Oct 13, 2008
The Negative Effects of Advertising
by Bi3ard / General
Advertising may have some good points, but also there are some negative aspects too. While some of them are obvious, most of advertising potentially harmful facets go undetected.
Here are some of the most important:
1. Hidden Costs
You should know that advertising costs lots of money and that money comes from you - the consumer. When you buy a product, you pay for the product itself, which means its packaging, costs of the development, the machinery, the facility where the product has been made in, etc.
But what you probably don’t know is that by buying some product, you also pay for that its advertising as well. While it’s logical to pay objective costs, such as package or production, it’s not understandable why pay company to tell us about the product we already bought.
2. Lying to Customers
Advertisers know that they cannot outright make false claims, because any claim they make must be supported by some kind of statistic, according to the law. However, advertisers can and often do bend and curve the truth for their own benefit and in order to promote and advertise own product.
Company can exaggerate certain features of their products or they can make vague and ambiguous claims that sound good. Of course any negative features of the product won’t be mentioned.
Advertisements can be deceitful, especially for younger population who spends days in front of TV screen and watch aggressive and false advertising in between popular shows.
3. Conditioning and False Trendsetting
But, in order to hypnotize mass population, companies need to create trends that customers will follow. This is the true purpose of advertising today. Advertisers have found out that if they make a product, and make customers believe that their product will make them happy, sales will skyrocket. To fulfill that, advertisers must bombard customers with images and false claims for hours every day patiently, until people start to believe in certain things.
Once a trend and its image for advertising purposes have been created, conditioning can begin. Customers become addicted to products that they usually don’t need, and that’s the real image of our society of over consumerism. Today, because of ad conditioning and trendsetting, judgments are made on what kind of clothes people wear, what shampoo and kitchen cleaner they use, and not on who we really are. This leads to a certain degree of social discrimination and emotional insecurity, especially in younger population. In order to be accepted and cool, you need to spend.
4. Censorship
Advertisers want their ads shown on certain stations or websites that have certain content, because they want to attract a certain audience. Most mass media mediums have become nothing more than vessels for advertising, which means that advertising and companies that use it have become a powerful force as far as censorship.
But, how can advertising censor a television network’s programming? If you have a popular prime time show that’s a bit ‘sketchy’ toward certain things or views, that can be an obstacle for popular brand product that want prime time advertising in that show. Producers will never say: “Heck with the commercial!”
Instead they will ask show writers to rewrite sketchy parts that can ruin products’ reputation.
That basically means that our precious moments of fun or enlightenment are often replaced with long and boring commercial blocks, which basically means subtle censorship.
5. Degradation of Art
The last negative effect of advertising presented in this article I want to discuss is the complete degradation of some forms of art. No more creativity on TV. Everything you see or hear on it now is meant to sell you something.
Actors present you new products you should by. Models look more beautiful and younger with new makeup that you should - guess what – buy. You watch 90 minutes movie, but it’s extended to two hours because of commercials. Football game is 30 seconds of action followed by endless minutes of advertising agony.
Another problem are totally unimaginative commercials, made for zombies. They’re mostly not funny, not creative and they lack even smallest trace of art.
With so much money in their pockets, great corporations make fools of themselves because of these ads.
But they still occupy our precious time for fun and enlightenment.
It can be concluded that advertisers lost their compass long time ago. Advertisements are made in spirit of blind over consumerism. Without a soul. However, money from consumers pockets who are attracted to shiny goods, still keeps them breathing.
Next time you go shopping, or see an advertisement, ask yourself if you really need that product. Also, ask yourself what it all really costs.
And is it worth.
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COMMENTS
Readers posted 3 comments for this article
Comments (3)
The following content represents the opinions of Health.com users. It is not editorially reviewed for medical or factual accuracy. It does not constitute medical advice. See your doctor for medical advice.
Nice article about negative effects of advertising.
These days mobile companies are advertising through calls and sms about their services, packages and tariff.
I have changed my sim twice but seems like all mobile companies are getting services from same agency.
What do you think what kind of false advertising is this?
[b:8b2a767995]Hidden Costs?[/b:8b2a767995]
The article above mentioned the incredibly ridiculous hidden costs of advertising and I agree that those costs are covered by the consumer but wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to avoid all that? It's a very daunting thought that avoiding the high cost of advertising may not be avoidable at all...
[b:8b2a767995]False Advertising?[/b:8b2a767995]
Next, the author brought up the topic of how most advertising is a flat out lie and, as I'm sure you would agree, most products being advertised really need to be built up with lies because that product usually isn't worth the material it comes in...
[b:8b2a767995]False Trendsetting?[/b:8b2a767995]
Hypnotizing the mass population is an obvious goal of all commercials that try to make you believe that buying any particular product will set you apart from the rest, making you feel as if you are somehow cooler or more successful than everyone else...
[b:8b2a767995]Censorship?[/b:8b2a767995]
In many cases, people think a product is more fun if it is censored but that's not what the article was talking about, even though it should have. When something seems as if it is more 'riske`, people tend to be more attracted to it but this is not true for everyone, especially parents who are trying to raise their children right...
[b:8b2a767995]Is it Possible?[/b:8b2a767995]
Can you even imagine that there is a company out there that is VERY successful and they do no advertising at all...?
I'm sure the company in question had a rather slow beginning but, since I wasn't even born at that time, I have no idea. The company I'm talking about is the [url=http://www.highly-trained-health-adviser.com/]Shaklee Corporation[/url] (no, that is not a company-site since I created that site to share what I am most passionate about when it comes to the Shaklee products)...
Shaklee has no hidden costs because their only form of advertising is by word of mouth and sure, it's possible that people could lie about the company or their products but, when the person being lied to discovers the deception, they wouldn't want to remain friends with the person telling the lie for very long...
With word of mouth advertising, there is also no conditioning, false trendsetting, censorship or degradation of art so that is the most effective form of advertising known to mankind...
Mr. Michael Peters
I want to ask from such people who adds the adult advertising. From Adult Advertising people lose the control you their self. After this rape cases increase in society. Why the Government Allow them such thing.
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