You: I strongly prop up that in its efforts to sell products without regard to consequences, advertising is essentially a negative influence on society. The advertisement creators come up with ads that are intended to be the most interesting and memorable. In making them memorable and interesting, they form ads that convince people into making the buying decision without considering what product or service will best satisfy their wants. In addition, in the modern society the impact of advertising forms an integral part of everyday life and in the end this negatively influences the society.
You: I oppose that point. Advertising on the media is very manipulative to the society especially the young people who spend much time on the media. Advertisements therefore persuade the public into buying what does not make them happy, but rather what the general notion of the society considers the best. For instance, through advertisements, the male youth are meant to believe that buying some cologne will make them more attractive to the ladies. They will therefore like to be identified with such cologne just like the rest. Human beings have a tendency to continuously compare themselves to the rest, and media advertisements are taking advantage of that fact.
You: Advertising may be language of passing products information to the consumers, but it depends upon the people’s emotions such as sex, self esteem as well as fear. They take advantage of the emotions and in the end influence a negative influence on the society especially the young children. People fear being feared as an ‘outcast’ of the society and the advertisements are formed upon that basis. The teenagers continuously want to be more masculine and feminine while the advertisements are building upon that. They rarely reflect on the need to feed the emaciated children from poor backgrounds or rather in the streets.
You: Talking of enjoyment, you bring in another issue of alcohol advertisements. According to an article in the American academy of pediatrics, advertisers have from the past used techniques to which children and teenagers are more vulnerable, such as product placements in movies and TV shows (1). The use of alcohol by the characters in such movies and products display their ability to do something to be connected to consuming such beer. A man displayed drinking beer to relax him after work implying that such products give people talents. The advertisements show athletes wearing certain types of shoes like Nike winning the matches. This makes the kids to want to be bought such kind of shoes instead of believing in discovering building their talents even without the shoes.
You: sexy ads are viewed by the children and teenagers watching programs during the prime time. They can also access these ads on magazines bought and read by their elder brothers or sisters. I have watched some sexy ads that one will easily mistake for a pornography video. Beauty products such as shampoo display masculine or feminine and sexy characters evoking sexual emotions in viewers of such ads. For instance a body wash ad on MTV has been observed making orgasmic sounds as a lady washes her hair. This ad has been described to bring out an orgasmic experience hence evoking a sexual feeling.
You: I understand your argument, but what you are implying is that the children and teenagers have to determine what is good and bad on their own judgment. They are growing and hence need to be separate from what is beyond their age until that time when they are old enough to decide for themselves. Research has linked the earlier onset of sexual relationships to the youths’ exposure to much sex content (Pediatrics 1). Most frequently advertisements have female models with anorectic appearance leading to young girls wanting to be like them. They will therefore develop a distorted personal image leading to poor eating habits.
You: That one can be quite challenging because young people want to explore and test everything at their exposure. It will take very strict laws to achieve it and that does not mean the rules have not been implanted, but they have been ignored.
You: I really don’t agree with you. Just take a look of how ads have been heightening the racial anxiety especially among the African Americans. The ads have displayed them negatively and this lead into low self esteem for the community. The ads have advocated for social division by unifying a single racial community while keeping it off from the rest of the groups. If I quote what William and Mary have stated; “Essentially, advertisements portray the world as consumers would like to see it, not as it is. Strategies like this will not help create a sense of a larger community but rather fragment society into divisions along ethnic and cultural lines,” (1).
You: That has not been effective trying to shift and shy away from the past. Look at Cheerios which has found itself in a race row after launching an interracial advert on television. The advert featured an interracial family having breakfast together. According to Blake; “The touching short features a mixed-race girl asking her white mother if Cheerios are good for the heart before running out of the kitchen when she is told that they are. The shot then cuts to her black father awaking from a nap on the sofa to find a pile of Cheerios on his chest,” (1). The cheerios on the chest of the father caused raised a lot of questions. It was criticized with some viewers arguing the father should have been a white and the mother a black.
You: I think advertising partly build and shape reality by causing fancy images. The images may not perceive reality, but rather reflect the professed reality. Ads like these are most likely to divide the society along ethnic line hence a negative impact on society.
Works Cited
Blake, Matt. "Cheerios forced to shut down comments on new cereal advert featuring mixed-race family after racist trolls swamp it with abuse." Daily Mail 31 May 2013: n. pag. Print.
Pediatrics. "Children, Adolescents, and Advertising." American Academy of Pediatrics (2006): n. pag. Web. 28 June 2013. <http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/6/2563.full>.
William, and Mary. "Racism in Modern Advertising: Effects on Society." William & Mary. N.p., 2013. Web. 28 June 2013.
