2.Give the summary of the text Advertising

Newspaper advertisements¹ do have disadvantages, though, that tend to "turn off most national advertisers. Their life span²—the period of time the audience is exposed to the message—is very brief. One copy of Ladies' Home Journal or Playboy may be thumbed through many times by several people, and a billboard will be seen frequently, but almost no one looks twice at a newspaper. Second, the production quality is poor. The advertisement is usually not in color and therefore usually lacks eye appeal. Nevertheless, except in the very large city dailies³, newspaper advertising remains inexpensive and many national firms still believe that the newspaper advertisement is well worth the cost.

Television The most recent of the advertising media has revolutionized the advertising industry. More American homes have TV sets than subscribe to newspapers or magazines. In fact, more American homes have TV sets than have bathtubs⁴. Moreover, the average American spends more time watching television than working—50 hours a week.

Most advertisers believe the production quality and the intensity of the sell are quite high for TV advertisements. Viewers are subjected to the stimulation of both sight and sound—and to a considerable extent they are a captive audience. Turning off the set is not like turning a page. And turning to another channel is pointless since all three networks have commercial time spots. By picking the time or type of TV show, the advertiser can selectively sell to his market.

However, TV does have shortcomings. First, it is prohibitively expensive for many firms. Thirty seconds of prime time national television may cost as much as $150,000. (Thirty seconds during the 1983 Super Bowl cost $400,000.) Sec­ond, TV allows an advertiser very little flexibility. It takes months to write, film and book a TV commercial. Third, the life span of the advertisement is very short— no more than one minute. Although the commercial, which is itself expensive to produce, may be used again and again, the firm pays the network according to the number of spots it buys. Fourth, market researchers have discovered that TV's reputation as a sales medium is comparatively poor. People tend to believe what they read in newspapers and magazines more readily than what they hear and see on the tube.

Direct Mail. Direct mail advertising is especially attractive to firms looking for members of a specialized market segment. By securing mailing lists from mag­azines that sell to a certain market segment, an automobile magazine for instance, an auto parts producer or supplier can obtain a mailing list that more or less conforms to the target market. However, professional mail listers base their lists on practically any conceivable⁵ source of public knowledge—who was married recently, who bought a house, who has school-aged children, and so forth.

The chief advantage of direct mailing is selectivity. If a piece of "junk mail"⁶ catches your eye, you may even open it. If not, it will be "filed" very quickly. Direct mail advertising is almost as large a part of the advertising dollar as television advertising; however, how much of it goes immediately into the garbage is unknown.

Radio Radio has, of course, lost much of its general selling appeal to TV over the past 30 years. However, radio listening, especially during daytime, is on the rise and so is national brand radio advertising. Although the radio commercial lacks the production quality and intensity of TV, the audience, especially those listening on the 95 million car radios in the United States, is still largely captive. Different groups listen to radio at different times, and different broadcast formats (talk, sports, rock, and news) tend to create special audiences. As a result, the thoughtful advertiser can sell selectively by choosing the spot for a commercial advertisement. Also, local radio spots are inexpensive enough to allow many small businesses an alternative to the newspaper.

Magazines. Magazines were the first national advertising medium. Although 85 million Americans still regularly read one or more magazines each month, radio and TV have cut into the magazine advertising market.

To its advantage, magazine advertising can be selective. It can be aimed at a particular audience, just as the magazine itself is aimed at certain types of read­ers. Most magazines are published in color, thereby offering improved produc­tion quality over the advertisements in newspapers. Magazine ads also have a much longer life span than those in newspapers, TV, or radio. Magazines are looked through several times by most readers, and they also get passed along. However, magazines do suffer from a lack of flexibility. Most magazines require two-or-three-month advance preparation for full page, color advertisements.

Business Publications Few consumers read Chain Store Age, Advertising Age, or the American Iron and Steel Institute's monthly magazine. These pub­lications are aimed at business and industrial buyers. They are important adver­tising vehicles for suppliers of raw materials, intermediate⁷ goods, and commer­cial products. They may even appeal to firms selling consumer products to the executive and junior executive market segment (watches, desk sets, and the like). Within their fields, these publications have pretty much the same advan­tages or disadvantages of magazines sold to the general public.

Outdoor Outdoor advertising used to be gaudy⁸, funny, and highly profitable. In the 1930s, Burmashave, a now virtually forgotten shaving soap, made its name among bathroom products by using roadside advertising. The technique was a jingle spaced out over a quarter of a mile—one line at a time—on seven small red signs. The last line always read "Burmashave." The jingle was always humorous and for the morals of the time, often quite earthy. A nation on wheels quickly learned the product's name. By the 1960s, billboards were a declining medium.