“There Is No Truth in Advertising.” Discuss
“There is no truth in advertising.” Discuss
Advertising is omnipresent and inescapable in today’s world. It is claimed that an average person is exposed to 2000 advertisements every day. Due to its all-pervasive nature, advertising has a huge impact on our minds, both consciously and unconsciously. However, the credibility of today’s advertisements should be questioned. As media companies and advertising agents become increasingly profit-driven, advertisements now contain false information, promote biased ideas and sometimes even deveice consumers, in order to sell products. Even some non-commercial advertisements are not telling the complete truth, in order to grab people’s attentions.
Many advertisements tend to tell “partial truth” about their products, which equates to false information that would mislead viewers. To increase revenue and maximise profits, advertising agents use the tactic of “partial truths” that make use of viewers’ assumptions. Advertising agents skillfully design the advertisements that will only reveal the seemingly appealing characteristics of the product, and deliberately leave the necessary elaboration and explanation, which is the other half of the truth, unmentioned. An advertisement for some cat food purported that it contains a substaintial level of phosphorus, which would lead the viewers to think that more phosphorus is good for cats. But what the advertisements did not mention was that cats actually do not need phosphorous in their diet. Another cigarette advertisement in Bangladesh said that smoking helped to relieve the pain of giving birth, which is true because somking decreases the size of babies. Its detrimental effect on babies was deliberately ignored by the advertising agent. These “partial truth” are not truths at all. They are misleading lies which, if the consumers believe blindly, may even harm their health.
Also, advertisements always ignore the moral truth of gender equality. They contain some stereotypes
Advertising is omnipresent and inescapable in today’s world. It is claimed that an average person is exposed to 2000 advertisements every day. Due to its all-pervasive nature, advertising has a huge impact on our minds, both consciously and unconsciously. However, the credibility of today’s advertisements should be questioned. As media companies and advertising agents become increasingly profit-driven, advertisements now contain false information, promote biased ideas and sometimes even deveice consumers, in order to sell products. Even some non-commercial advertisements are not telling the complete truth, in order to grab people’s attentions.
Many advertisements tend to tell “partial truth” about their products, which equates to false information that would mislead viewers. To increase revenue and maximise profits, advertising agents use the tactic of “partial truths” that make use of viewers’ assumptions. Advertising agents skillfully design the advertisements that will only reveal the seemingly appealing characteristics of the product, and deliberately leave the necessary elaboration and explanation, which is the other half of the truth, unmentioned. An advertisement for some cat food purported that it contains a substaintial level of phosphorus, which would lead the viewers to think that more phosphorus is good for cats. But what the advertisements did not mention was that cats actually do not need phosphorous in their diet. Another cigarette advertisement in Bangladesh said that smoking helped to relieve the pain of giving birth, which is true because somking decreases the size of babies. Its detrimental effect on babies was deliberately ignored by the advertising agent. These “partial truth” are not truths at all. They are misleading lies which, if the consumers believe blindly, may even harm their health.
Also, advertisements always ignore the moral truth of gender equality. They contain some stereotypes