Why Advertising Matters

My project will be looking at the advertisements used in and around Chicago in order to examine the impact that the competition between advertisements, people’s attention, has on the public. Considering the overwhelming amount of advertising and limited attention that people have, it’s important to reflect on how advertising engages the public and what impacts it leaves behind on it.

My project engages with contingency by looking at advertising, one example in particular are the political ads strewn about Chicago. How these advertisements for politicians attempt to reach out to people and convince them that one politician is better over the other is important, due to how it affects political discourse in the city. Looking at the advertisements that have been already created and spread among the public would allow for a look at real world examples that are already being used, and examined by people.

The magnitude of advertising is quite expansive, as advertising is something that spans both the globe as well as history. People have used advertising to promote companies, brands, and politicians for ages. Looking at it now in our modern world can give us a look at how it has changed which can provide insight into how we have changed as a society as well. Advertising requires the input of information, whether true or false, and in the Information Age, where we have an overwhelming amount of information and access to it, it is important to understand the quality of information being presented to the public. Thinking about how advertisers use information is something that can be applied to not just marketing, but how we interact with one other across different modes of communication.

The project would also engage with phronesis by trying to examine the thinking behind many of the advertisements. Thinking about the process behind the decisions made in creating an advertisement, and looking at how that affects the public’s perception.