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Essay about The Hidden Benefits of Advertising

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The United States annually spends over 300 billion dollars in advertising. The money is spent by business firms to promote their products and services and by political and nonpolitical groups to raise awareness on different issues. If over 300 billion dollars is spent annually on advertising, then people must be strongly affected by ads, otherwise, groups would not spend such a large sum on advertisements. Then, the question at hand is how are people affected by advertising? Vitriolic detractors of ads assert that advertisements are a malignant tumor of modern-society, whereas proponents of advertising counter that promotions are the backbone of society. While it is true that advertisements can have some negative consequences, critics …show more content…

Then monopolies would be created in the industries, and the situation would be bleak for consumers. On the other hand, advertising’s ability to disperse information is a double-edged sword. Advertising can “reinforce racial, cultural, and sexual stereotypes” (Day), but “advertising is… [also] teaching” (Culpa). While it is true that advertisements can endorse products and behaviors that are harmful, as many counter-ads condone the actions of the aforementioned ads (the cigarette industry is a prime example of a balance between positive and negative ads). Along with the counter-ads, there are also ads encouraging positive ideas, such as blood donations. The American Red Cross for example, has an advertisement to persuade people to donate blood, which is a constructive idea since “when we give blood, we help save lives” (Red Cross). The Red Cross is not the only company that has beneficial ads; the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Habitat for Humanity, and Goodwill are other companies that also have positive ads. When the number of counter-ads and positive ads are combined, they greatly outnumber the negative ads, which means that advertisements in general promote the welfare of people. Advertising also has benefits other than its uncanny ability to spread information. In fact, due to advertisement’s abilities to diffuse through society,

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