This digest provides a basic overview of issues related to advertising and the consumer. People sometimes complain about the perceived overabundance of advertising in daily life. While consumers are accustomed to ads on television and in magazines, commercial promotion appears to be cropping up in more and more places. Advertising is also found in some of the free curriculum materials which businesses supply to schools. Each time a new communications technology is developed, merchants are quick to devise ways of exploiting the medium for advertising purposes.
Advertisers move rapidly to exploit the commercial possibilities of radio, television and cable.
Facsimile machines are now used to transmit ads. Sports arenas' and stadiums' electronic scoreboards carry product names in yards-high lettering. The developing technologies of teletext, electronic mail, and interactive cable television are now being used to sell products as well. Consumers, as the targets of these increasingly complex promotional strategies, must become much more aware of the persuasive nature of advertising. It promotes competition among producers of products and services, keeps prices low through the development of mass markets, encourages store owners to stock a variety of items, supports free expression by funding media sources, and spurs invention.