This paper focuses on two main ideas; that advertising substitutes people’s ideas with their own ideas and then dictate to them what they should do. Secondly, perceptions of healthy body image are interfered with by advertisement. I strongly believe that advertising is harmful to individuals and society. Many will agree with me that most adverts on either TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, journals, radio or the social media like facebook and twitter instill negative moral values.
Research has proved that advertising is harmful to the society, stance that is shared by scholars in the academic fraternity. A good analysis of advertising would always reveal that advertising only seeks to benefit business by boosting sales and image of their organizations and at the same time perpetuating immorality (Ferguson, 2012). Examples of such real life adverts include; friends, for instance, here you will realize that Rachel a part time waitress and Monica a chef live together in a gigantic apartment. They both enjoy lifestyle, which is beyond their means, and yet there are no monetary concerns. People are who love such shows are then forced to admire such lifestyle and would do anything just to make sure they achieve it. Another example is the negative political campaigning witnessed in the last general election for instance, the advert which was asking; would Romney have killed Bin laden? This questions his leadership. The Osama issue should not have been used to question another candidates person’s credibility. Another one was Romney’s advert that stated; Obama hates religion! This advert purported that Obama’s administration did not allow freedom of religion, which was not true. Some pharmaceutical companies especially those dealing with NASID and Aspirin list other products and say they are worse with the hope that customers will hoped for their better products.
Advertising substituted people’s minds with their own ideas and dictate to what they should do. Media though it is exposes individuals to information and helps them to know what is happening around the world, it also limits them from being creative. Advertisements nowadays are all over; at home, on schools, along the streets, and even in office and so this form of reminder prompts behavior. They are meant to change individual attitude and knowledge, which in turn prompts behavior change. Innovation and creativity is so minimal because one does not need to think much, adverts presents quick solutions. They present ideas and points of view in a way that is easily absorbed one do not need to think on the choice to make because it is already laid down. Advertisement on clothing for instance, adverts that feature men and women wearing certain line of clothes informs people’s choice on the kind of clothes they buy. People think that such clothes are on fashion and so when they go to shop they look for the exact clothes.
Advertising business is a combination of minds from different fields such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, information technology among others with an aim to manipulate and control the consumers to achieve the desired response. If for instance, consider an advert, which promotes products of certain company, false witnesses are normally seen saying that they have personally used the products and they are perfect with no defect but in the real sense, they may not have used them because there is no product without defect.
There is no single advert that can expose the negative effects of products of a certain company; they only focus on the advantages forgetting that the consumer needs to get all the information to make an informed choice. Most corporate organizations put advertisements in the media, which encourage people to use harmful products such as fast food, alcohol, some drugs, which may lead to obesity hand other health complications. Advertisements also regards stereotypes based on their class, gender, and race and this affects other people psychologically because it makes them feel inferior. Some consumers would do anything robbery just to ensure that they fit in the standards of such stereotypes. The main aim of any advertisement is just to influence the consumer to buy their products ignoring other needs (O'Shaughnessy, 2009). The common adverts on TV about Tusker that it is the best beer for people who are tired. Such adverts encourages customers that Tusker is good especially for players or athletes because they argue that it enhances their performance. This encourages alcoholism among players and even those who never used to take alcohol.
Another fact about advertising is that if adversely affects the lives of children. Nowadays marketing experts do bypass parents and reach out to children at younger age and this is breach of ethical principles and undermining of parents authority. Children cannot distinguish between TV programming and advertising and so they treat everything as truth. Most nowadays target children because they bombard them with information for them to love their products. They argue that when children are engrained with such information while still young, they will grow up loving such products forever in their lives. Such adverts seek to give children a reason to nag their parents to give them money to buy such products. They therefore convince their parents to give them money to buy such products. There are adverts on TV and most movies where one is featured drinking near pool of water that encourages overconsumption of alcohol, and providing messages that foster addiction. In such adverts it is also common to see sexual connotations and sexual objectifications which encourage young people to accompany drinking with sex (O'Shaughnessy, 2009).
A further widespread critic states that perceptions of healthy body image are interfered with by. Televisions and many magazines that people like, portray a false standard of beauty and fineness in females that is advertisement brought out as the custom. These adverts cause any young lady who watches them to feel that she would only look good after using the products being advertised. She would always want to have the same image as the one on the advert .In a situation where the media shapes self-image damages the viewer by causing; depression, inferiority and even rejection of oneself. Research shows that there is increasing body awareness in men thus this leads to dissatisfaction. What causes opposition to all this cases is the idea that advertisement affects the people and the society positively, by enhancing information dissemination.
The main reason for advertisement is to convince a consumer to purchase a certain product. Product manufacturers should use advertisement to pass good and useful information to the public. An advert does not necessarily mean that the targeted person will purchase the product; the best thing is that it will have educated the person. By educating that one person it will have educated many people at large. An advert is good if it does educate the consumers and create awareness on something. The field of advertising can be very competitive. This is possible when companies pose a slightly different product but yet still convince the consumers. In this kind of a situation the company’s main target is to convince the consumers that the products are different in nature only highlighting the advantages, and the best side of the product, not much about the negative side.
The best part is when the consumer is in an advantage situation, especially when companies have to compete for consumers. Adverts should be analyzed according to the message passed to the consumers. People are usually recruited to appear in the advertisement, but there must be a limit to the content being passed to the consumers in relation to themselves. In a situation where nude people advertise a product, there is a message related to the product but the biggest part that people will notice is not about the product. There are many advertisements exposing nudity and this is increasing daily. We cannot assume the fact that advertisements are increasingly being released each passing moment, as new products are being manufactured and released to the market. It is surprising to see even those adverts for hotels and restaurants which advertises food restaurant have pictures of naked women. Adverts of most restaurants in New York for example, Green Valley Restaurant are normally done by women who are half naked. Such women do a lot of makeups which may affect their bodies negatively.
The best thing one can do is to be aware of the content watched, and how it affects you whether negative or positive .According to the beliefs of others, advertisements are helpful to the consumers more than how it harms them. That is true to some extent since advertisement has little or no power over the consumer. This is a case in which companies use lots of money in adverts and at the end does not reach out well to the targeted consumers. Another is a case of companies sponsoring activities such as football matches .While this help is made possible towards certain parties, the company offering sponsorship might at one point or many times not benefit. A company faces a lot of challenges and pressure especially in a situation where it must produce nice appealing products to keep the company competitive in the industry.
References
Ferguson, J. M. (2012). The effects of negative information and spokesperson on believability of advertisements and attitudes toward retail stores.
Martin, S. E., Mail, P. D., & National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (U.S.) (2011). The effects of the mass media on the use and abuse of alcohol. Bethesda, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
O'Shaughnessy, J., & O'Shaughnessy, N. J. (2009). Persuasion in advertising. London: Routledge.
