Money. Our economy, our nation, our life thrives on this lifeless, tangible, paper. It’s clear that in an advertiser’s eyes money is crucial. After all, the purpose of advertising a product is to sell it, ultimately bringing in the big bucks for companies and their advertisers. Superficially, this may seem reasonable, but advertisements are actually detrimental to society, its health, and its well-being.
Because it’s their job, advertisers do a flawless job at targeting and convincing society to buy products. Even though the silly ads shown on TV may seem ineffective, it’s proven that “a person unaware of advertising’s claim on him is precisely the one most vulnerable to the ad’s attack” (Schrank). Through, what may seem like useless advertisements, companies successfully dictate society and control them to buy their product without the consumer even realizing it! This is harmful to an individual exposed to the advertisements, as they lose control of their life in the economic and consumer world. It’s almost as though advertisements hypnotize society. Described in Source D, once a company has hooked consumers (teenage consumers specifically), they or “she may be yours for life.” (Day). This presents the issue of advertisements imposing damaging effects to one’s well being. Control of one’s life is now in the hands of an advertiser and societal perceptions, so the helpless teen can only just follow and slowly degrade one’s sense of self without even noticing its effect.
A portion of the population may argue, probably advertisers greedy for money in specific, that advertisements are helpful tools in educating the public on the important products needed in everyday life. However, Sesana uses a humorous approach to identify advertising as unnecessary when stating that vital products aren’t even advertised! “Nobody spends huge sums advertising flour. People will buy it even without it being advertised.” (Source F). Not only are advertisements harmful, they aren’t even needed! Society can live without flashy cars and cigarettes, so why target the population so diligently if those products aren’t even necessary in living a prosperous life? Since advertisements render useless, they waste society’s time and energy that could be better spent improving the world opposed to benefiting a ravenous company.
An eminent issue the act of advertising instigates is the possible vulnerability of one’s health. Companies choose to advertise products that are dangerous to one’s health, blinded by the income they desire to obtain. Based on Source B, cigarettes, even though dangerous to one’s health, still prosper in the market.
George Parker once said, “The only people who care about advertising are the people who work in advertising." Advertisers use many different techniques that target children and teens. Many people do not realize how harmful this can turn out to be. Advertising plays a harmful role in the lives of youth because it poses health risks, prevents children and teens from saving money, and exposes them to way too many ads.
In the article, Every Nook and Cranny: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor (Ackley 361). Since the early 90s is when Commercialism has bombarded the society. Ruskin and Schor provide examples why advertising has an effect on people’s health. Marketing related diseases afflicting people in the United States, and especially children, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and smoking-related illnesses. “Each day, about 2,000 U.S. children begin to smoke, and about one-third of them will die from tobacco-related illnesses” (Ackley 366). Children are inundated with advertising for high calorie junk food and fast food, and, predictably, 15 percent of U.S. children aged 6 to 19 are now overweight (Ackley 366). Commercialism promotes future negative effects and consumers don’t realize it.
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.
This helps widen the idea of just how many ways children and teens can be affected by advertisements not just by making them more accessible but making them a part of what this society is. By making their products a part of the child’s life they are allowing the product to become a norm in the life of a child.
As a society as a whole, we may be compelled to save for a rainy day, not being so prone to impulsive purchasing or influence; we may learn to think for ourselves. Without the emotional manipulation of advertising, our society may be in better financial standing without being asked to open new credit cards at each store we frequent. We are a society of consumers; marketing executives are well aware and strum us like strings on a guitar. Without advertisements, parents would no longer feel as much pressure to socially accommodate children with the flash of each new toy gracing our living room television. Children would also no longer deal with social pressures of wearing the right brand. Without these pressures, we may be more skilled at viewing people for whom they are without the social distinction of class indicated by the brands they
advertising is becoming a bigger role in the lives of youth. Since deregulation in 1984, the money advertisers make off of kids has been increasing by millions each year. kids who don't even have the brain function to make a good choice on what they buy are being targeted as young as 5. As young kids become more accustomed to certain products young, they continue buying them over their whole life. This is what advertisers are causing by targeting the youth. Advertisers are finding that marketing to kids makes a lot of money, the youth believe everything they hear, and the advertising techniques they do today are almost sure to work.
Advertising is designed to foster a desire to purchase goods and services, yet it is much deeper than that—advertising is a system of effective manipulation that twists the mentalities of those subjected to it. It shapes people’s views of the world and warps their connections to each other. Therefore, advertising not only shapes their personal values but also distorts them until their principles no longer come from within them. Thus, in my opinion, advertising, unless deeply rooted in high ethical standards, destroys any concept of community, common morality or deep bonding.
Advertisers and corporations are liable for using modern and sophisticated forms of mind control to the extent level of brainwashing consumers, in order to manipulate their choices and their spending habits. Our society is being negatively impacted, by becoming a consumer driven society constantly distracted by overwhelming persuasive advertisements, as opposed to ideal informative advertisements. The most vulnerable and negatively impacted targets of persuasive advertising are the younger, less mature, and/or less knowledgeable and self-directed consumers. Ironically, it was once said “An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15% commission” (Allen). It is quite clear that social benefits are not part of this equation. The harm and severe social related costs far outweigh any economic growth and benefits deemed necessary for advertising and marketing companies.
Advertising is an essential part of our society, as is the role of the media.
People may not agree on whether advertising has a negative or positive effect on teens, but they do agree that teens are targeted in the advertisement world. Teens see so much advertising that some do not even notice it because there is so much of it. Because of how easy it is to reach teens and the amount of money in the teen marketplace, advertisers will continue to focus on them. Advertisers try to discover early on teen’s likes and wants. They hope to influence the teens while the teens feel that they influence the marketplace and ultimately have the freedom of choice and buying power.
The textbook used in class (Huffman, 2002) describes that “advertising has numerous” methods to hook the individual into “buying their products and services.” The advertising. company surrounds a particular candidate such as a child and immediately sinks their teeth into the child’s mind to manipulate the child into desiring their products. Through TV, cartoons and magazine ads, children are hit by one subliminal message after another. They are shown how this product will improve their status by making them the envy of all their friends.
Across America in homes, schools, and businesses, sits advertisers' mass marketing tool, the television, usurping freedoms from children and their parents and changing American culture. Virtually an entire nation has surrendered itself wholesale to a medium for selling. Advertisers, within the constraints of the law, use their thirty-second commercials to target America's youth to be the decision-makers, convincing their parents to buy the advertised toys, foods, drinks, clothes, and other products. Inherent in this targeting, especially of the very young, are the advertisers; fostering the youth's loyalty to brands, creating among the children a loss of individuality and self-sufficiency, denying them the ability to explore and create but instead often encouraging poor health habits. The children demanding advertiser's products are influencing economic hardships in many families today. These children, targeted by advertisers, are so vulnerable to trickery, are so mentally and emotionally unable to understand reality because they lack the cognitive reasoning skills needed to be skeptical of advertisements. Children spend thousands of hours captivated by various advertising tactics and do not understand their subtleties.
Advertising has influenced teenagers in a profound way. The influence of advertising has affected teenagers in a way they are persistently exposed to by means of television programs, articles in magazines, product endorsement ads, and through the internet. Although teenagers are excessively exposed, how they perceive and process advertisements ultimately determines how they are influenced. With that said, the perception towards advertisements can be amalgamated between reality and fantasy, which evidently has both negative and positive impacts. Advertisers strategically capitalize on what is trending in youth culture, which makes teenagers most pervasive to wanting to fit in.
Similarly, numerous advertisements on mass media has also created adverse impacts on society. Critics substantiate this fact by giving argument that advertising of expensive products cause sense of depravity in the poor people. In addition, daily thousands of advertisements are destined to an individual through different mind process of a person.
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.