'Jesus Is A Brand Of Jeans'

In today’s society, no matter where you are, there is always a good chance that you have seen an advertisement. These little creatures are everywhere. You may see them when you are reading a magazine, watching TV, or surfing the internet. We have become so used to them. Advertisements are good at making us stop what we are doing and giving them our full attention. What is an advertisement? An advertisement is an announcement made to the public. In Jib Fowles’ article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” he is informing us that companies are spending millions of dollars on advertisements to grab our attention in order to manipulate us into spending or thinking of spending our hard-earned money on their product. Even though a lot of people do not want to believe that a paper that is eight times eleven with an image and no more than five words is manipulative because we want to think that we are not that easy to trick. Nike created an advertisement for one of

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.

Picture a long, stressful day where an avalanche of work completely exhausted your energy. The only thing worth looking forward to is coming home to relax while tuning into your favorite television show. In between the show, a commercial comes on to propose an energy drink built to help overcome those prolonged and demanding days at work. Advertisers are known for creating the most influential and effective way to launch their products to the general public. In the article “Men’s Men and Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig suggests that advertisements rely on stereotypes in order to manipulate consumers. Likewise James Twitchell, author of “What We are to Advertisers” strengthens Craig's reasoning by discussing the methods of persuasion that capture their respective audience’s attention to create a good commercial and sell a product. Both authors focus on the different techniques used by the advertising industry. Through their supporting demographic and psychographic evidence, they utilize advertising to show a strong correlation between each other. By using subtitles both authors explain the distinctive stereotypic profiles that are formed just from advertisers constantly examining the target audiences in order to create a connection with the product and the consumer. Twitchell reinforces Craig's position by introducing the different types of profiles advertisers target and be recognizing the effects of the method pathos and logos has

“Jesus Is a Brand of Jeans,” by Jean Kilbourne, argues that most products are advertised are trying to convince us that the product is more important than people. Kilbourne also says that despite what people think, advertising affects us all. Commercials promise you the best quality and even happiness. Once the product is in your hands and is ready to be used, we end up very disappointed. I agree with Kilbourne because I’ve watched several advertisements, and one, in particular, has certainly affected me. I was at home cooking my meals for the week when I heard the commercial.

     We live in a fast paced society that is ruled by mass media. Every day we are bombarded by images of, perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin, and ageless faces that flash at us like a slide show. These ideas and images are embedded in our minds throughout our lives. Advertisements select audience openly and subliminally, and target them with their product. They allude to the fact that in order to be like the people in this advertisement you must use their product. This is not a new approach, nor is it unique to this generation, but never has it been as widely used as it is today. There is an old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' and what better way to tell someone about a product

The readers of both Moss and Watters are introduced to the manipulative skills corporations hold within their mega-marketing and idea processing backgrounds. Both authors introduce their mega-marketing topics as a negative and chilling idea, in which the products that big corporations are trying to sell are related to something much simpler in terms of the effect’s it will have on the human body. For instance, Watters states “these practices are the medical equivalent of what real estate agents do to sell vacation time shares” (514). In this statement, he is comparing the selling objectives of drugs to vacation homes, and how corporations can use the same tactics in order to mega-market and sell their products. Watters is bringing up the idea of drug companies encouraging and advertising the use of antidepressants, as they are trying to change the morals and thoughts of diseases and drug usages of other countries such as Japan. Moss would agree with Watters’ idea of corporations using their persuasive actions on consumers. In his writing, he states that the world and “culture [has] become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing” (Moss 260). Both food and drug corporations take a stand in mega-marketing, pushing their ideas into the minds of consumers. Although they do not focus on separate beliefs of

This documentary touched on so many accurate points in today’s society. Ads encourage unhealthy attitudes such as eating disorders. The obsession

As critical thinkers, it is imperative that we have the ability to take fallacies into account - especially when it comes to advertisement. It is very easy to become influenced based on how products, such as food, liquor, diet supplements, and even toothpastes are presented to us. Some products may appeal to different aspects of our lives, this is done by the use of rhetorical devices. In other words, rhetoric devices are “used to influence beliefs or attitudes through the associations, connotations, and implications of words, sentences, or more extended passages. Rhetorical devices include slanters and fallacies” (Higher Education). Some advertisements may appeal to our emotions, which is known as pathos. On the other hand, others may

Over the last few decades, American culture has been forever changed by the huge amount of advertisement the people are subjected to. Advertising has become such an integral part of society, many people will choose whether or not they want to buy a product based only on their familiarity with it rather than the product’s price or effectiveness. Do to that fact, companies must provide the very best and most convincing advertisements as possible. Those companies have, in fact, done

In an average day, an American is exposed to over 3000 advertisements, (Kilbourne). Whether they want to admit it or not, they are drawn toward them. A common scheme of the advertisers is to allow the consumer to “picture the new them.” Whether this be a wealthier them, a skinner them, or a prettier them, they gear there product towards every person and want everyone be able to connect with the advertisement and picture the “new them.” American Idol, Nutrisystem, and The Biggest Loser, the lottery, and many other “products” promote that anyone has the chance to be famous, fit, or fortunate. The successes from these “products” present themselves as they were before, with the sob story that hopefully touches a nerve with

The following advertisement is about a prescription medicine, HARVONI, that is used to treat chronic hepatitis C. This advertisement derives from the Sports Illustrated magazine and is a prime example of the utilization of logos due to the fact that it provides facts on the medicine and informs the audience of how extraordinary its success rates are. It is inferred that the message of the ad is it is in the best interest for people to purchase HARVONI. The intended audience is comprised of adults diagnosed with hepatitis C due to the fact that the remedy is used to cure the illness. The advertisement is attempting to elicit the emotion of eagerness in its audience to encourage them to obtain HARVONI to purge themselves of the virus. Also, a sense of joy is felt because the ad declares nearly all people who used it were cured in only twelve weeks, compared to other medicines that can take as long as a year to

Both of these authors would seem to agree in the sense that the underlying messages and emotional and rational appeals present in commercial advertisements are the key to what make them memorable to the viewers. Although both authors focus on different aspects of the psychological perspective they both make it clear that there are various factors to take into consideration when analyzing the influence that advertisements can have on consumers. In order to influence the public the way that they do, advertisements use emotional appeals along with various arousal tactics in order to make the commercial as persuasive as possible. They attempt to stimulate not only our 5 main senses but they also appeal to our minds, moods, and feelings by making their situations either hilarious, sad, or informative in some way so that we, as the viewers, can relate on a deeper

In fact, “from 1997 to 2007, these procedures, overall, rose 457% to almost 12 million per year and an increase of 114% in actual surgeries, such as breast implants and liposuction”(Hodgson), all as a result of the influence of the advertising environment. Yet despite these statistics, many people feel exempt from the influence of advertising, this is because “only 8% of an ad’s message is received by the conscious mind, the rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain”(Kilbourne). This working and reworking of the ad’s subliminal message of the brain is exponentially increased by the amount of ad’s the average American is exposed to every day. On average, Americans are exposed to over three thousand advertisements per day and will have been spent two years of their lives watching advertisements on the Internet and television by the time they die. This two hundred and fifty billion dollar per year industry that we call advertising profits from the appeasement of its consumers but at the cost of the consumers mental state. The cost of this environment, however, goes much further than just the environment itself, and extends rather into the direct objectification and dehumanization of women.

Dave Ramsey, America’s most trusted financial adviser and a radio show host, once said, “We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.” (Ramsey). Ramsey’s quote reflects the state of consumerism that our society is going through. Most of us can easily relate to this quote, let’s be honest most of us have been there done that and then later question our genuine need for whatever we have bought. Regardless, if we feel guilty or not we ought to ask ourselves why and what made this purchase seems so important and necessary at the time. Although this might not come as a surprise to most of us, the answer would be the advertisement industry. In 2016, The United States has spent more than 198 billion U.S dollars on advertising, making America the leader in advertisement in the world (Statista). These ads are designed to force consumers to keep buying things that are unnecessary by sending subliminal messages and applying psychology to trick the consumer into a spending spree. In his short story, “Subliminal Man”, J.G. Ballard uses science fiction approach to illustrate to his readers the preposterous techniques that the advertising industry has been using to boost consumerism. Ballard believes that the consumer’s brain has been tricked into buying against their well, by using technology and applying subliminal technics. Ballard short story questions the effect of consumerism on our moral values, lifestyle, and behavior. Ballard claims that

“Big corporations have succeeded in targeting people’s mood and perception of daily life using advertisement content. And turn to take control of our space and even our mind by providing free contents to the general public in form of advertising.’ (Jhally 1997). Advertising is used by corporations a strong weapon to imperialize people minds when making daily lifestyle choices, ie, people have no absolute control over their daily lives where advertising exist. This paper will highlight the potential motivation for corporation’s interest in targeting people’s moods and vulnerabilities in their advertisement. Sometime I get confused when I think of what will make our lives great, or something that will lead people to full happiness. But at the same time, on the streets, bus stations, schools, hospitals, supermarket, on television, radio, movies and so many places I go, there is turns of pieces of information that is saying ‘do this you we feel different, you will be happier.’ Myself just like any other person who has an inborn drive of achieving happiness, I get locked up by buying piles of shoes, different generation of iPhone, different cars and so many of