Synthesis Essay Advertising

Just like a fish hook, advertisers snatch customers up with bait and reel them in by making them buy their products. Advertising is everywhere; in bathroom stalls, elevators, billboards, buses, buildings, and magazines. It is one of the most pervasive forms of communication in the modern world. Although advertising plays such an important role in society, advertising has so many negative effects because it persuades people to buy products they don't need and leads people to believe they aren't enough as they are.

Advertising gives out the misconception that everything someone needs can be bought with money. People begin buying products that are overpriced and useless. Young children are the main target of advertising because they are impressionable and easily manipulated. Catchy songs and colorful commercials on television manipulate children into thinking that life will not be the same without a product. Most products, if not all, that are advertised are not necessary. Sesana brings up that "What we really need does not need advertising. For instance, nobody spends huge sums advertising flour" (Source F). The items that are essential are not advertised about that much, because they will always be in high demand.

Celebrities are used in advertisements mainly because they are portrayed as perfect. This leads many people to believe they need to achieve perfection and change the way they are. Having said that, advertisements can manipulate adults by making them feel insecure and mess with their emotions. On Source D, Day admitted that advertisements can "make us unsatisfied with who we are" and ungrateful with what we have by focussing on "what we don't have". Day also points out that advertisements bring up things that people normally don't worry about like super white teeth (Source D). The unrealistic reality portrayed in advertisements increase people's expectations and decrease their self