Brainwashed By Advertising : A Cultural Force, Social Values And The Quality Of Life

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

Advertisements are everywhere. They are a major part of modern day society. Whether it be a television commercial, an internet banner, or a billboard, advertisements influence people of all ages, but they affect a certain age group much more than others. Children ranging from toddlers to teenagers are exposed to thousands upon thousands of advertisements each year. Some of these advertisements are damaging to children, while others are a positive influence. Advertisements can either be used as a tool or a weapon. Food advertisements and manipulation strategies are both positive and negative, and how companies use them decides whether or not marketing to children is ethical.

Kilbourne demonstrates three major main criticisms of advertising. First, advertising objectifies people and objects for the purpose of sales. This critique promotes products as more important than people and exploits human deeds and desires. Kilbourne offers ample evidence to support her first criticism of advertising. For example, Kilbourne examines advertisement such as the Thule car-rack - which humorously places more value on sports equipment been a child's life - is evidence of the trend that advertising is “objectif[ing] people…trivializ[ing and exploiting] our most heartfelt moments and relationships. Every emotion [,person, animal, and natural phenomenon] is used to sell us something” (Kilbourne, 2006, 369). Second - according to Kilbourne - advertising promotes and perpetuates the unnatural passion for products rather than personal relationship. “Advertising corrupts relationships and then offers us products, both as solace and as substitutes for the intimate human connection we all long for and need” (Kilbourne, 2006, 370). Within this concept, advertising also commits ‘cultural rape’ by manipulating sacred symbols for their utilization as emotional leverage in advertising. Third, advertisements damage the personality and structure of culture. For example the Giwch’in tribe’s traditional culture was almost erased by the introduction of advertising through television. “As multinational chains replace local character, we end up in a world in which everyone is Gapped and Starbucked…[Thus] rampant commercialism undermines our physical and psychological health, our environments and our civic life, and creates a toxic society” (Kilbourne, 2006, 371), which robs individuals of cultural and personal diversity. Based on the evidence presented by Kilbourne, I strongly agree with all three of these

In a day, the average American sees thousands of ads, the world is covered in them. Be it on TV, in the daily newspaper or on the shopping cart one picks up at the grocery store, exposure to these ads is inescapable. Most are these ads are harmless, wanting only to catch the attention of potential customers and invest them in their product. The companies make use use of pathos ( for example the Budweiser commercials with the puppy and horse), logos (the Geico “15 minutes could save you 15% or more…”), or ethos (Jamie Fox using his iPhone 6s in Apple’s latest ads) to sell their product. Some companies, however, employ extreme tactics to stand out. They create ads that target human’s natural inclination to use sex and violence. More often

Some critics might say that advertisements are not purely manipulative or persuasive. They might argue that advertisements can positively contribute to society while trying to sell a product. This is debatable because modern day advertisements have reached a peak of meaninglessness and emptiness. They do not necessarily contain any thoughtful portrayal of society or its culture. Rather, they are packed with many false ideals distant from reality.

Advertisements are everywhere and they can easily be seen if one just takes the time to open their eyes. However, one of the more prominent things that advertising does is influence their audience’s decisions, and these decisions can vary based on where the audience consumes it or even the way in which their community views it as well. The ways in which one experiences advertising can contribute to how they choose to consume and this can affect their consumer habits as well. Not only that, but advertising and popular culture can influence the views on style and gender roles, especially in males. Also, the way that social class can change when immigrating from one country to another can lead the way to new ideas of what one should strive for in society as well. That being said, in relation to the interview that was conducted, advertisements and media are definitely a major influence in how one sees the world, and depending on where you grow up and are raised, your views on society and advertising can change dramatically.

We live in the age of consumerism; we are constantly surrounded by advertisements in our everyday environments. Through television, print, billboards, radio, the Internet and countless other mediums, it seems as though we cannot escape ads. We have become so accustomed to advertisements that most of the time we are unaware of the impact they can have on us. To help us become more aware of the effects of advertisements and consumerism, activist groups like Adbusters has helped bring more attention and awareness to how information and meaning gets generated and transmitted in our society today.

Ads are inescapable, they are everywhere you look and have become even more readily available with new technology. How are these ads affecting us today? In the film Killing Us softly 4, Jean Kilbourne argues that advertisements sell not only products but also ideas and values to its onlookers. Let’s take a look at an ad that was created for the product Pepsi. In this ad a variety of ideas and values are being sold, not just the drink itself.

Advertising products is a useful thing for business, by promoting value that are directly opposed to humans’ wellbeing and environment. Advertisement are everywhere television, radio, and billboards telling us what we need and want. In 2002, this country spend $13.5 billion telling us what to buy. We are influenced by advertisement by making us think we need certain materials. Advertising is so powerful that we will jump at the new and improved bull crap that companies throw at us. We will buy into our happiness and consume and consume some more, but we will never be satisfied.

Sut Jhally, a professor of communications with a focus on advertising and consumer culture, believes that advertising is the ‘most “major ideological tool” of the marketplace’. Jhally’s statement is true in that advertising is a pervasive medium that is inescapable. Every day, people are exposed to advertising everywhere they look – the internet, television, billboards, and magazines. The messages relayed in these advertisements have a strong influence on people’s perceptions and shape their beliefs often on a subconscious level. Advertising is so prevalent that it reaches across all socio-economic classes and thus is the most influential tool available in the marketplace when it comes to shaping people’s ideologies Advertising influences every individual’s concept of identity with respect to ability, gender, race, and class.

Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.

Television, magazines, phones, and Internet all contribute to the global epidemic of false advertising. Millions of Americans have a television or the most current news in there home, which contributes to society always wanting to be someone their not. On the contrary it is a great way to spread important news but consequently ads are showing the reality of how to promote stereotypes or have products we don’t need. As a consumer we get bombarded with ads for different services or products that just want to gain our dollar. The problem about the broadcast of advertisements is how it’s distributed. It transmits through audio and video signals and targets the masses of society. It’s literally everywhere and anyone from a toddler using an iPad to a 95 year old listening to the radio is affected. Advertising has provided a harmful impact to society through its use of manipulation, false accusations, and influencing the next generation.

Advertising is a profession that reflects and molds cultural values and standards in more ways than we may think. Because of advertising’s ability to affect the way people view themselves in the world that surrounds them, it is one of the business functions that receives the most ethical scrutiny. Advertising messages create a lot of debatable ethical issues because the public believes that advertisements affect the way people see themselves and can crucially affect their actions. In 2011, the Journal of Business Ethics summarized reasons why people complain about advertising. The reasons included teaching the idea that happiness comes from possessing valuable things, creating false values in society, causing individuals to be more easily persuaded by distracting them through entertainment and by the use of puffery or exaggerations to make their products appear better than they are. Another reason people complained about advertising was the fact that it is too preoccupied with exploiting sexuality and the human body to persuade people.

Advertising and marketing have existed long ago in time, but most likely in a different form unfamiliar to us. Many years ago, sellers advertised by posting on the windows of shops, providing free samples of food, and eventually by posting in newspapers and radio (O’Barr, 2005). An intriguing historic fact is that advertising was used to convince people to journey to the New World in the 1800s (O’Barr, 2005). Nowadays, with increased exposure to media through television, cell phones, computers, and other electronic devices, marketing has become more advanced and ubiquitous. According to the documentary, advertisements have consistently carried the standard of indoctrination, or promotion. The documentary describes that there used to be a limited and “cheap marketing culture” for children in the 1900s. After deregulation in the 1980s, the trend of promotion or “indoctrination” had drastically grown throughout time as marketers found better ways to popularize their products, services, and values.