Advertising
The advertising industry is large and growing.
In the United States alone in 2005, spending on advertising reached
$144.32 billion, reported TNS Media Intelligence.
Advertisements can also be seen on the seats of grocery carts, on the
walls of an airport walkway, on the sides of buses, heard in telephone
hold messages and in-store public address systems. Advertisements are
usually placed anywhere an audience can easily and/or frequently access
visuals and/or audio.
Advertising clients are
predominantly, but not exclusively, profit-generating corporations seeking
to increase demand for their products or services. Some organizations
which frequently spend large sums of money on advertising but do not
strictly sell a product or service to the general public include: political
parties, interest groups, religion-supporting organizations, and militaries
looking for new recruits.
Additionally, some non-profit
organizations are not typical advertising clients and rely upon free
channels, such as public service announcements. For instance, a well-known
exception to the use of commercial ads is Krispy Kreme doughnuts which
relies on word-of-mouth.
That same year, according
to a report titled Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006-2010
issued by global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, worldwide advertising
spending was $385 billion. The accounting firm's report projected worldwide
advertisement spending to exceed half-a-trillion dollars by 2010.
While advertising can be
seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social costs.
Unsolicited Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so
prevalent as to have become a major nuisance to users of these services,
as well as being a financial burden on internet service providers. Advertising
is increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some
critics argue is a form of child exploitation.
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