Essay about The Power of Advertising

Somewhere along the way, advertisement persuaded us to purchase goods to make us happy but what

Advertisements help promote a false reality onto society and it makes us dissatisfied with the reality we do have. When products are being advertised, companies show a world in which buying a bottle of water with sugar is as satisfying as water. However turns out the drink with sugar in it can make you more thirsty. Most of the products being advertised need to create a false reality in which the product is coveted in order to sell it. What is promoted in that reality can either be negative or false, but it is still just created to make the product look like a necessity. Ads can go to promoting a reality in which a Pepsi will solve everything or one in which as Sesana said, “a rural woman that to be modern she has to feed her babies with powdered

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

Specific techniques and ideologies are used in all advertisements, and continue to be effective in our economy. They are effective in ways that convince society that individuals need these advertised products in order to have a ‘normal’ life. `1This effects our way of thinking about the product being advertised, our need

Advertising products is a useful thing for business, by promoting value that are directly opposed to humans’ wellbeing and environment. Advertisement are everywhere television, radio, and billboards telling us what we need and want. In 2002, this country spend $13.5 billion telling us what to buy. We are influenced by advertisement by making us think we need certain materials. Advertising is so powerful that we will jump at the new and improved bull crap that companies throw at us. We will buy into our happiness and consume and consume some more, but we will never be satisfied.

With the advent of commerce, advertisement, which is a form of communication that delivers the information of product to audience and to persuade audience to do some specific action, appeared. At that time, the market is limited so that cries to attract enough customers demand amount. However, with the development of technologies, the advent of long-distance communication devices provides a broader market. The buyers are not narrow to citizen in a town but expand to nation, even to the world. To attract buyers, the modern advertisement was created. Because of the widespread of advertisements, they can easily influent society. There are three issues of advertisement impact our society. The issues are impact on children, branding, and abuse.

"Advertising is far from impotent or harmless; it is not a mere mirror image. Its power is real, and on the brink of a great increase. Not the power to brainwash overnight, but the power to create subtle and

Advertisement has taken a significant role in people’s daily lives. With the development of technological devices; it is impossible to escape from the advertisements. People now are surrounded by advertisements everywhere, on the TV screen, newspapers, magazines, and on the internet. Advertisements help people know information about the products and keep track of the new products. However, with all the advertising out there, advertising techniques have changed in several ways to grab the consumers’ attention and to keep the consumer’s loyalty to the product. According to James B. Twitchell’s article, “What We Are to Advertisers,” Twitchell said, “The object of advertising is not just to brand parity objects but also to brand consumers as they move through these various communities.” (Twitchell, 182) This describes why many of the advertisements now tend to be more manipulative than to be informative. Many people opposed to the idea that the advertisements are manipulating and they often argued that advertisements increase the consumers’ knowledge about the products. However, there are some evidences that advertisements are manipulating the consumers and influence their decisions by associating the product with feeling, using entertainers, and making the advertisement visually attractive.

Nowadays, the increasing number of companies decide to boost the investment of advertisements in order to propagandize the new products more effectively and efficiently. Munusamy and Wong argue that advertising has become one of the important elements in our modern life (Munusamy and Wong). According to the most recent forecast of US advertising spending, eMarketer expects US advertisers to spend $171.01 billion on paid media this year, up 3.6% over 2012 spending levels ("US Total Media Ad Spend Inches Up, Pushed by Digital - EMarketer."). Besides, the increasing concern from the businessmen who spend a lot of money on advertising, there are also a rising number of customers who have highly prone to choose a product while being affected by advertisements. For example, the advertising that children view daily works -- 84 percent of parents take their kids to a fast food restaurant at least once per week (Davidson, Jeremi. "How Are Teenagers Affected by Advertisements for Fast Food?"). In addition, some advertising strategies will cause some social problems, such as advertising some products which will undermined health. Given the fact above, the increasing investment of advertisements is the debatable exigency. The research questions which leaded me to investigate are listed as follow: Is the huge investment of the advertisement worthy? And what kind of advertising strategies should be applied to

Do you really know what’s in that can of Coca Cola you are giving to your child? In a six hundred milliliters bottle contains high fructose corn syrup, fifteen teaspoons of added sugar, and no kola nut extra contrary to what is implied by the “Cola” name. Advertisers wouldn 't tell you that even if they wanted to. Every day during daily activities like walking, driving or even relaxing at home people are bombarded by images of perfect bodies, beautiful hair, and having parties with lots of friends, everyone looks so happy. These ideas and images are embedded in our minds. Advertisements select audience openly and subjectively to target us with their product. They allude to the fact that in order to be like those people in this advertisements you must use their product. This approach is not new nor is it unique, but never has it been as widely used as it is today. They give us motivation to buy a product: Your children will love you more if you buy them this or drink coca cola then your life will be filled with happiness. Every one of our emotions is played on so that we will feel obligated to buy a product. Advertisements affect our subconscious by using different techniques and persuasion through weasel words, bandwagon and social media to offer us not just a product, but a lifestyle.

     However, with every positive side comes a negative, and advertising is no different. Advertising has been blamed for a great variety of negative social impacts. One of the major criticisms received by advertising is that it forces people to buy things they don’t really need, often projecting negative emotions such as fear, anxiety of guilt upon the consumer (Engel). It is claimed that advertising plays with our basic human emotions and takes advantage of them, using them as merely another technique to sell goods or services.

It is through advertisement that people begin to feel a need for even those goods of which

Advertising has had a major impact on society. Some may be considered positive and some negative. Take a look around, advertisements are placed everywhere, television commercials, billboards, newspapers, and even on the sides of buses. Advertising is the basic form of marketing and trading throughout the world. Today’s society knows it as marketers trying to influence or persuade consumers into buying something. It also serves as a medium for services and businesses. There are many advertising strategies, but television commercials will always remain the number one strategy. Think about it, how much television is watched a day, probably a lot. What better way to advertise a product or service? Advertising has a positive effect on our economy. It does not only influence and persuade consumers, but it also benefits them in many ways. It also benefits manufacturers and their company, and the world as a whole.

Many people are in the debate whether companies use persuasion or manipulation in their advertisements to get people to buy a certain product. In the Innocent ones advertisement the “Stop the Abuse” organization shows a picture of a sad, abused little boy. The advertisement only shows half of his face, but the color in his face has been lightened so it has a gray tint. To the right, where the other half of his face should be, there is a stop sign. The stop sign is bright red, and below the stop sign are big bolded words that read, “I am Not a punching bag.” The word “not” is underlined to bring the significance of the advertisement to end child abuse. The advertisement is placed a a pitch black background to the picture stand out more. The

Advertisements are everywhere today. Author James Twitchell says, “Adcult is there when we blink, it 's there when we listen, it 's there when we touch, it 's even there to be smelled in scent strips when we open a magazine.” There are thousands of products being advertised every minute, and they are being promoted in all sorts of ways. One could see advertisements on television, on a billboard, on the internet, or hear about something on the radio. With advertising all around, it has to have an effect on the people seeing it and hearing it. Advertisement has several negative effects on today 's culture, such as it promotes conformity, affects one 's self-image, and manipulates how people buy. People may not even realize that advertising has these effects on them. That is how acclimated people have become to it.