Advertising - Essay 8

We are surrounded by all kinds of advertising, which is significantly influencing our lives. Do the positive effects of advertising outweigh its negative effects? Living in the information age, people are exposed to a wide variety of advertisements from the mass media. While the initial purpose of advertizing is to disseminate information related to goods to the market, corporations nowadays tend to use tempting messages and exaggerating arguments to misguide consumers into a purchase. Undeniably, advertizing brings enormous benefits to individuals and even the society as a whole.
It is agreed that advertisements assist consumers to make a wise buying decision. Various commercials appearing on media provide consumers with adequate information about products available to them. By acquiring the latest information in the market, such as the release of new commodities or services, people can choose their desirable products in a more efficient way. In addition, advertizing plays a significant role in facilitating economic well-being. Constant marketing information conveyed to the target audience speeds consumers’ acceptance of new goods, thus stimulating the sales to the fullest extent. This guarantees high turnover of manufactured goods and therefore sustainable development of a society’s economy. On the other hand, advertizing is always criticized for leading consumers into impulsive purchases and causing wasteful spending. In order to promote sales, most advertisers tend to show their products in an exaggerating way or by inviting famous stars to serve as their spokespersons. As a result, the audiences are very easy to be tempted to buy what they do not really need. However, it is clear that knowledgeable consumers rarely rely on advertisements as a single source of information before deciding what to buy. Instead, they would take into account such factors as internal quality, practical use and income levels, rather than simply rushing into a purchase.