Above the line is a type of advertising through media such as TV, cinema, radio, print, banners and search engines to promote brands. Major uses include television and radio advertising,web and Internet banner ads. This type of communication is conventional in nature and is considered impersonal to customers. It differs from Below the line advertising, which believes in unconventional brand-building strategies, such as direct mail and printed media (and usually involve no motion graphics).
The term comes from accountancy and involves the way in which Procter and Gamble, one of the world’s biggest advertising clients, was charged for its media in the 1950s and 1960s. Advertising agencies made so much commission from booking media for clients that the creative generation and actual production costs of making TV ads was free – hence above the line. Everything else they paid for and was therefore below the line. Since then, models have changed and clients are no longer charged for their media in that way.
Used loosely, above the line still means mass media. However the media landscape has shifted so dramatically that advertisers have reconsidered the definitions of mass media.
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