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Advertisements Do More Harm Than Good

Is having widespread advertising good for a society?

All the Yes points:

  1. The levels of advertising are just too much these days. You cannot walk down the street, ride on a …
  2. Advertising leads to many people being overwhelmed by the endless need to decide between competing d…
  3. People cannot just choose to ignore advertising, because advertisers use many underhand methods to g…
  4. Many adverts do more than just advertising products. Some try to make people feel inferior if they …
  5. Advertising gives the impression, especially to children, that they can and should have everything t…
  6. Advertisers don’t have the good of society in mind when they do their work – they only care about ma…
  7. Advertising gives an unfair advantage to big businesses. Small companies might have much better pro…

All the No points:

The levels of advertising are just too much these days. You cannot walk down the street, ride on a …

Yes because…

The levels of advertising are just too much these days. You cannot walk down the street, ride on a bus, watch television or read your email without seeing advertisements. People shouldn’t have to have their lives attacked by a huge quantity of information they might not want.

No because…

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. 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.

Advertising leads to many people being overwhelmed by the endless need to decide between competing d…

Yes because…

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. 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.

No because…

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.

People cannot just choose to ignore advertising, because advertisers use many underhand methods to g…

Yes because…

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. By targeting people’s unconscious thoughts adverts are a form of brainwashing that take away people’s freedoms to make choices.

No because…

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.

Many adverts do more than just advertising products. Some try to make people feel inferior if they …

Yes because…

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.

No because…

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.

Advertising gives the impression, especially to children, that they can and should have everything t…

Yes because…

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.

No because…

Our society is build 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.

Advertisers don’t have the good of society in mind when they do their work – they only care about ma…

Yes because…

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. The adverts just try to make children eat as much food as possible without any concern for the health costs.

No because…

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.

Advertising gives an unfair advantage to big businesses. Small companies might have much better pro…

Yes because…

Advertising 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. This restricts the quality of products for consumers, and places a huge roadblock to the success of small businesses.

No because…

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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- a human
3 years ago

Advertisements Good Or Bad?

From ads on websites to ads on massive signs, advertisements are everywhere. You might not even realise you have just seen or heard an ad because nowadays they are ubiquitous. Almost all companies use advertisements to promote their business and most websites make money by posting ads. Ads are not only ubiquitous but also come in various forms. But are advertisements good or bad? In my opinion advertisements have advantages and disadvantages.

On one hand, advertisements have 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. Advertisements also benefit the company that made the ad by promoting products or services they sell.

On the other hand, advertisements have demerits. Advertisements might tempt or persuade consumers to buy things they actually do not need or want, which in turn result in a massive waste of resources and money. Advertisements swarm you with choices which could lead to decision-making difficulty. Some serious cases of decision-making difficulties even have trouble deciding whether to eat or not!

In conclusion, advertisements have not only advantages but also disadvantages. Advertisements help us choose between goods and benefit everyone. Advertisements also let us know the newest technology but might temp customers to buy things they do not need or want. Advertisements swarm you with decisions which can cause lifelong decision-making difficulties. For the reasons above I think advertisements have both pros and cons.

Alex
6 years ago

This is not a serious argument. Without advertising, the human race would almost certainly have gone extinct long ago. Advertising is the means by which we share the work we have done or can do with each other. We advertise ourselves to employers when we share a resume. We advertise a restaurant by placing “Joe’s Eatery” sign next to it to grab attention and let people know it’s a restaurant. We advertise milk by labeling it milk. All of these things are forms of advertising. Advertising is communicating with others to let them know what we have to offer.

As a society, we have grown tremendously by dividing labor. Each individual no longer has to grow her own food, make her own clothes, or build her own home. We’ve managed to progress because we found ways for 7 billion people to specialize in tasks and then let other people know what they can do. We progressed because of advertising. And as a result, not only have we divided up the tasks we used to each do individually to survive, but we’ve become so efficient that we can now do many, many more tasks that we never dreamed of before. One person can grow food for many, opening up the potential for others to do different kinds of tasks, like creating iPhones.

As people begin to reach wider audiences with their offerings and increase their profits, their ability to employ additional help grows. Bringing people together to work towards common goals enables accomplishments that just aren’t possible working alone. Breakthroughs in medicine, technology, transportation, manufacturing – everything that makes life what it is today depended entirely on advancements that came from people working together as teams to accomplish greater things. All of this was only possible because people increased their ability to share the fruits of their labor.

Advertising is a wonderful thing. It annoys us at times, but never believe for a second that it doesn’t make the world infinitely better.

M Rodent
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex

Utter nonsense.

Advertising is about companies paying to make unrealistic claims and to intrude with differing degrees of intensity into people’s consciousness without their permission.

It should be a basic human right to refuse that intrusion at any time.

The best thing you can ever do is what I do: go in for deliberate purchasing of rival products and services to those you see advertised. If everyone behaved like me the economic structure of the world would be significantly different:
– products and services would be less expensive
– more art would adorn buildings and public spaces – it would be up to communities to decide how much or little they wanted, and to decide how to handle art which was concealed advertising
– fewer online services would be viable
– more “Trusted Reviews” type sites would spring up online, with increasingly serious ways of ensuring posts and posters were genuine, etc., rigorous scientific comparative analysis of products and services, etc.

Of course I get a long of things for free at the moment by ruthless use of Adblock Ultimate, etc., and at the same time systematically buying rival products to those of the companies who are paying for these services I use.

Trae Lohse
7 years ago

I don’t see the problem with ads. Most arguments levied against it are pure conjecture, with no factual basis. You can mostly boil it down to people thinking they are entitled to certain luxuries such as companies not being able to market at them, and they are actually entitled to this, the real issue being they are not using the options at their disposal. It is not a companies obligation to control what marketing they use to appeal to the public. It is the public’s choice to control what they intake and consume. In conclusion, people are placing false moral responsibilities in the hands of companies, which in a capitalist society, makes no sense. Feel free to respond to me (preferably politely) at my personal email address below, and point out flaws in my argument as I am always ready to learn.

Jon
7 years ago

I can understand that companies/individuals need to make money. Without advertising most free websites would no longer be free so I’m not against advertising in general. What becomes annoying is the sheer volume of advertising media especially on the Internet. It can totally take over a Web page which has caused me to abandon it on occasion and look for the information elsewhere. Also, the targeted advertising is horrible. The websites you look at are recorded and adverts appear related to something you were looking at days or even weeks before. I feel like I’m being followed (which I am) but it also feels like I’m being stalked by an ex lover. It’s REALLY creepy!

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