Advertising and development!

                               

Advertising is an expression and part of an economic system. Each economic system has an interesting relationship with the social system, political system and cultural value. Whatever be the character of the economic system, there are three basic features which are common to all:

a) determination of goods and services and the quantities to  be produced or offered;                      

b) allocation of resources according to priorities of production-mainly land, labor and capital; and

c) distribution of goods and services among individuals and groups. We are not concerned here about the relative importance of state intervention and market determination of these three processes.

These three processes condition the development of every society. Advertising is a major component of each one of these three processes. If advertising is a process of mediation between the producer of goods and services and the consumer, to that extent it contributes to the development not merely of the economy but also of society. If we look at development as the overall transformation of society and not merely as the statistical growth of the economy, or the gross domestic product, or the per capita income, then all advertising is socially relevant.

Modern advertising is a product of the capitalist economic system, in which the operation of the free market by and large determines the three basic features of the economic system, referred to above. It is in this context that advertising operates. When we say that modern advertising is a product of the capitalist system, it means that it serves the socio-economic needs of mass industrial production for a mass market. This situation was created by the industrial revolution under capitalism. By serving such an economic system, advertising also promotes this system. We must also remember that advertising would continue to play the same role in different economic system, as long as goods and services are produced and offered for sale in the market. 

Mass production demands a mass market and a mass distribution system. The very survival of this production system demands its continuous expansion. Such an expansion means also the expansion of the market, beyond the seats of production and even beyond the boundaries of the country. This may be called the horizontal, spatial or geographical expansion of the market. Such an expansion' is both national and international. At the same time there is also a vertical expansion of the market. The objective is to bring the entire society within the orbit of the market. This does not mean only providing the individual or the family with the resources to purchase goods and services in the market. A disposable surplus is not enough. A 'psychic desire' to consume more and different products has also to be created. Expansion of the market also means the creation of new goods and services and making them acceptable to the consumer. Without such a continuous expansion of the market, the capitalist economy cannot survive. This is a constant process of the renewal and increase of capital passing through the market.

Industrial capitalism, for the very purpose of its growth and survival, has had to bring together and integrate the multi-structured, disintegrated pre-capitalist society into the mass market. It is this process that has created the nation-state. By bringing together mass production and the mass of consumers, advertising has historically played a significant role in this process of integration and nation building. By creating a common 'psychic desire' to consume, it has succeeded in bridging the gap between diverse social and cultural behavior patterns, thus nurturing a homogeneous national culture. To industrial capitalism and advertising the human being is primarily a consumer. In the market place there is no difference, in essence, among human beings in social or economic terms. They are all consumers.

The human being in the market place is at the receiving end of a veritable barrage of messages aimed at the unquestioned acceptance of a way of life and a value system. Advertising does not sell goods or services but the benefits derived from them. These benefits might be inherent in the product or service, or purely psychological; a creation of the images conjured up by advertising. The promotion of a psychology of more and more consumption sustains also a value system, which is based on ruthless competition of individual achievement, which alone enables ever-expanding consumption of an increased range and variety of goods and services. It such a way of life that alone can sustain an economic system based on the sole objective of maximization of profits. In this entire environment, the relevance of advertising is not only economic, but also social and cultural, and in the final analysis., even political. After all a particular economic structure can be sustained by a relevant political structure.

Thirdly, advertising is a component of a democratic society. The essence of democracy is that people have a choice and the right to exercise that choice. In the democratic economic system a variety of goods and services is available to choose from. Advertising enables the consumer to make the choice. The fourth aspect follows, in a way, from the third. Advertising creates conditions for every human being to acquire earned rewards. The way of life, that advertising opens up, provides motivation for hard work to earn enough to achieve such a way of life. This too is a democratic right-the right to spend one's earnings the way one likes and where a democratic system is expected to provide opportunities for the exercise of such a right.

From the fourth aspect follows the fifth. Advertising stimulates productivity. Harder work to earn more to achieve socially upward mobility, stimulated by advertising, naturally leads to higher productivity. This in turn stimulates the economy and development. Finally, all these add up to social change. We must, however, bear in mind the reality that all these factors can operate only under ideal conditions. The market does not and cannot always reflect the real social demand. This is because capitalist enterprises in the advanced industrialized countries have become so powerful and the search for maximum profits is so predominant' a concern, that they often decide what goods and services should be brought into the market so as to secure the maximum profit with the least investment. In such a system, every single one of the aspects of the role of advertising mentioned above gets distorted to some extent. In such a situation advertising creates a demand, which may not be economically or socially relevant for the immediate needs of the vast majority of the people, and hence the nation. Advertisements tell consumers what to buy. With emergence of monopolies, competition is often eliminated and advertising manipulates the consumer, giving him or her no opportunity to exercise a rational choice.

In the first stage of development the basic needs or wants were food and drink as nourishment and clothing and shelter as protection against the elements. Obviously, at this stage of human development there was no need for advertising. As each of these basic needs began to be met, the search began for other needs, some of which could be in the sphere of the arts and culture. Once a society reached the stage of satiation, the search began for the exotic in food and drink, self-adornment more than protection against the elements, greater home comforts and more facilities rather than mere shelter. This has been the process of development. It has been made possible because of the wealth generated by the ability of human labour to produce a surplus much beyond his needs. Human beings have added to this ability by discovering new tools and equipment to help the production of a larger and larger surplus.

Related to this pattern of development, advertising has advanced from merely providing information for goods and services available, to persuasion in the face of competition among different brands of the same product OF service, and further on to the creation of new markets, new wants and even new lifestyles. Finally, we have reached a stage today when the world is in the process of integration and inter-dependence. It is the trans-nationalization or mobility of capital across national boundaries and of production and distribution, which is fast integrating the world economy. In this situation, the same product is being manufactured in different parts of the world and marketed in different parts of the world. There is very little difference between the products or services offered by one company or the other. Each company attempts to achieve monopoly control over the market. In such a situation, it is no longer enough for advertising to inform or persuade; it has also to manipulate the consumer's mind to ask for a particular brand of product or service, to achieve brand monopoly.

Advertising has today become a very powerful instrument for motivating public opinion and action. That is why it is used for political campaigns as well. There is, therefore, always the danger of advertising, with the currently available versatility of modem information and communication technology, being misused by every powerful instrument that interacts with human beings or human.

Society has to be used with caution and a sense of social responsibility. This is, however, very difficult. As Galbraith has said, "Men with power have an extraordinary capacity to convince themselves that what they want coincides with what society needs done for its own good. It is in this background that one must look at the place of advertising in a developing society.

The major part of the developing world belongs to the world capitalism system. It is within the orbit of the global market. At the same time, it is obvious that the socio-cultural and economic situation is not the same in the developing countries as in the advanced countries. The requirements are also different. Hence, it is necessary to understand first what development means in the context of the developing countries. Development is the transition from one stage of social progress to another, from a simpler to a more complex production, economic and political system and socio-cultural relations. There are three facets to the development process-economic, political and social. The transition today in most cases is from a pre-industrial to an industrial society and economy. In the era of the scientific and technological revolution, particularly in the field of communication, the transition is at the same time to what is being characterized as the post-industrial or information society. In such a transitional stage, often many different stages of human society co-exist, depending on different forms of production, from the most primitive to the most advanced, from handicrafts to space equipment.

One must appreciate the fact that a transitional society is not something conclusively established, but is in a state of constant movement or formation. Furthermore, this transition is taking place when the communication revolution has broken the barriers of time and space. Today the taste of affluence prevailing in the developed and more established societies is brought right into your home. Just as the practice of democracy increases the urge for greater rights and privileges, similarly increasing literacy is accentuating the desire for more knowledge, for information. It is creating an awareness of the world around and rousing the desire for change, for consumption enjoyed at the moment by the few. There is an explosion of expectations-expectations of upward social and cultural mobility. There is constant movement and change and conflict. This is all part of the development process of deciding some, concepts that are no longer useful enough and acquiring new concepts that meet new requirements.

Economic development is an instrument of human development. It demands investment in both human and material resources. Development cannot be measured merely in terms of economic inputs bringing about the desired output. The deification of the gross domestic product as the measure of growth is not fully relevant. Similarly, consumption and more consumption does not necessarily bring about economic and human development and social and cultural transformation. The developing countries are facing a much more complex reality for such a simplistic approach to be valid. Models of the developed countries do not fully apply. The historical conditions under which the transformation of the developing countries is taking place are very different. So are the circumstances. The first and the most important point to understand is that the underdevelopment of the developing countries has been and continues to be a condition for the rapid advance of the developed artilleries.

Thus, the developing countries have been forced by history to try to telescope in a few decades a process that has taken the advanced industrial countries a few centuries to master. This is inevitable. Otherwise the transition from a dependent to an independent economy can never take place. At the same time we must recognize the reality that this transition does not depend merely on the acquisition of technology, but more on the human element, the people who use the technology. They cannot be treated as mere objects of history and social transformation. They have to be converted into subjects of social transformation; the decision-makers and the levers of change.

f one looks at the way some of the biggest transnational corporations in the consumer non-durables field are fighting to overwhelm local and foreign competition in the Indian market, it becomes clear that the Indian middle-class and elite market is expected to continue to expand very fast and respond eagerly to new products. Maybe, as the new economic system stabilizes, we shall see a slow but steady growth of the average middle-class market in India. The consumer non-durable market is likely to expand faster than the consumer durable market.