How many times have you bought something and regretted afterwards? Advertisements encourage us to buy things we do not really need. One out of hundreds of adverts may perhaps be informative but that is a rare case. For one, adverstisements do not aim to provide us with what we really need. Most of the time, they promote items that are not necessary for survival. Often, they can be misleading too.
First of all, advertising is merely a marketing strategy. Its intention is far from 'kindly equipping' people with what they need. The sellers are more interested in selling as many products as possible so that they can profit from the business. According to this, it seems rather absurd to think that advertisements improve our lives. It is as if advertising is a benevolent act that works for the good of the people, which is not exactly true.
In addition, the majority of advertisements show items that are not crucial for survival. There is a distinct boundary between "luxury of life" and "need for survival". Advertising seems more closely linked with the 'luxury' part. Nowadays. most of us are so brainwashed due to the abundance of advertisements. They give us the impression that without the product that they are presenting, our life would be more uncomfortable. For instance, a teenage girl may consider buying the new iphone as purchasing something she 'needs'. The definition of 'need' differs from one person to another, but an iphone is definitely not a matter of survival.
Moreover, adverts can be misleading. Last week, for example, I went to buy an MP3, which was apparently 1$, according to a pamphlet. When I arrived at the shop, however, the owner told me that it was 1$ only on the condition that I pay for the newly released slide-phone. Funnily enough, this was not mentioned in the pamphlet, which I suspect, was intentionally done by the shop. After this incident, I understood that advertisements are frequently fallible. They offer us unreliable information, and it does not seem logical to think that such things could improve our lives, by supposedly 'helpfully' telling us about new products.
Advertisements are not faithful "messengers", who tell us about new products that improve our lives. It is true though-there are once in a while useful adverts informing the public about recent discounts in grocery stores etc. Unfortunately, this happens too occasionally. Adverts mostly serve to attract people so that these unsuspecting victims spend money unnecessarily. |