Every medium reflects the times. Among them, advertisements are one of the most typical forms of media that attract people’s attention in a short time. Let’s find out what advertising is and understand the past and present times via ads-Ed.


What is advertisng?

  Advertising is a means of conveying information about the products of companies; it is also used to propagate ideologies or policies.  Advertisements, which should catch the attention of people in a short time and change their thoughts, reflect the times. Since it should permeate into people unconsciously, it absolutely needs the effect of exposure. That is why ads have often been exposed to people through media like TV and newspapers. Since media has developed nowadays, ads are usually shown on the internet and SNS. Moreover, VR(Virtual Reality) has lately developed and spread as a new medium for ads.

The change in Korea through advertising

  Some ads were affected by Japan in 1930s to 1940s, which was the Japanese colonial era. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were a lot of ads celebrating Korea’s independence. There were a lot of ads that encouraged birth control in the 1970s and 1980s. During the IMF crisis, which is known as the one of the worst times in Korean history, ads were made for the purpose of refreshing the nation or cheering people up.
  Recently, positive and vibrant ads are coming out. For example, most of the cellular phone ads show us energetic people running or swimming with upbeat music. Moreover, some ads use addictive songs to make an impression to people. The ads of Kakao Story and Urusa are good examples of that.
  Shin Seung-eun(’14, Dept. of Chemistry) said, “I was surprised with an ad that I saw in a movie theater. That ad looked like a real marriage proposal to me. The latest ads concentrate more on communicating with people than in the past.”

The positive functions of advertising

  Lately, ads have evolved into an ‘area of impression’; an ad is not a simple persuasion tool anymore. A typical example is the KB bank’s ad. In this ad, fathers and children are asked to answer some questions about each other’s personal information. In the interviewing scenes about their fathers, the children said, “I can’t properly answer and I’m just sorry, dad.” However, fathers could answer every question about their children. The children cry at the end of the ad, thinking of their fathers with the caption, ‘KB is supporting all Korean fathers.’
  Hyundai Motor’s ad is about an old man, Kim Gu-hyeon, who is a displaced person. The ad shows the address of his hometown in North Korea on navigation, and the car stops at his house. This ad forms a bond of sympathy with people, sends a strong message and touches people’s hearts. This remains in people’s memories and effects a positive influence on the company’s image.

The negative functions of advertising

  There are not only positive effects from ads. Excessive PPL(product placement), shortage of creative stories and discriminative elements give people unpleasant feelings.
  Lately, in the completed drama ‘Doctors’, a shampoo ad was criticized for excessive PPL. In the drama, the heroine’s friend showed the shampoo while saying that elastic hair is important, so the scene received hypercriticism because it absolutely looked like an ad and also disturbed people’s immersion.


Recently, ads that people can easily sympathize with have come out. For example, there is an ad about the energy drink Bacchus. This ad reflects the hard life that college students are struggling with.

  One public service advertisement, which has a discriminative element, saying, ‘One is lacking'. The ad shows a yellow plant, which only has one sprouted leaf, and a green plant, which has two sprouted leaves. This ad was criticized by people because of a lack of consideration for families with an only child. Moreover, the beverage shop Gongcha’s slogan, ‘Darling for dining, darling for shopping… Am I keeping them on the hook? No. I’m a multiplayer like Messi,’ reminded people of sexual discrimination and gave displeasure. Furthermore, an ad from an insurance company, Prudential, was accused of lacking consideration for the deceased and bereaved families because it contained a story where the bereaved family members received insurance money of a billion won after the father’s death.

  Recently, advertisements are more likely to be emotional, and they attempt to communicate with people. Ads showing the tough life of youths have appeared. There are many ads that contain songs considered to have a ripple effect and other interesting elements in SNS.
  Lee Hyang-woo, a CBNU professor in the Department of Sociology, said, “Traditionally, the value of commodities depends on how much money, labor and time were put into them. However, recently, commodities have become a means to change or enhance a company’s value. Nowadays, creating value in knowledge, information, and culture is really important. Therefore, an ad’s contribution on a company’s image is much more decisive than in the past.” He also added, “To people who make ads, it is very important to read the trends and people’s interests.”