Advertising has grown to be an industry worth many billions of dollars
across the world. Online advertising alone is believed to be worth $24 billion
a year. Almost all public space has some advertisements in sight and all forms
of media, from newspapers to the cinema, are also filled with adverts. Whilst
this helps companies sell their products, and helps consumers to learn what is
on offer, many believe that this huge amount of advertising can be harmful. It
may make people want too much, or things that they cannot have, or it might
make them feel inadequate when they don't have something. Research shows that
children can be particularly open to these kinds of risk.
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There are too many advertisements in everyday life. The sheer volume of advertising in our society is
incredible. You cannot watch television, ride on a bus or even walk down the
street without someone trying to sell you something or inform you of
something. Recent research suggests people living in a city today sees up to 5,000
advertisements a day1. 50% of those surveyed said they thought 'advertising
today was out of control'1. People shouldn't have to go about their lives
having their minds saturated with such a vast quantity of, in most cases,
redudant and profiteering information. They should be able to go about their
daily lives in peace without being forced to watch, listen or view an
advertisement.
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Though there are a great many advertisements in
everyday life, there are not so many that they can't simply be ignored.
Advertisements attempt to get you to buy a product, if you're not interested,
then don't buy the product. For every person who finds all the advertisements
stressful, another person finds them enjoyable and something to read or watch
while they make their daily journey to work or school. Out of control could
mean simply that customers think businesses are spending too much on
advertising. Without proof that the number of advertisements is having a
negative effect, the point is worthless.
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People are given too much choice, which makes them less
happy. Advertising leads to many people being overwhelmed by
the endless need to decide between competing demands on their attention –
this is known as the tyranny of choice or choice overload. Recent research
suggests that people are on average less happy than they were 30 years ago -
despite being better off and having much more choice of things to spend their
money on. The claims of adverts crowd in on people, raising expectations
about a product and leading to inevitable disappointment after it is bought.
A recent advertisement for make-up was banned in Britain due to the company
presenting its product as being more effective than it actually was. Shoppers
feel that a poor purchase is their fault for not choosing more wisely, and
regret not choosing something else instead. Some people are so overwhelmed
that they cannot choose at all.
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People are unhappy because they can't have everything,
not because they are given too much choice and find it stressful. In fact,
advertisements play a crucial role in ensuring that what money people have,
they spend on the most appropriate product for themselves. If advertisements
were not permitted, people would waste money on an initial product when,
given the choice, they clearly would go for another.
A meta-analysis incorporating research from 50
independent studies found no meaningful connection between choice and
anxiety, but speculated that the variance in the studies left open the
possibility that choice overload could be tied to certain highly specific and
as yet poorly understood pre-conditions.
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Advertisements are an attempt to brainwash customers. People cannot just choose to ignore advertising,
because advertisers use many underhand methods to get their message across.
Posters have attention grabbing words, or provocative pictures. Some adverts
today are even being hidden in what seem like pieces or art or public
information so people don't realise they are being marketed to. The
introduction of digital screens allows businesses to alter their advertising
to respond to specific events, making advertisements not only everywhere, but
seemingly all-knowing. By targeting people's unconscious thoughts adverts are
a form of brainwashing that take away people's freedoms to make choices.
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Adverts which use very sly methods like subliminal
images (images which are shown so quickly the viewer doesn't consciously
realise they saw them) are already banned. The other forms of advertising are
just companies being creative. There is no difference from supermarkets being
painted bright colours to make their food seem more appetising or even people
wearing make-up to improve their image. People make unconscious judgements
all the time, and we frequently try to influence these choices by the way we
present ourselves. This isn't brainwashing, so neither is advertising.
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Advertisements try to make people feel bad about not
having the product. Many adverts do
more than just advertising products. Some try to make people feel inferior if
they don't have the product, or if they have something which the product
would change. Perceptions of beauty and fashion in particular have been
terribly distorted. Many young people have low self-esteem, and lead
unhealthy lifestyles because they feel they should be thinner and more
attractive like the models they see in adverts. This leads to serious
problems like eating-disorders and self-harm. Research that proved this
effect also concluded that 'the media can boost self-esteem (happiness with
one's self) where it is providing examples of a variety of body shapes.
However, it often tends to portray a limited (small) number of body shapes'.
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The media and celebrity magazines do much more harm, by
mocking unattractive or overweight people, and glorifying models who are often
dangerously thin. Adverts never criticise people - that would be terrible for
the companies behind them. Their aim is to understand and provide what people
want, and so their adverts only ever reflect what people think. If people's
perceptions are wrong, then it not the advertisers' job to put them right,
but politicians, the media and schools.
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Advertisements tell children that they should have
everything they want. Advertising gives
the impression, especially to children, that they can and should have
everything they want. This makes people too interested in material things.
People are becoming more selfish and obsessed with their possessions, and
losing their values of patience, hard work, moderation and the importance of
non-material things like family and friends. This harms their relationships
and their personal development, which has serious effects for society as a
whole.
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Our society is built around the idea that companies
produce things that people want, and this is what makes us prosperous. If
consumers suddenly stopped wanting to buy so many products then what happens
to the people whose job it is to make them? The economy will suffer terribly.
Of course some people take materialism too far, but most people buy just what
they need and then a little extra when they treat themselves. This is a much
better situation than one in which people can only afford to buy the things
they need - that would be a step backwards.
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Advertising in fact gives an unfair advantage to big
businesses. Small companies might have much better products, but they cannot
afford to advertise them as well and so people don't find out about them. In
the film industry, the big film studios spend more than $75 million on
advertising alone. Small films cannot compete. This restricts the quality of
products for consumers, and places a huge roadblock to the success of small
businesses.
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Small businesses need advertisements to make their
products known. If there wasn't
advertising then small businesses would have no chance at all to make their
product well known. Adverts can actually level the playing field - if you
have a good new product, and market it in a clever way then it doesn't matter
how small your company is, you can still make consumers interested. The more
you restrict the freedom of information, the more this helps the large
companies who everyone already knows about.
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Advertising does not help us choose, it merely confuses
customer who are not sure who is offering what. This is particularly true
with advertisements that compare products with other businesses. In Britain,
advertising for broadband (internet) services confuse nine out of ten people.
With different costs and add-ons, it's hard to for a customer to know what
they are actually paying for and whether it is better than going somewhere
else. As a result, many customers end up stressed and confused.
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Advertising helps us choose between different goods. Advertising has a positive role to play in modern
society, helping us choose between competing goods. Many adverts are drawing
our attention to products with new features, for example more powerful
computers, telephones which are also cameras and music players, or foods with
added vitamins. Other adverts try to compete on price, helping us seek out
the cheapest or best value products. In most cases advertising does not make
us go shopping – we would be planning to buy food, clothes, gifts and
entertainment anyway. What advertising does is to help us make better
decisions about how to spend our money, by giving us more information about
the choices available.
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Advertisers don't have the good of society in mind when
they do their work - they only care about making profit. This means that they
regularly advertise unhealthy or harmful things. Fast food adverts are a
large part of the reason so many children are obese. Researchers have found
that children aged 6-13 who were shown commercials for junk food were more
likely to pick meals that were bad for them. The adverts just try to make
children eat as much bad food as possible without any concern for the health
costs.
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Advertisements promote healthy products and lifestyles. Advertising is used to promote healthy activities,
products and lifestyles and is further regulated to ensure that unhealthy
products are not promoted. The School Food Trust in Britain, for example,
used celebrities in advertisements to promote healthy eating in 2007.
Furthermore, adverts which promote seriously unhealthy things are becoming
very rare. Cigarette advertising is all but extinct, and alcohol adverts are
being more restricted. With adverts such as fast food we see as well that
companies are changing their message to promote healthier options. This is
because it is bad for businesses to be viewed as harming children. Public
pressure and successful regulation will always bring any advertising problems
back under control.
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It is hard to ignore advertising when it is everywhere
in modern life. Advertising may be welcomed by companies which profit from
their sponsorship, but fans do not like it nor necessarily want it. Barcelona
in Spain went without commercial advertising on their shirts for a long time,
proving sponsorship is not necessary to win trophies and buy players.
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Advertising is only as annoying as you want it to be. No-one is forced to put advertising on their property
- for many companies it is an important part of their income. Football teams
would have much less money if they were not sponsored. Manchester United's
shirt sponsorship deal with Aon is worth £80 million. For the small annoyance
of having to have a logo on the shirt, the football club can afford to buy
new players and hopefully win more games. And no-one is forced to look at
advertising - you can turn the TV off between shows, or just flick past
adverts in newspapers. If you don't want to see the adverts, then just ignore
them.
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