Advertising Is Essentially a Negative Influence on Term Paper

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Advertising is Essentially a Negative Influence on Society:

Generally, advertising has been part of economies across the globe since the commencement of trade as merchants have primarily sorted out the benefits of their goods in the marketplace. Some of the most common advertising means that were present in ancient advertisement include shop signs and broadsides in posts, walls, or trees. Since then advertising has continued to grow and develop to an extent that styles and objectives of advertising have been transformed significantly. However, despite operating successfully for many years, the prevailing stance regarding advertising in academic circles is that it's harmful to the society (Hayko, 2010, p.79). In essence, advertising is essentially a negative influence on society due to its efforts to sell products without regards to consequences. Some insiders in the advertising business have even admitted to the evils that are brought by advertising means. These concerns have contributed to questions on whether advertising is simply a communication channel between seller and consumer. Actually, the positive effect of advertising is the sales generated as a result of the process while the negative effects of the process are experienced by those targeted by advertising.

Debate:

Speaker A: The numerous events and incidents in the recent past in the advertising industry have led to criticism of advertising simply because the process does not give adequate considerations to ethical issues and concerns. One of the reasons why advertising is essentially a negative influence on society is that it manipulates people to buy products they don't need by playing with their emotions. This is mainly because advertising involves the use of powerful persuasive techniques that consumers find hard to defend themselves against. The manipulation even occurs when the products do not live up to the promised benefits, which causes public criticism.

Speaker B: The argument that advertising essentially has a negative effect on society because it leads to manipulation of the consumers is basically wrong.

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In essence, advertising cannot make people to buy products they don't need and does not really toy with people's emotions. The argument that people make their purchase decisions based on emotions stimulated by advertising is to demonstrate little respect for consumers' ability to make decisions and their common sense (O'sullivan, n.d.).

Secondly, the inability of products to fulfill their promised benefits is not an issue of advertising but a problem of manufacturing. Advertisers are not more concerned with the benefits of the product but focus more on generating huge sales. Therefore, companies should know that advertising products put their brands and reputations online rather than damaging advertising. This implies that the influence of advertising has been exaggerated since people do not pay much attention and focus to the process.

Speaker A: I disagree. Advertising creates artificial needs as evident in the fact that there is too much advertising. Actually, advertising pops up everywhere in the modern business world, in today's communication, and in nearly every space in the society. As a result, it attracts attention and contributes to changes in attitudes, which in turn influences modern culture. As advertising continues to dominate the society, it has heightened materialism, replaced inner happiness, and intrinsic motivation. The negative influence of advertising on the society is attributed to its drive to only make people purchase and consume happiness. In essence, advertising has reduced people to the role of irrational consumer by manipulating and stereotyping real life situations.

Speaker B: Hmmmm …. you are totally wrong! Advertising does not create artificial needs since consumers will not buy a product if they have no need for it. Moreover, advertising only helps consumers to decide brands to buy based on the need they already have for the product. Therefore, through creating advertisements, marketers seek to satisfy already existing needs and wants instead of creating the needs. Notably, the huge presence of advertising….....

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