Advertising as a Tool of Communication

The simplest definition of an advertisement is that it is a ‘public announcement’. In earlier times, to advertise meant merely to announce or to inform. Some advertisements today still do just that: provide information about ‘birth’, ‘death’, ‘engagements,’ with little or no intention to persuade. The majority of classified advertisements provide useful information about jobs, accommodation, sales of second-hand vehicles and furniture, etc. Matrimonial advertisements, recruitment advertisements, and tenders, notices and similar types of public announcements also provide the public with valuable information, which would otherwise be difficult to obtain easily. The earliest advertisements in the first English newspapers published in India. In the eighteenth century were little more than ‘public announcements’ about the arrival of ships and merchandise from abroad. Basically, then an advertisement is an announcement to the public of a product, service or idea through a medium to which the public has access. The medium may be print (such as newspapers, posters, banners and hoardings), electronic (radio, television, video, cable, phone) or any other. An advertisement is a form of persuasive communication with the public. The communication is usually one-sided, in one direction from the advertiser and to the public. The members of the public are free to respond to it in their own way; the response is at an individual or family level. There is little or no dialogue with the public; advertising forces itself upon the public. At the same time, especially in a democracy with a market economy, such communication is required so that intelligent choices are made.