The importance of advertising in our society

The impact of advertising in our society

Introduction

Since late 1800’s, many people have been studying the way in which advertisement affects   people mentally and emotionally.  The effects that advertising have on society have been a long and heated debate, with a wide outlook, full of different opinions.  Does advertising really affect us on influencing us and even our actions? Or is it just a communication channel between seller and consumer?

To begin to know how advertisement affects our society, we first have to understand what advertisement does. As an integral part of marketing, advertisement are public notices designed to inform and motivate. Their objective is to change the thinking pattern or buying behavior of the client, so that he or she is persuaded to take the action desired by the advertiser. In other words, advertisement could be a way that companies use to convince us on doing what they want. Companies often use advertisements to increase their profits because a really good advertisement can highly attract in many new customers to your business.

Although people often focus on the negatives when they discuss the effects of advertising, it is important to notice that advertising does have its positive side. In fact, some of our society's most important messages have come through advertising like “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”. Ads can also have positive effects socially, in the economy and in public services. For example in the United States, candidates for an elected position often run advertisements that discuss their strengths and the opponent's weaknesses. These advertisements encourage the people to compare and contrast the candidates and choose the one with whom they most agree.

By the other side, there are also some negative effects of ads on our society. Starting from misrepresentation, ads can also cause false images and unrealistic expectations. The consequences of these three can lead to eating disorders, depression, and dissatisfaction with one’s self and in lower cases the waste of money.  For example, advertising communicates that men should be handsome, tall, athletic, caring husbands, thoughtful fathers and virile at all times and these images are often unrealistic and unattainable.

 Finally we can conclude that companies should put more emphasis on how to improve their products besides trying to make them look attractive. Advertisements are an efficient way of marketing but it can cause either positive or negative impacts on society, so doing advertisings with a positive purpose is always the best choice.

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