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The impact of media in our society
In the history and development of advertising
The impact of media in our society
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Advertising and its existence in today’s society has made a huge transition over the years. With the move from an industrial to consumer society, advertising is ever present in selling goods that we claim to ‘need’ and ‘want’. This essay will explore how advertising and the messages they convey are related with the global society.
Firstly it is important to explore the concept of advertising and its link with the consumer culture we live in today. Advertising is greatly linked with the growth of a consumer culture and the mass migration from the rural to the urban. The shift from an industrial society to a consumer society was helped by advertising. This is further iterated by Slater (1997) who proposed that consumer culture is linked to the idea of ‘the rise of commercial society, the relation between needs and social structures, the relation between freedom of choice and the power of commercial systems...’(Slater, 1997). This suggests that the values of consumption are based on notions of individual needs and choice, and that social relations are shaped by the market; the market force creates a way of life that individuals are led to follow and strive for. It also suggests that the consumer culture has been created through the increased reliance on a consumer and commercial society.
Essentially, this consumer culture was proposed within the industrial society as a way of giving workers control over an aspect of their lives that were not controlled by the work place. It drew attention to individuals’ leisure time and how the individual could do what they wanted in this time. It persuaded workers to look to the market force as a way of life and advertising was used to educate workers to be ‘modern consumers’.
Advertising has...
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In the article Kilbourne is stressing the Idea that advertising is stripping us of our spirituality, culture is becoming commercialism. Kilbourne believes that because of the way advertisements are deployed they’re changing our values in what I (and I’m pretty sure she) would consider an extremely negative way. Kilbourne talks of their efforts to addict us to consumerism as children and leave us emotionally starved, expecting products to fill the void that they create in us. The culture that comes with these advertisements is turning us into self-indulgent, close minded people Kilbourne sums this idea up quite well bemoaning that “This apparently bottomless consumerism not only depletes the world’s resources,
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.
Ewen, S. (2001). Consumption and Seduction. In Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and The Social Roots of the Consumer Culture. (pp. 177-184). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Advertising is so prominent in American culture, and even the world at large, that this media form becomes reflective of the values and expectations of the nation’s society at large.
As a consumer of this materialistic country, I can sometimes feel overwhelmed with all of the advertisements that exist and are thrust at me constantly. While some of them can be cute or creative and occasionally put a smile on my face, the majority of them exasperate me with their stupidity. However, when an advertisement is done correctly and the quality of it astounds the viewer, something amazing can happen. People can start to talk about what they have been impressed by, and word-of-mouth creates further advertising. Advertising is a form of art that reaches millions of people at once and can affect their view on not just the product, but on the entire idea of advertising itself.
Advertising is a primary socializing agent in society. Pollay views this to have profound, negative consequences due to its stereotypical portrayals, ideological representations of consumerism and materialism as well as its manipulative and persuasive nature (Yeshin 18). While there is some validity in Pollay’s argument, it is particularly one-sided. He does not recognize the favourable effects of advertising such as its role in raising awareness about social issues and reinforcement of positive ideologies and fails to take into account that the way the viewer decodes the message as well as their response to that message shapes the potential effects that advertising has.
Advertisements thrust products and services at consumers that they deem necessary in order to be loved, beautiful, happy, and fulfilled. Without these “necessities,” we feel judged, out casted and criticized. These possessions, however, make us self-loathing. Subsequently, we lose our sense of significance and find it hard to accept love and friendship from the people surrounding us. People begin to evade meaningful relationships and commitments—choosing instead to fill the personal hollowness with a display of power they attain from their material possessions. The society we live in reduces us to things; it diminishes our personal relations and portrays connections as transactions, only advisable if there is something to gain. These ideas can be found within John Kavanaugh’s book, Following Christ in a Consumer Society, in which Kavanaugh creates a name for the American way of life--the "Commodity Form." The Commodity Form values products, marketing, and consuming while promoting strategic manipulation that more possessions equate to increased happiness. Within the Commodity Form, people are seen as “replaceable and marketable” objects (Kavanaugh 26)...
Sut Jhally, a professor at the university of Massachusetts of whom won the distinguished teacher award, wrote in his essay “ Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse” that : 20th century advertising - the most powerful propaganda in human history - will destroy the world as we know it. The survival of the human race will depend upon our ability to minimize the harmful effects of Advertising. These effects will have lasting impacts on our culture, joy, and future.
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The Effects of Advertising and Media on Society Advertising is an important social phenomenon. It stimulates consumption and increases energy consumption. economic activity models, life-styles and value orientation. Consumers confronted with extensive daily doses of advertising in multiple media. With the continual attack of marketing media, it is presumable that it will affect our individualism and society as a whole.
Sinclair, J. (2012). Advertising, the media and globalisation: A world in motion. New York: Routledge.
Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.