Advertising Changes Social Values

Change is imminent. As resistant as people may be to alter their patterns everything changes over time, especially social values. Whether it be new technology, changes in the economy, or new understandings, values never stay the same. Nothing reflects these values more than advertising and trying to appeal to the peoples need to “fit in” with the values of society. Since the beginning of advertising the sellers are trying to find ways to make the consumers buy into their goods or services and there is no better way than to reflect on how people’s attitudes and beliefs are focused. Changing social values are always reflected in advertising for consumer products. As social values change so too does the approach that advertisers take to make their product look most appealing to the public. Early on advertising focused mainly on what we see as being “traditional values” that is more focused on the family and the society as a whole. But recently these traditional values have been replaced by more individualistic ideals. Sen Gupta (2007) explained that idea this way. Advertising trends relating to traditional values and the focus on the collective underwent a change over the years. Over course of time traditional values which once signified the identity of the nation were replaced by trends of modernization and westernization. Today, traditional values are projected more selectively, only those are valued which are recognized by the west. Along with the waning of truly traditional values and the rise of westernization, the individual consumer began to receive greater importance. This indicates a major shift in the psychosocial environment of a community(Sen Gupta 2007). Sen Gupta (2007) also studied time periods and how these values changed during specific years. It was shown that during 1947-48 most of the advertisements sampled, the customers were addressed as members of the community, family, or social group. The focus was rarely on the

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