Jay Chait Illusions Are Forever, Richard Pollay The Distorted Mirror

Comparing to Jay Chait Illusions Are Forever, Richard Pollay The Distorted Mirror: Reflection on the Unintended Consequences of Advertising , Allen Kanner and Renee Soule Psychology and Consumer Culture: the Struggle for a good life in a Materialistic World and Dinyar Godrej How the Ad industry Pins us Down, four text which all fall under the belief that advertising effect society negatively. John E. Calfee, a former Trade Commission Economist, argues the point that advertising is beneficial to society. He admits that the main objective of advertising is to persuade the consumer to buy a particular product, but Calfee believes that the communication lines between sellers and buyers are useful to the consumer. He uses some specific ad campaigns

as examples to demonstrate the ways in which advertisements deliver what he believes to be “useful” information for the public.

Calfee uses this particular case to demonstrate that good information can be passed to the public through advertisements.

This was because the awareness of the need to add fiber to the diet went up 31% for women “who do most of the grocery shopping” (118). According to Calfee, this is beneficial to the buyer because the “struggle brings better information, more informed choices, and improved products” for the customer (121).

Competitors will use “less-bad claims” and will spread bad information on a product because even though their product may have some undesirable features, they are not as bad as features of a similar product. Calfee describes this procedure as giving the consumer a complete advantage in the “give and take of the marketplace” (124). There are many others who believe that advertising is more helpful to society than it is

harmful.

According to Michael Schudson, a professor of sociology and communications, advertising has little power over the consumer, if any at all. In fact, companies may support our entertainment with their ads, while receiving little benefit at all. This is evident in the cases of sponsorship, in events like the Super-bowl or the Olympics. A market research film did studies on sponsorship of these events and found that companies were paying much more and their ads were viewed much less than their ads on television (Schudson 1).Critics may say that this process benefits the company anyway because it builds their credibility.It seems that consumers would benefit from buying products from a credible source. Schudson believes the statement that advertising causes the consumer to think a certain way is questionable.

In fact, some in the field of marketing have stated that they do not believe that the money they spend on advertising convinces the consumer of anything.

A particular market executive said that the benefit of advertising to the company comes into play when company is giving ad campaign in order for the stockholders and investors to maintain faith in the company and keep the capital rolling in, to produce the products. Some marketers believe that their ads do not affect the consumer, but does affect the ways in which they are viewed by distributors and retailer (Schudson 2). Sales people do not want to sell products that they have not heard of before, and whether the advertisements influence consumers or not, the sales people believe that they do, which causes retailers to have that product in stock to sell. So even if the ad does not influence the consumer, as long as the ad can influence the investors, salespeople and retailers, the company will be prosperous. This produces product availability and that will shape the consumer

choice.

From an economic or business standpoint, advertising has a very positive effect on society because it stimulates the economy by producing demand for products and services, which strengthens the economy (Robbs 7). Advertising can also be seen as positive in the ways it impacts society because it helps maintain mass communication media, making them much less expensive for the public. Without advertisement, many forms of mass media such as newspapers, radio, magazines, and television, might not exist as they do today (Robbs 8). Although he is critic of advertising, Richard Pollay admits that advertising can be beneficial in the way that it can help development of consumer skills (21).

The present articles set out critics have been known to blame advertisements and other media forms for insensitivity to culture differences. However, journalism and communication specialist Brett Robbs has stated that ad campaigns have “universal appeal” (9). The overriding of cultural differences can contribute to culture in a positive way by putting us all on the same level (Robbs 9). Advertising regulations in order countries are put in position in order to protect culture and values. For instance, in Malaysia, there are restrictions on all advertisements that include nudity, or seductive clothing, etc; all ads must depict Malaysian culture.

In summary, the variety of issues that constitute this subject and shows that there are many directions from which to view the matter at hand. Because many of the accusations directed at the ad industry are dealing with psychological and emotional matters, it is difficult to test or prove these accusations. And, because the majority of society is encompassed by a comprehensive and ever increasing amount of advertisements, it is important to take into consideration the ways that may affect us. Most literature found on the topic of advertising is concentrated in opposition to the abundance of advertising. Despite that, advertising remains a very prominent occurrence in our lives.