The Pros And Cons Of Advertising

What does an ad say about a society? When viewing a product advertisement, many people never stop to think why the ad and product appeals to them. However, when a more critical look is taken, it’s easy to see precisely how ads are carefully tailored to appeal to trending values of a targeted demographic, and how that makes it easy to examine the society of those whom the ad is targeted at. In the analytic writing Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin provides an excellent example of this, as she crafts a logical and clear analysis of a 1950’s Coca-Cola magazine ad which thoroughly explains how advertisements can reveal quite a great deal about the society in which they were created.

Unfortunately, advertising is sending our country into a quick downward spiral, doing an immense amount of harm and little good. Companies pay millions of dollars each year, in hopes to successfully pull the wool over our eyes and get their product sold. The dishonesty is leaving the citizens of this country with nothing to gain. The biggest problem with advertising is that the majority of it is alarmingly misleading. Advertisements convey an unrealistic view of a particular product. Companies go to extraordinary lengths to persuade consumers to indulge in unnecessary luxuries. Once again, the consumer falls victim to their tricks and

Advertisements are everywhere; while driving you may see them on a billboard, while watching tv, looking through your phone, and even while watching your favorite youtuber. Advertisements have been around so long that the techniques behind them are down to a science. Advertisements have been around for so long that they are as apart of our culture as much as television or music. Many times, advertisements will use certain strategies in order to sell their product. The most common being Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos is an appeal to someone’s ethics, their character, it is used to convince the audience of the author’s credibility. The third appeal, pathos, is an appeal to the audiences’ emotion. These strategies have been proven to work very well, so what if an advertisement implemented many of these strategies and still received backlash or wasn’t well received. Well, Pepsi found themselves in that position with their advertisement featuring Kendall Jenner. The advertisement used appeals to pathos, ethos, and even implemented many parts of North American culture, so why did it receive so much backlash? By analyzing pathos, and ethos, I will determine why it received much backlash despite having everything a commercial should.

Imagine living in a world with no influences, no deceptions, no inferiorities, and no ideals. Controlling and manipulative advertisements are creating unrealistic standards for Americans. Advertising convinces people to buy their products by using a multitude of manipulative ideas: targeting inferiorities, tearing apart confidence and self-image, misrepresenting the benefits of a product, and most importantly, creating materialistic ideals. As Stephen Leacock said “Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” The materialistic, self-demeaning, and misleading ways of today’s society is why advertising has a profoundly negative effect on American culture.

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

Naturally, some people will cite the way advertising affects us as proof of its negative effect. Internally, we when discover how it actually affects us, we are uncomfortable because it reaches us in away we do not like to be reached. Advertising reaches past our thinking mind, and speaks to something beyond logic, something more animalistic. We accept the “semi nude images” and “fast cars” (source F) that plaster billboards as ridiculous, yet still something is evoked by these images and messages that goes beyond “rationality” (source F) - we want them. Advertising focuses on targeting our vulnerabilities (source E) and forcing us into action. This primal drive, this bypass, can prove upsetting and many may point to this as a way of the corporations to manipulate us into habits

We’ve all seen big brands get called out for advertisements and campaigns that, regardless of intention, were cited as offensive or distasteful. At times, it seems as though it is impossible to create a campaign that doesn’t offend at least one person, so the challenge posed to our industry is to do better. We need to do more research and be more aware of current societal issues so that could be considered more harmful than beneficial to a brand. Campaigns, like that viral video ad with Pepsi and Kendall Jenner, attempt to simplify social issues to the point that they receive extreme backlash from large groups of their

Advertisements, in the twenty-first century, are an ever-present medium of influence in our day-to-day lives. This notoriously ubiquitous form of publicity has become so intricately woven into our cultural and societal presence that we have learned to absorb the messages put forth by advertisements, often without any question as to their credibility. Advertisers position readers to accept the messages being conveyed, and in doing so, attain an unsettling degree of power over their readers, with the ability to exploit feelings, emotions and desires through the use of clever discourses, images and symbols. In order to undermine the influence and pervasive nature of advertising,

Advertisements have an impact on individuals in society, regardless of what the ads are trying to sell or promote. Certain advertisements force the idea and image of what true beauty “actually” is. These advertisements portray the ideal body which makes a majority of women strive to attain that look, by any means necessary. However, The Dove Beauty Campaign, Real Beauty, revolutionized society’s idea on beauty and allows women to feel beautiful on their own. Dove’s campaign presents the idea that women do not need dozens of cosmetic products to feel beautiful; instead, they should “love the skin [they are] in” (Dove). Virginia Postrel, writer for Bloomberg View and author

The purpose of this analysis is to conduct a comparative analysis of two television commercials by examining their techniques and the use of rhetorical devices to appeal to their target audience. In the first video, “Olivia Wilde Chooses Love” by Revlon uses their product as something to give their audience a boost of confidence. Produced in 2016, the commercial provides a scenario where love is presented as an active choice that women take control. However, in the second video “Beauty on Your Own Terms” by Dove uses a variety of women from different backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, and appearances to express their opinion of how people should not judge anyone for being themselves. Although both advertisements may fulfill their purpose of appealing

Advertisement is to blame for the degradation of women. Women’s progression for gender equality is being slowed down by what is being shown on television commercials that screams to the female viewers, “Wear our revealing products, or suffer the social backlash of not being pretty enough!” While it may appear outlandish to say something of this magnitude, it becomes quite obvious when one looks at the facts of advertisement and the effects that are offset by showing impossible to achieve concepts of beauty.

How are commercial ads changing the way we perceive and consume products? Our technological world is ever evolving and in order to preserve their stance in this evolution companies must adjust the way they advocate their products. During Super Bowl XLIX Always released a revolutionary commercial investigating how we identify with the phrase “like a girl”. The “like a girl” campaign was not only groundbreaking because it was the first feminine product to land a spot during the Super Bowl but it also created a movement from a video.

Advertising is something we see throughout our lives, sometimes without even knowing it. The issue is that some are so small that we don’t even know we’re being told what to buy. Simple placement of branding in our favorite movies and tv shows gives us a bias for that product already. Companies know how to use many rhetorical devices to play towards our emotions and thought processes to make us more apt to try their specific product over the competitor. Sometimes, the devices used in ads are so small and hidden that we do not even see them, but they still affect the way we think and even see some things. Through logos, pathos, and ethos, advertisements change the way we think and feel about their products.

Save money. Live better Walmart! Their slogan has a nice ring to it. Whether it’s on the radio, a billboard or a halftime commercial, there is a small chance that the average consumer would not know the slogan by heart. Advertisements are a significant part of today’s culture because they influence everyday lives in both positive and negative ways. The concept of commercials is very controversial on whether they hold predominantly negative or positive effects on consumers. It is important to consider how the intense amount of propaganda used in commercials is having an adverse effect on the viewpoint of consumers. Commercial propaganda has a negative impact on consumers through their false realities and bandwagon appeal.

Advertisements has been around for decades, the main goal of advertising is to intrigue consumers. Producers spend billions of dollars yearly to sell their products. The aspect of advertising is to analyze and change the portrayal of women. I recently viewed an advertisement from Glamour magazine November 2013 issue, which I believe indeed is viewed as offensive. According to my sources “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising” and “Killing Us Softly 4” both by Jean Kilbourne, there many forms of offense in advertisements. The name of the advertisement I found is called “Josie Marian” which is named after an American model, actress and entrepreneur and it is quoted “What kind of nut puts oil on her face?” with subtitles “A nut like me”. The advertisement is a picture of Josie Maran smiling, and pointing both index fingers towards her face. This advertisement can be viewed as offensive to women because it illustrates that with this product you will be beautiful and perfect. The company also quotes that there product is the best on the planet. Which is a broad statement, and will entice women that it is needed. This essay will describe how images, text, and settings of advertisements all work together to form offensive messages.