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This chapter investigates how advertising and promotional culture impact capitalist societies, both economically and culturally. Like other forms of media, advertising and promotion are in flux as corporations need to become more adept and creative to engage with consumers through changing media technologies. The chapter begins with a discussion of what advertising looks like in our contemporary mediascape, moving beyond looking at advertisements as texts to understanding the nature of advertising industries and advertising discourse, along with the ideological nature of advertising. A brief discussion of the evolution of advertising then sets the stage for examining advertising from more theoretical lenses such as Marxism and branding.
The nature of contemporary “mass audiences” is inevitably tied to profits, with market researchers and media companies expending significant amounts of time and money seeking to understand and incentivize these audiences. As Chapter 4 discussed, numerical data such as ratings allows advertisers to select the media outlets where their advertising dollars will reach the largest audience, though the ratings system has ideological implications as it values certain audiences over others. Similarly, while online data may seem more neutral as it counts clicks and views, digital media publishers and social media influencers can artificially boost their numbers. As a result, it remains difficult to get an accurate, complete picture of many media audiences.
Niche audiences, on the other hand, have become more appealing to advertisers, in large part necessitated by the fragmentation of traditional mass media. Market segmentation helps advertisers connect with audiences that will most likely be interested in purchasing the advertised products. This proves problematic in that it treats audiences as consumers, rather than citizens, and it also raises concern when connected to market segmentation of children. Market segmentation also becomes further complicated in the digital context, with increasingly personalized advertising resulting from increasingly personal data gathering of consumer information.
This focus on consumer data spurs on the continued evolution of advertising and promotional culture, with celebrities and social media influencers becoming significant players in the industry. Through product placement, product integration, native advertising, and branded or sponsored content, the line between promotion and content blurs, as does the line between commerce and creative content.