The History of Advertisements p. 9.
34
trading actor, for achieving product or service sales.
44
So that the etymology concept here states that the advertisement is something that related to the
activity of trade communication or marketing product. Furthermore,
Webster’s New World Encyclopedia gives advertisement meaning in related to the function and focusing:
…any of various methods use by a company to increase the sales of its products or to promote a brand name. Advertising can be seen by economist as
either beneficial since it conveys information about a product and so brings the market closer to state of perfect competition or as hindrance to perfect
competition, since it attempts to make illusory distinction such as greater sex appeal between essentially similar products.
45
Coutland L. Bovee, William F. Arens in Contemporary Advertising 1986 and Thomas M. Garret, S.J. in Some Ethical Problems of Modern
Advertising 1961 stated that advertising is the activity of delivering visual and verbal messages to public by informing or influencing them to buy
products and services that has been produced.
46
For simply definition of advertisements is a message concept to inform, influence, seduce, remember and offer products or services non-
commercial to public through media to buy. Related to psychological aspect, advertisement is said success started
from early information upon products, services, and ideas which consumers is going to buy, or to consume them at the first sight; it is the term of
psychological process of advertising. From the psychological aspect and the
44
Winardi, Promosi dan Reklame, Bandung: Mandar Maju, 1992, p. 1.
45
Webster’s New World Encyclopedia, The New Standard in Single-Volume, Ninth Edition, New
York: The Random Century Group Limited and Simon and Schuster inc., 1992, p. 13.
46
Jeremias Jena, Etika dalam Iklan, Driyakarya Philosophy Magazine, XXIII, No. 3, 1997, p. 47.
35
decision to buy or consume at the first sight, the producers communicate to the consumers that is succeed communication. The transformation messages
run well. Based on media, advertisement has two kinds of media, Electronic and
printed media. Electronic media is delivered on television, radio, film, internet etc. Printed media is delivered on newspaper, magazine, etc.
Advertisements have four general functions, there are for educational, economical, communicable, marketable and social. Advertisements as
educational are to explain or inform like how to save our head by wearing a helmet, as an economical like achieving product request, as communicable
like to inform consumers where the product is, as marketable like the strategies by involving any media, and as social like non-commercial
advertisement.
47
Based on the aims of advertisement, advertising is set to support personal selling or promoting, to reach isolated places, to avoid imitation
product, to achieve product request, to repute agency or product, in which to get “trust” from consumers.
Basically according to the explanation above, the phenomena of an advertisement is one of applied mass communication. Bittner said that
“mass communication is messages communicated through a mass medium to a large number of people.”
48
It means that there are so many mass media
47
Alo Liliweri, Dasar Dasar Komunikasi Periklanan, Bandung: PT. Citra Adya Bakti, 1992, p.
47.
48
Jalaluddin Rakhmad, Psikologi Komunikasi, Bandung: Remaja Rosda Karya, 2001, p. 188.