Is Too Much Advertisements Bad?

Background:
Advertising has become $1 million industry spreading throughout the world. We can see advertisements at almost all public places and in all types of media. Advertisements are present everywhere be it the newspapers, Internet or the road side hoardings. Advertisements help the companies in selling their products and services but many people believe that too much advertising has its own harmful effects especially in case of children.

Arguments In Favour of
1. Advertising has reached such a high level that some people consider it as an invasion in their life. They do not want a huge amount of information that is being constantly provided to them through advertisements while driving or walking down the street, watching television or even while reading their e-mails.

2. This which amount of advertisements can lead to an overwhelming demand in many people to decide between the competing demands for the attention. This is known as choice overload or tyranny of choice. Recent studies suggests that even though people are better off and have more choices to spend their money on but they are not as happy as they were 30 years ago. The claims made in the advertisements raise the hopes of the people regarding a particular product or service but they feel disappointed when the product does not turn up to their expectations. They may feel that it is their fault as they have not chosen wisely and they also regret that we should have chosen something else. Huge amount of advertising leads to a complete inability to choose in some people.

3. Advertisers use many methods to grab the attention of the people and convey their message. Attentions grabbing words or provocative pictures are used in posters. Some advertisements even convey their message through what appears to be public information or a piece of art. In such cases people don’t even realize that they have been subjected to marketing. Such advertisements target the unconscious mind of the people and take away the freedom to make choices.

4. Some advertisements not only advertise products but also try to make the people who don’t have such product feel inferior. The perceptions of fashion and beauty have particularly been distorted by such advertisements. A lot of youngsters are suffering from low self-esteem or an unhealthy lifestyle because they feel that they should have been slimmer of more attractive like the models that will see in the advertisements.

5. Some advertisements give an impression especially to children that they should possess everything that they want to. People lose their values of hard work, patience and moderation and become obsessed and selfish with their possessions. It has an adverse effect on relationships and the personal development of individuals which in turn affects the whole society adversely.

6. Advertisements only care about profit and the welfare of society is not a consideration for the advertisers. Therefore we see advertisements about harmful and unhealthy products. The rising number of obese children could partly be attributed to the large number of advertisements regarding fast food. Such advertisements do not care about the health of the children and make them eat as much fast food as they can.

7. Advertisements provide an unfair advantage large companies and small businesses are not able to provide information regarding their products to large number of people even though they may have better products. They way, customers are not able to find out about all the choices available to them and it results in restricting the quality of products for the customers.

Arguments Against
1. The large numbers of advertisements that we see everywhere are a significant part of the income of many people. Several sports are benefited by advertisements as many teams are sponsored by advertisers. Nobody is going to look at advertisements and those who do not want to see them can simply ignore them.

2. Advertisements play a positive role in the society. They help us choose the right product. Advertisements provide us information regarding the new features of a product. Some other advertisements rely on the price advantage that a particular product provides against its competitors. Advertisements do not make us buy products, we are already thinking about buying the product. Advertisements only help us in making the right decision by providing us information about choices that are available to us.

3. Advertising using sly methods have already been banned. The other cases only reflect the creativity of the advertisers. People are making unconscious judgments continuously and we often try to influence their judgment. People wear makeup on improving their image and similarly the supermarkets are painted in bright colors for making the food more appetizing to the customers. This is not brainwashing and neither the advertisements.

4. Much more is caused by celebrity magazines and the media when extremely thin model are glorified and overweight or an attractive people are mocked at. Advertisements cannot criticize people as it would be very harmful for them. The only reflect what the people think. It is not the job of the advertisers to put the people right but it is the job of the politicians, academicians and the media.

5. In our society companies make products that people want. If people would stop wanting products what would happen to the companies and people who manufacture these products? The economy would suffer greatly. It is better that people can buy things they want as compared to the situation where people can only buy things that they need.

6. The advertisements that promoted unhealthy things are becoming rare. Cigarette advertising is nowhere to be seen and alcohol advertisements are also heavily restricted. In case of advertisements regarding fast food products, the companies are promoting healthier options. Any advertisement that is considered harmful for children is also considered harmful for the business itself. Effective regulations and public pressure could successfully keep any advertising problems under control.

7. In case there had been no advertisements, small businesses would have no chance to make the public aware of their products at all. It does not matter how small the company is if it has a good product. In case we curtail the freedom of information, it would only give an advantage to the large companies.

Conclusion
Even though too much advertising is harmful and needs to be restricted, especially the advertisements aimed at children and those promoting unhealthy products, the customers have a right to know about the choices available in the market.