PBS Frontline Feedback

1. When watching this video, I learned that advertising is not just about the product; its about culture and what the product represents figuratively. I also learned that advertising has taken a huge step since the early 90's. Back during the mid 1950's, there were certain brands that were declared better than others such as the quality of cigarettes, kitchenware, and clothes; basically whatever product stop out from the others. Nowadays, that is no longer so because, basically what the people want is good quality products that they can afford and not really splurge on. Companies also bagan developing cult-brands which attracts many people to not the just the products that it makes, but the company itself.

2. Some main problems that affect advertising is commonity. This is because they are advertising the same products and people are really not having a preference on what name brands to spend on. This is causing many advertising companies to develop ideas on how they could stand out from their competitors and generate more customers. Another problem is ad agencies have problems generating more ideas for their clients. If a certain ad agency cannot develop a type brand or ad for a large company, the company drops the ad agency as well as their hopes of getting paid. Cable companies, as well as Tivo, are a problem too because many cable companies are cutting ads significantly and Tivo cuts all of them completly.

3.We need to be aware of the combination of advertisements with various other media sources such as television shows, and commercials that are advertising not one, but multiple products. Another concern would be, how well is the advertisement going to sell. Ad agencies along with their clients, invest a lot of money into advertising their products; of their ad campaign does not sell well, then all their investments go down the toilet. Convincing the consumer to buy a company's products is another concern. Due to the commonity of many products that possess the same function as others, customers would rather go for what is cheap than what is expensive.