Advertising, the Magic System

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The readings ‘‘Advertising, the Magic System’’ by Raymond Williams and ‘‘Advertising and Deep Autonomy’’ by Andrew Sneddon display the advertising theory in both cultural and economic forms. An advertising theory is a marketing concept used to create awareness of a company's products or services. Every business today relies on advertising to attract new customers and increase the sale of products and services. The primary goal of advertising has always been to positively change consumers' behaviors and attitudes towards a particular product or service. Through advertising, the customers change shifts their preference from one company to the other. The economic concept of advertising theory is that it expands the customer base of a company, improves productivity, changes consumer preference, and creates a competitive advantage. Culturally, advertising promotes choice and reflect existing cultural values. In reality, advertising expands market share and market size.
Raymond Williams, in his article, ‘‘Advertising, the Magic System’’ explains that advertising is a magic system embroiled in two concepts, namely, cultural and economic ideas. As a cultural form, Williams (412) sees advertising as a system of fantasy. That is to say, the product is not only the item on sale but also the idea of the buyer when they purchase the product. In this case, the product supersedes its materialistic value. For instance, if a perfume seller sells her products, people believe that they will have a similar smell or look like the seller when they buy that perfume.
Alternatively, every potential buyer is happy and energetic if Coca-cola advertises its products. It gives the idea of being happy and active when a person buys and drinks the product. That is the reason behind the difference in importance between the exchange value and the use-value. According to Williams (415), the cause of all of this fantasy has been the people's desire to belong to a particular group. The idea of not being accepted by others is one thing that most people fear. As such, they tend to purchase products even when it is not within their preference. That is why buyers see similar items around them.
Although the reading ‘‘Advertising, the Magic System’’ focuses on British history, Williams aver that the advertisement nature has transformed to a network that broadcasts business information and persuasion. This change is equivalent to changes in economic and social structures. Through capitalism, minorities will cultivate the cultures and values of the people via advertisements. For the relevance of the advertisements, they must add value to their products. Williams (413) further argues that advertising is the effect of social a social failure to find a way of public decision over economic life.
The economic concept is that advertising becomes a necessity. For instance, big companies believe that advertising is required on a large scale to prove their existence and dominance. This concept claims that advertising was developed to reach potential customers who will increase the company's...