Educating the Consumer About Advertising
Educating the Consumer about Advertising: Some Issues. ERIC Digest.
Advertising can be defined as communication which promotes the purchase of products and services, and advertisements are pervasive in the American culture. Ads are sandwiched between programs on television, interspersed with popular songs on the radio, and scattered among news features in the daily paper. While advertisements may distract from a TV program or a newspaper's other messages, might they also serve a more positive purpose? Can advertising advance consumer knowledge? At the same time, can consumer education help people become more knowledgeable and critical about the goals of advertising? This digest provides a basic overview of issues related to advertising and the consumer.
ADS ARE EVERYWHERE
People sometimes complain about the perceived overabundance of advertising in daily life. While consumers are accustomed to ads on television and in magazines, commercial promotion appears to be cropping up in more and more places. A proposed cable TV channel (Channel One) for use in schools faltered when it was learned that the channel would carry commercials aimed at the students, but it now appears to be heading for success, even though school administrators are divided on its merits (Rist, 1989). A profile of Channel One founder, Chris Whittle, in "The New York Times" reported that, while many teachers and administrators extol the value of the newscast which Channel One presents, others will never accept the infusion of commercialism in the schools. Whittle, however, has already signed up the 8600 schools he needed to cover his capital costs and achieve the audience size he felt would interest advertisers (Kleinfield, 1991).
Advertising is also found in some of the free curriculum materials which businesses supply to schools. A content analysis of materials within the areas of nutrition, energy, and economics education revealed that business-sponsored materials were found to contain
Advertising can be defined as communication which promotes the purchase of products and services, and advertisements are pervasive in the American culture. Ads are sandwiched between programs on television, interspersed with popular songs on the radio, and scattered among news features in the daily paper. While advertisements may distract from a TV program or a newspaper's other messages, might they also serve a more positive purpose? Can advertising advance consumer knowledge? At the same time, can consumer education help people become more knowledgeable and critical about the goals of advertising? This digest provides a basic overview of issues related to advertising and the consumer.
ADS ARE EVERYWHERE
People sometimes complain about the perceived overabundance of advertising in daily life. While consumers are accustomed to ads on television and in magazines, commercial promotion appears to be cropping up in more and more places. A proposed cable TV channel (Channel One) for use in schools faltered when it was learned that the channel would carry commercials aimed at the students, but it now appears to be heading for success, even though school administrators are divided on its merits (Rist, 1989). A profile of Channel One founder, Chris Whittle, in "The New York Times" reported that, while many teachers and administrators extol the value of the newscast which Channel One presents, others will never accept the infusion of commercialism in the schools. Whittle, however, has already signed up the 8600 schools he needed to cover his capital costs and achieve the audience size he felt would interest advertisers (Kleinfield, 1991).
Advertising is also found in some of the free curriculum materials which businesses supply to schools. A content analysis of materials within the areas of nutrition, energy, and economics education revealed that business-sponsored materials were found to contain