In recent years, advertising has become ever-more pervasive as new companies mushroom all around the world. There are many different viewpoints as to the benefits and detriments of advertisements. Some say the benefits outweigh the detriments, and vice versa. In my opinion, the negative aspects of advertising outweigh the positive aspects.
The nature of advertisement is such that it leaves many loopholes to be exploited. One definition of advertisement is a method of appealing to people in order to persuade them to buy a product or service. There are many examples of how companies achieve this. The Olay brand of shampoo and conditioner relies on emphasising their expertise through qualified staff like Francesca Fusco and Thomas Taw. The Nike brand of shoes appeals to the emotional tendencies of people to buy their sports shoes. The list goes on. However, one should remember that advertising is essentially propaganda and as such is never entirely accurate. Companies have been known to misrepresent evidence. For example, real estate companies in Singapore have been known to present a distorted image of a house for sale, leaving consumers to discover the trickery. One should also remember that the advertiser always has a private agenda when creating the advertisement. Thus, it cannot be entirely trusted as there is intent to sway your opinions.
Advertisement also has its detriments. Firstly, advertisement has become so commonplace that its impact on consumers has greatly diminished. The average American sees over 3000 advertisements in a day. It seems rather improbable that one advertisement out of this 3000 will significantly influence a consumer’s decisions. Also, advertising through various forms of media is generally expensive. The company could be spending this money on improving existing products and services, pushing out new products or adding to their financial reserves. A reduction in advertisements would also mean more time for news programs on television or articles in the newspapers, both of which are more significant than advertising.
Some might argue that advertising has benefits like creating healthy competition. While I agree that such competition is beneficial to the economy, I must point out that in most cases, the larger companies can completely flood out the smaller companies by taking up a significant amount of space for their advertisements. This does not contribute to competition at all, and has a very minimal effect on the competitiveness of the economy. Others might contend that advertising can introduce people to new products or services. However, the impact would be insubstantial as many people do not read advertisements. Also, humans are creatures of habit. It is unlikely that we will change our shopping preferences even when we read about other advertisements.
As advertising becomes more prevalent, I believe that beyond a certain point, providing advertising in bulk fails to have a significant impact on consumers. I think it would be better for some of the advertising funds to be diverted to the research and development sector, used as a financial cushion or used to pay dividends to shareholders.
Sorry Ms Huang that this is late.
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