essay

Advertisements: Information or Manipulation A good advertisement is the one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself. However, today most people pay more attention to advertisements rather than the product. Previously, it was possible that by looking up at the advertisement, people could guarantee that the quality of the product would be good. However, now it is not possible to rely on advertisements alone as they often mislead people into buying a supposedly good quality product which may actually lose its effect in hardly a few months. I hereby support the fact that advertisements are more manipulative than informative.
Many advertisements use manipulative tactics that affect people in ways they don’t even realise. They influence people mentally and emotionally and have an intense effect on their ways of thinking and choices they make.
Almost all advertisements today are shown for products which are too costly for common people to buy, for example a high quality hand phone. Hence only wealthy people are eligible to buy such products. This draws a dividing line between the wealthy and the middle class, who see the same advertisements but feel inferior as they are unable to afford the expensive products. A recent study by the Journal of Health Communication shows that junk food advertisements are targeting children in large numbers. These advertisements encourage and promote the consumption of unhealthy food items and manipulate the minds of children into making them think that whatever they eat is great and bang-on.
Some advertisement agencies use manipulation in a good way to eradicate the bad habits in people, like smoking. The anti-smoking agencies feature gruesome images of diseased body parts in its advertising to emphasize their point that smoking is unhealthy.
Thus, advertisements influence or manipulate people and their ways of thinking more than simply providing information, and sometimes this manipulation leads to people