11/30/12
7th hour
Title
Advertising is used in American Society and drives the consumers of America to buy the new product. Advertising allows companies to inform people of their product. Some advertisers will do anything to get someone to buy their product. The line is crossed when they break certain moral values and advertise propaganda rather than the product itself. Because advertising works so well, it causes consumers to want things they may never be able to acquire, and because advertising companies are masterminds at targeting every kind of consumer, they have to ability to attract inappropriate audience members such as children, or sick/old people. Some believe that advertisers turn our wants into needs. Advertising has us chasing fast and powerful cars that we don’t need. While an inexpensive car with good gas mileage is a smarter and more economical choice. According to Sesana, from source F, “…marketing executives will use all available methods to convince us of the need to buy their company products.” Advertising companies fabricate a need for their unnecessary product. It is rare to see advertisements for staple food products or other items that truly satisfy our needs. Nancy Day from Source D argues, “Before advertising, who worried about dandruff?” which is a good example of what type of products turned into household items. By using effective marketing strategies, advertising companies can target everyone in the audience, and they can convince those people to want things they don’t need. In addition to falsifying the needs of the targeted consumer, many also argue that advertisers have the ability to target all types of people and use this to their advantage. Sometimes they throw moral values out the window to achieve this. Many advertisers may attack the wrong audience member. Members of the audience that should not be targeted for the wrong product can include children, elders and the ill. From Source D, Shaw explains,