Advertising: Information or Manipulation?
In today’s difficult economy who can afford to spend their hard-earned money carelessly? Americans want good quality and low prices, and businesses that advertise their product make saving money possible. Advertising was created for one reason, so businesses could make known their product (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). Some consumers may argue that advertising is not informative, but that it is manipulative because some advertisements make false claims. Fortunately, there are regulations and consumer rights that promote truth in advertising. Consumers must embrace their rights to keep advertising the way it is meant to be. Advertising is meant to be informative and not manipulative, and consumers play a great role in promoting truth in advertising.
Advertising in America was created when businesses wanted to attract customers by providing information about their product or service (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). Advertising has been used for many centuries, and was even used during the American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783. Businesses used different advertising techniques such as posters and signs to provide consumers with information about their products, and to persuade them to buy American. Before the war, Americans received their goods on ships from England. The American colonies won the war and became the United States of America. Now it was important for Americans to build a strong American economy (Milton 9). Even today American’s are partial to anything that says, “Made in America.” The economy thrives because of consumerism, so if advertising brings in more businesses than Americans benefit as well.
Americans continue to benefit from the use of product and s...
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Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
The free-market economy is based on supply and demand. The idea is that products will be manufactured and sold at adjusted levels such that a fair market price is maintained. In other words the selling price of an item will vary based on the demand and supply of that item, adjusting as economic conditions change. Advertising has a large effect on how the free-market functions. Alan Goldman, in an excerpt from Just Business (1983, found in Honest work by Ciulla, Martin and Solomon), justifies advertising in the free-market economy using four main arguments, that “it is consistent in a free- market economy”, ”it is not wasteful of economic resources”, “it provides certain indirect social benefits”, and it is “a valuable source of information” (Goldman, 1983, p.301). Goldman claims that for each one of these reasons there is a necessary and immediate need for advertising if our market economy is going to function properly and we will discuss his arguments below.
Postman states, advertisements were created to “appeal to understanding, and not to passion” (60). It is also stated that producers would make the assumption “that potential buyers were illiterate, rational, and analytical.”(58) Though Neil Postman makes it apparent that advertisers are not always truthful about what they say. Advertisers also tried to appeal to the masses by coming up with catchy slogans to lure people in.
What’s Behind An Advertisement? When consumers look at advertisements, most do not pay attention to the meaning of words and are won by the unfinished message put out by advertisers. Advertisers use the manipulation of language to create claims that suggest something about their products without directly claiming it to be true. Through this method, consumers are attracted to a product because they infer certain things about the product from its claim, even though those things are often not true of the product itself. There are not many laws protecting the consumers, however the Federal Trade Commission designed a few to prevent fraudulent or untruthful claims in advertising.
This book has opened a whole new perspective on advertising and the reasons we buy things and regret them later. Thinking that I have the urge for a McDonalds hamburger may feel real, or it might just be an elaborate, expensive advertising technique used to manipulate my buying behavior.
Since America’s GNP increased, many companies stimulated to make Americans to buy some goods, so they created some creative advertisements to attract much demand
Advertisement fosters free trade and promotes prosperity by stimulating a competitive, well-rounded economy and being able to transform society with meaningful messages and visuals. Critics assert that advertisement is just a cruel game of tricking gullible consumers into wasting their money on cheap goods, but the opposite is true. Advertising, at its most basic form “is teaching, pure and simple,” and it generates a connection between companies and their constituents (Source
In modern society, advertisements and the media bombard Americans every single day. Television advertisements, movies, radio, and even Spam mail have become a daily part of the lives of many citizens. However, most people do not realize the sinister methods advertisers and corporations employ with the media in order to obtain a profit. The use of subliminal and negative advertising has increased immensely and shows no plan of stopping anytime soon. This dangerous ploy manipulates the public and causes individuals to subconsciously crave a product or service. It is integral that society understands the jeopardy of this malicious form of propaganda and begins to take a stand against it for the sake of citizens’ privacy.
During the 19th and 20th century, America –mostly white collar, middle class Americans- saw a great increase in salaries and a huge rise in mass production which paved the way for the modern American consumerism which we know today. The advertising scene saw a dramatic boost during that period and tried to latch on to this growing pool of emerging consumers. Although only limited to print, advertising during this pivotal period showed panache and reflected American society
Goodrum, Charles and Dalrymple, Helen, Advertising in America: The First 200 Years. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1990). 37.
Advertising “refers to a system of communication through which goods and services are brought to the attention of the public.” (Johnston, p.57). Advertisement are no longer just about promoting a product, they now exist to advertise lifestyles. In today’s competitive society, marketers and advertisers always want to be one step ahead of their competitors; and sometimes it can result in misconduct.The Federal Communic...
Advertising plays a significant role in today’s society. It allows us to understand trends and important facts about what our world is being shaped into. We use ads as motivation in corporate settings and within our day to day lives. Without the motivation to purchase a product many of us would not buy most of the things we have. It is just important to remember to use the essential values and ethical behaviors of advertising.
The Illusion of Advertisements Advertisements are pieces of art or literary work that are meant to make the viewer or reader associate with the activity or product represented in the advertisement. According to Kurtz and Dave (2010), in so doing, they aim at either increasing the demand of the product, to inform the consumer of the existence, or to differentiate that product from other existing ones in the market. Therefore, the advertiser’s aim should at all times try as much as possible to stay relevant and to the point. The advert alongside is simple and straight to the point. It contains very few details but extremely large content with the choice of words and graphics.
Advertisements are located everywhere. No one can go anywhere without seeing at least one advertisement. These ads, as they are called, are an essential part of every type of media. They are placed in television, radio, magazines, and can even be seen on billboards by the roadside. Advertisements allow media to be sold at a cheaper price, and sometimes even free, to the consumer. Advertisers pay media companies to place their ads into the media. Therefore, the media companies make their money off of ads, and the consumer can view this material for a significantly less price than the material would be without the ads. Advertisers’ main purpose is to influence the consumer to purchase their product. This particular ad, located in Sport magazine, attracts the outer-directed emulators. The people that typically fit into this category of consumers are people that buy items to fit in or to impress people. Sometimes ads can be misleading in ways that confuse the consumer to purchase the product for reasons other than the actual product was designed for. Advertisers influence consumers by alluding the consumer into buying this product over a generic product that could perform the same task, directing the advertisement towards a certain audience, and developing the ad where it is visually attractive.
...maintain that advertising exists primarily to create demand among consumers. People have certain types of wants and needs, and they are perfectly capable to discover it for themselves. People today just need food, clothing and shelter everything else is superfluous and additional stuff. Advertising are able to create demand that would not exist just by manipulating people’s min and emotions. Advertising is master in manipulate reality and fantasy, by creating “magic show.” It is true that advertising has been a powerful mechanism that distorts our whole society’s values and priorities. On the other hand, advertising educate people about several issues. In political terms, it moves mass of people and persuade them to vote for a candidate. And, of course, in terms of economy, contributes in the development through the consumption of the costumer.