Advertising and marketing glossary

AIDA

• attention

• interest

• desire

• action

headline

the lead text designed to capture focus and provide anchorage for visuals

visual design

use of mise en scene, locations, lighting and camera shots/angles to construct a specific version of reality

body copy

descriptive prose communicating product message providing interest and desire

call to action

directi8ve telling audience what to do → imperative language / command words

hard sell

utilises direct, urgent language and scientific / statistical claims to create immeditate pressure for purchase e.g time limited

soft sell

focuses on lifestyle, emotive appeal and subtle branding to build long term loyalty

dominant ideology

core set of beliefs accepted by majority as natural

hegemony

the dominance of one social group over others where their vales become the unquestioned common sense of society

consumerism

promotes acquisition of goods as the path to happiness often reinforcing domestic stereotypes

feminism

advocates for equality ads may use popular feminism to appeal to modern demographics

capitalism

an economic system where trade is controlled by private owners fore profit adverts function as the primary engine for this system

CAGEDS

• class

• age

• gender

• ethnicity

• disability

• sexuality

historical context

how products reflect specific eras/events

economic context

the financial system of production including budgets and technological opportunities and constraints that influence creative choices

social/cultural context

how products reflect / act as agents in changing social attitudes, cultural developments and the prevailing zeitgeist

encoding

a producer (often part of hegemony) builds a preferred reading into a media product

decoding

an audience interprets that product based on their culture and lived experience

preferred reading

audience fully accepts the producer’s intended message and idealogical assumptions

negotiated reading

reader accepts the core message but adapts it to fit their own lived experience/ beliefs

oppositional reading

reader entirely rejects the message and the underlying ideological assumptions behind it