The Influence of Space on Advertising (Blog 1)

The Influence of Space on Advertising

            We all inhabit spaces, whether that be the country one lives in, such as the United States of America or smaller subdivisions such as urban, city, country etc. “every society – and hence every mode of production with its subvariants (i.e. all those societies which exemplify the general concept – produces a space, its own space.” (Lefebvre, 31)  These spaces help advertisers tailor their advertisements towards their targeted audiences. One of these audiences that advertisements work to target is children. They target not only their age, but also the spaces (geographic area) that they reside in.  Another concept that Lefebvre considers is that of “social space,” which “contains specific representations of this double or triple interaction between social relations of production and reproduction.  Symbolic representation serves to maintain these social relations in a state of coexistence and cohesion.” (Lefebvre, 32) To analyze how advertisements are targeted to children through space we will look at advertisement placement and how social spaces works through targeting boys and girls by symbolic representation.

              Advertisers must pay close attention to the social class of children they are targeting for not only the benefit of the advertisements influencing a purchase, but also for ethical reasons.  For example, by having an advertisement air to a low income neighborhood for an expensive electronic toy, it is unethical since these children shouldn’t be influenced to spend hundreds of dollars on something they don't need.  And also because children, especially young children rely on their parent’s income, and their parents will probably not be influenced to buy something that isn't a necessity because of an advertisement. On any given day US citizens through the spaces they inhabit encounter hundred of advertisements a day, many people don’t even notice them because of the overload on advertisements. Children are a bit harder to target then the average adult, due to their literacy levels.  Because of this Sandra L. Clavert from Princeton University “explains that paid advertising to children primarily involves television spots that feature toys and food products…. Newer marketing approaches have led to online advertising and to so-called stealth marketing techniques, such as embedding products in the program content in films, online, and in video games. “ (Clavert, 1) This shows how the spaces that are most effective for children advertisements are through not only television commercials, but also through product placement.  Product placement has become increasingly common, because children look at characters that they admire and see what they have and in turn want that as well.                                      

Like stated above within social spaces there is certain symbolic references that are used to identify things, such as whether something is a product intended for a girl or a boy. An example of this is how children’s advertisements use symbolic references, such as pink or blue. Crayola Virtual Design Pro, uses symbolic references to indicate whether it is the version for girls or boys.  This is done by having one be drawings of cars and the other being drawings of fashion.  The way these two commercial are designed also helps to reinforce these stereotypes.  For the boys they are pretending to talk on walky-talkies and are shown driving the car in an adventurous way.  They only mention designing a new car; they don’t mention anything about the designs that they choose.  Whereas, the girls talk about pok-a-dots and describing colors by not just blue, or yellow, but rather “aqua” and “lemon yellow.” They also talk about whether the designs they are designing are still in style or not, which reinforces that girls are concerned with there looks.  Representing commercials in such a gender specific form has taken heat from many parents and critics in recent years.  Many believe that advertising should take a more gender natural stance, especially toward younger children. Because of this it would be advised for companies like Crayola to take a different approach.  One of the ways the company could go about redoing their advertisement, would be to have one that represents both a girl and boy playing together with both the fashion collection and the car collection, that way they aren’t targeting just male or female audiences, but rather both.

As one can see, advertisements are everywhere within the spaces that we live in and these spaces not only help determine how advertisers go about targeting their audiences, but also how they choose who to target. 

Work Cited 

Calvert, Sandra L. (2008) Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing. Future of     Children, 18. https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/18_01_09.pdf 

Crayola (2014, Sept 3) Virtual Design Pro - Fashion Collection Commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqdy-2JW3bk

Crayola (2014, Sept 3) Virtual Design Pro - Car Collection Commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnvAyExjXo

Lefebvre, Henri (1991) The Production of Space. (Nicholson-Smith, Donald Trans.) Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (Original work published 1974)