Advertising

Advertising is a strategic communication designed to call people’s attention to a brand, company, organization, government agency, issue, cause, group, or individual, especially through paid mass media such as television, radio, newspapers, social platforms, the Internet, and out-of-home or outdoor media. Advertising informs, persuades, provokes, and promotes; it aims at a target audience—a large number of people forming an aggregate—through visual communication, copy, stories, and music.

In a free market system, advertising promotes one brand or entity over another, raises awareness about social and political issues and causes, and calls people to action. (Here, entity designates commercial companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.) An advertisement or ad is a specific single message based on an insight into the audience constructed to inform or[Page 11] persuade people ...