ADVERTISING: ART OR SCIENCE

Advertising: Art or Science

Advertising: Art or Science

Introduction

The business of advertising is explained as the blend of similar elements of arts and science. In order understand the validity of this statement, the distinction between art and science has to be understood. The art is described as the expression and the application of creative imagination and skills of humans, which illustrates the feeling, emotions and intended messages. An art is not bound by any particular media or form of expression. As it is a creative expression, the effectiveness of expression is based on the skills of the developer of the art besides on the idea of expression. Art explains the natural world, the beauty of the world as well as the issues as perceived by the artist. On the other hand science attempts to understand and illustrate the natural world based on systematic analysis, observations and physical evidences. Science directs its efforts to understand the phenomena by observing the phenomena, carrying out experimentation or attempts measure the responses under natural condition. Some gurus of advertising terms the business as an art, some as science while some advocate it as a blend of artistic and scientific content. This essay will review the views of different advertising gurus as well literature on advertising to evaluate if achieving advertising objectives, it is essential to have a mix of art and science.

Discussion

The aim of advertising business is to enable a buying stimulus in its target audience. It aims to increase the brand and product awareness so that the sales of the product or service can be increased. There are many promotional and publicity activities but an advertising activity is categorized by five major factors. An advertising campaign is developed against a compensatory benefit usually in the form of monetary benefit. A company or individual usually pays the advertising agency to develop or display advertising for them. While broadcasting the advertisement appears as sponsored content. The purpose of advertisement is to pursue or inform its receivers about the product or service they are offering and making a memorable impression. The message of the company reaches a large audience through the use of mass media.

John Kennedy and Albert Lasker were one of the gurus of advertising. They operated their advertisement agency by the name of Lord & Thomas. The philosophy followed by them was purely sales oriented and they advocated that the advertisements must be able to sell the product to the customer. Albert Lasker defined the advertising as “Salesmanship in print” (Amegatcher, N.d). He was off the view that salesman offer the products and services to the prospecting clients face to face and makes an effort to convince the client on buying the product. He elaborated the advertisements as the tools to explain the client about the rationality of buying the product rather than showing pretty pictures or other attractive art. He didn't like the idea of an advertisement to be appealing, entertaining or comfortable to the reader and preferred advertisements which can ...