Advertisement, Marketing, and Propaganda

At first thought, advertisement and marketing seem to go hand and hand. In my mind, I thought of marketing as the process of figuring out how to go about advertising a certain product, service, or idea. An example of marketing would be finding the best way to advertise to a certain target market or group, such as advertising some sort of young adult product on MTV since many young adults watch that channel. How the actual definition of marketing is as follows, "the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling" (dictionary.com). Advertising is more of a sub category of marketing rather than being the next step in the transfer of goods process. 


I think of advertisement as the commercials seen on TV that promote a certain product, service, or idea regardless of profitability. Advertisement is more of a way to influence the audience to purchase or use the product, service, or idea rather than the steps to actually transfer the goods. As defined on dictionary.com, "the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc., esp. by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc." An example would be any of the commercials seen on TV.

I think of propaganda as some form of slander essentially. The adds political campaigns use to bash their opponents is considered propaganda, leaving information out of the actual commercial to deliberately put down their opponent. Commercials could use this to their advantage in order to persuade consumers to buy their product while leaving out vital information that would make it seem off putting, such as side effects or quality of the actual product. Taken from dictionary.com, "information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc."