects of Advertising Communication
Communication has a fundamental role in our social life, it’s
the means through which we enter into contact with the others and everything
else around us.
As for this, advertisement has to:
- attract customer’s attention;
- stimulate his curiosity and his interest;
- arouse his desire, driving him to buy the specific product.
The language used in advertisement is universal, because it has to be understood
by everyone.
As to hoardings, the message of the advert has to be direct.
The head line represents the most evident part of the verbal component of
the ad; it has to be immediate and incisive, clear and not too long; it
has to draw reader’s attention without necessarily giving a lot of
details about the product.
Hoardings are located in strategic point, just because they have to be visible
to everyone.
But we haven’t always the time to read what it is written on a hoarding;
therefore the visual, which represents the image or the graphic part of
the advert, covers a fundamental importance in this type of advertisement
as for its immediacy, for its capacity to attract, in a short time, customers’
attention .
As for this reason, companies usually use images of exceptional testimonials,
like famous stars or wonderful girls. The eye wants its part too.
With magazines the matter changes …
Having much more time to spend reading, it is given a lot of importance
to the body copy, the part in which features of the advertised product are
described in detail.
For example, Italian magazines advertisements, concerning telephony, are
often ironic, since it is to be pleasant reading them.
Even for this reason, in an advert about mobile phones they usually offer
alternative services together with the product, like internet, video games,
etc. as valid and enjoyable alternatives of spending your spare time. For
this reason, in fact, features like technical details are often taken for
granted and left out.
In England, on the contrary, lots of importance is given to the economical
aspect of the product, pointing out description of the costs, discounts
and tariffs offered.
Testimonials are rarely used and so we are usually given the picture of
the product (a mobile phone, in this case) with a detailed description of
its technical features.
ENGLAND:
In the foreground they usually offer discounts on cellular prices, like
primary reason of a possible purchase on occasions like birthdays, anniversaries
etc.
Publicity shows as obvious and useful the presence of video-games or reminders
together with the proper function of the mobile itself.
ITALY:
Publicity points out the aesthetic image and the presence of well-known
TV personalities.
What mostly strikes is the beauty and charm of male and female testimonials.
ITALY and ENGLAND in comparison
Both the two countries use short incisive catch-phrases related to future
technological applications of mobiles and parallel utilities (Internet).
Fun and originality are at the basis of rings, logos and personalized sms.
ON TELEVISION:
A massive presence of mobile commercials is to be noticed in Christmas time or holiday periods, while all the year long the same TV presenters sponsor mobile phones in high audience rating programs.
