negative effects of advertising essay

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Advertising Makes Us Unhappy

• Nicole Torres

The more a country spends on ads, the less satisfied its citizens are.

The University of Warwick’s Andrew Oswald and his team compared survey data on the life satisfaction of more than 900,000 citizens of 27 European countries from 1980 to 2011 with data on annual advertising spending in those nations over the same period. The researchers found an inverse connection between the two. The higher a country’s ad spend was in one year, the less satisfied its citizens were a year or two later. Their conclusion: Advertising makes us unhappy.

• Nicole Torres is a former senior editor at Harvard Business Review.

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Advertisements Negative Impacts Essay

Introduction, works cited.

In the modern economy, advertising plays a central role in the growth of companies because it markets products, creates awareness among potential customers, and persuades them to purchase. In essence, advertising boosts sales significantly, generates profit, and enables customers to grow in the competitive local and global markets. Given that advertising is a very powerful tool in marketing, it shapes buying behavior of customers. Advertising can shape beliefs, norms, values, principles, and ethics in the society because marketers carefully design adverts that influence consumer behavior.

Companies spend billions of dollars every year in advertising their products with the objective of retaining customers, attracting new ones, and increasing their sales. Since marketing offers companies freedom of expressing their products to customers, they should operate within the confines of their freedom. However, companies do not operate within their inalienable freedom of expression because they infringe on the rights of others when they advertise products, which have harmful effects on health (Smith and Foxcroft 4). Moreover, adverts damage the societal fabric by bringing in new beliefs, values, norms, principles, and ethics, which degrade morality. In this view, this essay argues that governments should ban certain adverts because they have harmful effects on health and degrade morality in the society.

Alcohol is a drink that has caused several problems in the aspects of health, morality, and education. While some individuals indulge in alcohol in the absence of advertising, a considerable number of people become alcoholics because of the magnitude of advertisements posted in various media. Eisenberg and Eisenberg state that the purpose of advertising is to inform potential clients about the presence of a product and persuade them to purchase (15). The implication of the purpose is that a high number of people start consuming alcohol after watching, reading, or listening to the advertisements.

Practically, several companies advertise alcohol in a very creative and appealing manner. As such, people who come across these adverts are tempted to consume the product. Some individuals who indulge in alcohol end up as addicts, who are unable to undertake their daily obligations. It is important to note that regardless of the numerous restrictions that governments impose on alcohol marketing, some manufacturers do not comply. Failure to comply with the restrictions imposed by governments makes control of adverts a challenging task.

The effects of alcohol-related adverts are diverse because they affect health, morality, and education. Since alcoholism is a problem that emanates from the advertisement of alcohol, banning of adverts is one of the major interventions that can minimize the problem. With the problem of addiction and excessive consumption of alcohol, individuals lose self-control and start to engage in unhealthy eating habits and immoral behaviors that affect their health. In some instances, various individuals contract life-threatening diseases, which eventually lead to premature death. According to Bayless and Diehl, 14,000 people die because of liver cirrhosis every year in the United States (665). The implication of the findings is a serious challenge that emanates from adverts related to alcohol and the essence of banning them.

Another major challenge related to advertisement of alcohol concerns the field of morality and education. In essence, when individuals take alcohol owing to the awareness created by the adverts, their morality deteriorates. Since alcohol leads to addiction, individuals who use it fail to undertake their obligations, and thus, start using dubious means to acquire the product. Adams asserts that theft, murder, and other criminal activities are among the results of taking alcohol (184).

These criminal activities emerge because individuals become dependent on the product and cannot acquire it since they are unable to undertake their obligations to get money or resources used to purchase the product. Notably, advertising leads to the eventual consumption of alcohol, some individuals lose their jobs, deplete their resources, and become criminals in an attempt to earn a living and acquire the product.

Students who are young and vulnerable get the temptation to consume the product after watching or listening to witty adverts from alcohol marketers. The results of alcohol consumption among students are often diverse and range from high levels of school dropouts, criminal activities, and child labor (Smith and Foxcroft 8). Although several countries encourage advertisement of drugs and alcohol during the late hours of the night, some students stay awake and watch the adverts. Furthermore, students find the banners and other forms of written adverts, which compel them to experience the urge to drink alcohol. As such, a complete ban on the adverts is the best strategy to control the challenges of alcoholism in the society.

Banning tobacco related adverts is fundamental reducing the number of people who consume tobacco and experience related problems. Findings demonstrate a rise in the number of tobacco consumers in the United States is due to advertising (Bottorff et al. 6). The rising number of tobacco consumers relates to the high level of advisements witnessed in the recent past. In their creative adverts, several marketers focus on the advantages that are untrue in most cases and downplay the problems that result from tobacco consumption.

As a result, various individuals engage in the consumption of tobacco after getting knowledge on the advantages, and in turn end up managing the problems associated with addiction. In an attempt to increase their revenues and outsmart their competitors, tobacco manufacturers and marketers have intensified the level of advertisements, and thus, several individuals remain tempted to consume the product.

Notably, tobacco has various diseases related to its consumption that include asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, and emphysema. Tobacco is very addictive, and thus, its consumption leads to addiction, a condition that makes smokers consume several cigarettes on a daily basis. Smith and Foxcroft explain that the number of deaths associated with tobacco consumption is increasing owing to advertising (5). The increasing number of deaths resulting from the use of tobacco implies that several families will continue losing their loved ones if states or governments do not ban tobacco adverts.

Morality and education are also the fields that experience serious challenges that originate from the use of tobacco. Since the chief focus of marketers is to increase their revenues and market share, the majority downplay the essence of informing their potential clients about the effects of smoking (Eisenberg and Eisenberg 14). Practically, several tobacco adverts leave very little space for information concerning the effects of tobacco. As a result, various individuals consume the product naively without learning about the consequences of its consumption. Moreover, several adverts educate individuals regarding the benefits of tobacco consumption; however, these benefits are often untrue and baseless.

For instance, tobacco marketers produce adverts that present consumers as successful and presentable individuals. However, the reality is that tobacco consumption has negative outcomes. After consuming tobacco, several individuals become addicts for they rely on it for their bodies to function normally. In the absence of the product, cigarette smokers engage in a number of criminal activities to acquire money for buying tobacco. Some of the activities that emanate from the use of tobacco can be theft, murder, drug abuse, and other immoral activities (Morizot and Kazemian 383). The acts that are not morally upright result from the high levels of addiction and dependency, which hamper the productivity of individuals.

Learning institutions are among the areas affected by the intensified tobacco advertisements. Students are usually vulnerable, and therefore, adverts related to tobacco increase their willingness to purchase and smoke tobacco. The high vulnerability occurs because most of the students are young and cannot make informed or rational decisions. When students come across banners or written materials that advertise tobacco, they are tempted to consume and experience claims of adverts. Tobacco smoking among students often leads to school dropout, reduced academic performance, rudeness, and stress in families (Smith and Foxcroft 7). By banning tobacco adverts, governments greatly minimize the effects associated with health, morality, and education.

Advertisements play an important role in modern societies. Marketers often use adverts to persuade potential consumers to purchase and consume their products. While several adverts market products that improve the well-being of people in the society, others are annoying and have negative outcomes. Some adverts affect health, morality, and education of individuals in the society. Adverts, which promote the use of alcohol and tobacco, are among the annoying adverts. To minimize the negative impacts of adverts and improve health, morality, and education in the society, governments need to ban annoying adverts.

Adams, Robert. Foundations of Health and Social Care . London: Macmillan, 2007. Print.

Bayless, Theodore, and Anna Diehl. Advanced Therapy in Gastroenterology and Liver Disease . Hamilton: Decker, 2005. Print.

Bottorff, Joan, Rebecca Haines-Saah, Mary Kelly, John Oliffe, Iris Torchalla, Nancy Poole, Lorraine Greaves, Carole Robinson, Mary Ensom, Chizimuzo Okoli, and Craig Phillips. “Gender, smoking and tobacco reduction and cessation: a scoping review.” International Journal for Equity in Health 13.114 (2014): 1-15. Print.

Eisenberg, Bryan, and Jeffrey Eisenberg. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers when they Ignore Marketing. New York: Thomas Nelson Inc, 2007. Print.

Morizot, Julien, and Lila Kazemian. The Development of Criminal and Antisocial Behavior: Theory, Research, and Practical Applications. New York: Springer, 2015. Print.

Smith, Leslie, and David Foxcroft. “The Effect of Alcohol Advertising, Marketing, and Portrayal on Drinking Behavior in Young People: Systematic Review of Prospective Cohort Studies.” BMC Public Health 9.51 (2010): 1-11. Print.

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Effects of Advertising: A Qualitative Analysis of Young Adults’ Engagement with Social Media About Food

Annika molenaar.

1 Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Notting Hill 3168, Australia; [email protected] (A.M.); [email protected] (W.Y.S.)

Wei Yee Saw

Linda brennan.

2 School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia; [email protected]

3 School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia; [email protected]

Megan S. C. Lim

4 Behaviours and Health Risks, Burnet Institute, Melbourne 3004, Australia; [email protected]

5 Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton 3053, Australia

Tracy A. McCaffrey

Associated data.

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available as consent was not provided by the participants to provide their responses outside of the study team but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Young adults are constantly exposed to energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages, particularly through advertising. Exposure can influence poor food choices and negatively impact health. This study aimed to understand young adults’ attitudes and experiences associated with food-related advertisements, particularly on social media. This qualitative analysis involved n = 166 Australian 18 to 24-year-olds who were involved in a four-week online conversation on different areas relating to health, social media, and eating. Inductive thematic analysis was utilised on two forums on the recall and perceptions of food-related advertisements. Young adults commonly mentioned aspects of the marketing mix (promotion, product, price, and place) in food advertisements. Participants were more readily able to recall energy-dense, nutrient-poor food advertisements compared to healthy food-related advertisements. Digital advertisements were often discussed alongside the use of ad-blockers and algorithms which tailored their social media viewing to what they like. Participants felt constant exposure to unhealthy food advertisements hindered their ability to realise healthy eating behaviours and created feelings of guilt. This current analysis highlights the need to provide an advertising environment that appropriately motivates healthy eating and a food environment that allows healthy food to be the affordable and convenient option.

1. Introduction

Food advertising has been found to be an important influence on food choices, eating behaviours, and consumption patterns [ 1 ]. Energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods are associated with negative health consequences [ 2 , 3 ]. Additionally, EDNP foods are some of the most advertised foods on television [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ] and online [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Increased exposure to fast-food advertisements has been associated with increased consumption of EDNP foods in adults [ 11 ]. The effects of food advertising on children and adolescents have also been widely studied due to the relationship between these advertisements and unhealthy dietary choices [ 12 , 13 ]. Consequently, marketing of EDNP foods to children is regulated in many countries [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Research on young adults specifically is more limited, with some evidence indicating potential vulnerabilities to food advertising [ 17 , 18 ].

Young adults have amongst the poorest dietary behaviours compared to other groups, with diets often high in EDNP foods and low in fruit and vegetables [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Young adults aged 18 to 24 years experience a potentially vulnerable and malleable transitional period known as the “emerging adulthood” years [ 19 , 22 ]. During this developmental stage, young adults encounter important life transitions which enable them to gain independence and responsibility, as well as possibly establish long-term health-related behaviours [ 19 ]. Although young adults may be less likely than older age groups to have current major health problems, they are still at risk of negative effects of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours which may track into later adulthood, potentially leading to serious health consequences later in life [ 19 ]. Young adults are therefore an important age group to understand in order to encourage the establishment and maintenance of healthy behaviours and protect individuals from the effects of EDNP food advertising.

Traditional food advertising channels are television (all types), radio, print (magazines and newspapers), and billboards [ 23 ]. However, in the digital era, advertising takes place on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter [ 24 , 25 ]. Social media advertising can be defined as “the utilization of social media technologies, channels, and software to create, communicate, deliver and exchange offerings that have value” [ 26 ]. Social marketing, which aims to utilise marketing principles in order to create behaviour change for social good [ 27 ], also utilises social media [ 28 ]. Social media is utilised by both food and health industries as an advertising platform to increase brand and information reach [ 9 , 29 ]. Young adults are amongst the largest users of social media, with Australian 18 to 29-year-olds spending on average the longest amount of time on different social media platforms [ 30 ]. Due to the pervasiveness of social media, young adults are also constantly exposed to advertising of EDNP foods and beverages on social media [ 8 , 9 , 18 ]. Furthermore, social media is frequently used by young adults to communicate, gather, and share food- and health-related information [ 31 , 32 ].

As a result of social media’s effectiveness as a platform to disseminate food and health information [ 33 , 34 , 35 ], social media advertising has the ability to impact young adults’ health, regardless of whether the information provided is accurate or inaccurate [ 8 , 18 , 34 , 35 ]. Social media advertising relies heavily on social influence strategies, harnessing the economic value of social networks and social aspirations to persuade people to buy [ 36 ]. Using artificial intelligence, advertisements can be created, executed, evaluated, and refined within hours, thereby enabling more profound levels of persuasion than ever before [ 37 ].

An important component of social media advertising is that it can be created and targeted on the basis of algorithms, which track and react to individuals’ participation in the digital environment [ 24 ]. Further, this form of advertising is designed to ensure that ads are relevant to the context of participation and are a “natural” extension of peoples’ behaviours [ 38 ]. Consequently, advertising may not be automatically discernible as advertising because it is integrated seamlessly into an individual’s lived experience [ 18 ]. Such covert advertising is also known as natural or native advertising, but other masked forms of advertising can include sponsorships, influencer marketing, content marketing, stealth marketing, and product placement [ 39 ]. This is of concern, as individuals are often unaware that they are being persuaded to purchase EDNP food products [ 17 ] and are not able to discern the influence these advertisements are having on their food choices [ 40 ]. This is particularly apparent with children, and therefore governments have attempted to mitigate the effect of unhealthy advertisements by introducing regulations [ 41 , 42 ].

All these forms of advertising are designed to create a positive attitude towards a brand and persuade people to buy the brand’s products without necessarily being aware that they are being persuaded. When individuals are involved in or interested in the product, direct (overt) forms of advertising are applicable because they fulfil an information need that leads to people being able to make considered choices about their purchase behaviour. However, covert forms of advertising are applicable when the target audience is not interested in the product or motivated enough about it to pay attention to more complex messages in advertising [ 43 ] or they are unwilling to make considered rational choices [ 44 ]. In these cases, the indirect route to persuasion involves advertising in such a way as to increase the likelihood of behaviour that might lead to a change in attitudes or beliefs without the cognitive processing of an advertising message [ 45 ]. When it comes to food advertising on social media, there is a plethora of messaging using both direct and indirect forms of persuasion [ 46 ].

Additionally, when it comes to eating healthfully, young adults have been found to be overwhelmed with contradictory nutrition information on social media [ 47 ]. The exposure to this potentially untrue and contradictory food and health information may cause cognitive conflicts and interrupt active decision making for healthy eating [ 47 ]. This is particularly problematic in social media advertising for food products where a majority of information or advertising is presented with simple claims and enticing visuals [ 48 ]. Unhealthy food advertisements have been shown to have a significantly more positive response by adolescents compared to healthy food and non-food-related advertisements [ 49 ]. The ability for EDNP food manufacturers to persuasively advertise their food products to young adults and create a digital environment which features EDNP foods presents a serious concern for public health and the diets of young adults. Therefore, it is important to understand what food related advertisements young adults are seeing and what effect these advertisements have on their attitudes and behaviours. Therefore, this study aims to understand young adults’ attitudes and experiences associated with food-related advertisements, particularly online and on social media.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. online conversations.

This study reports findings from the first Phase of the “Communicating Health Study” [ 50 ]. The Communicating Health study, which runs over four years, aims to apply social marketing techniques to understand how young adults engage with social media regarding both health and healthy eating in order to guide the development of effective social marketing messages that motivate and engage young adults. Communicating Health Phase 1a was a formative research stage which involved a four-week online conversation with young adults discussing a series of health-, social media-, and eating-related topics. Online conversations are a market research methodology that incorporate the principles of digital ethnography [ 51 , 52 ] and involve the use of an online community methodology which gathers rich insights into consumer behaviour [ 53 ]. Online conversations involve communities of participants who are able to discuss different topics over a longer period of time in comparison with other qualitative methods such as focus groups and interviews.

This study received ethics approval from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Business College Human Ethics Advisory Network (project number: 20489) and Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (project number: 7807).

2.2. Recruitment

The study aimed to recruit 200 young adults aged 18 to 24 years old. This target was based on previous work using a similar methodology [ 54 ] in order to achieve an extensive amount of data exploring the topic area. Participants were recruited by an Australian Market and Social Research Society-certified field house [ 55 ]. Young adults who had previously consented to participate in research with three research panels from across Australia (Survey Sampling International (SSI) https://www.surveysampling.com/ accessed on 27 March 2019, Pure Profile https://www.pureprofile.com/au/ accessed on 27 March 2019, and Student Edge https://studentedge.org/youth-research-insight-services accessed on 27 March 2019) were invited to participate in this study. Three panel partners were used to ensure a mix of participants from across Australia as well as to reach the target quotas which were to recruit a sample of participants that is approximately representative of the Australian population [ 56 ] on location (both Australian State or Territory and location type, i.e., metropolitan and regional locations) and gender. All panels were International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-accredited for the purpose of market and social research [ 57 ]. Participants in these panels voluntarily added their names to the field houses’ databases with the expectation they would then be invited to participate in different market research projects.

A screening survey which included demographic information, self-reported weight, height, interest in health, and social media use was sent to panel members to assess their eligibility [ 58 ]. Panel members were eligible if they were aged between 18 and 24 years old, self-reported using social media at least twice a day, and were currently residing in Australia. Completers of this survey who were eligible were sent a link to a profiling survey and were asked to register on the online communities’ website. Participants who registered ( n = 234) were assigned to one of four online communities on the basis of their age and interest in health (four approximately equal online communities based on age: 18–21 or 22–24, and self-rated interest in health: low or mid/high). Interest in health classification was based upon the median value for the following question from the profiling survey: “On a scale of 1–7 where 1 means ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 7 means ‘Strongly Agree’, please indicate how strongly you agree with the following statement—’I take an active interest in my health.’” Participants were separated into four online communities in order to create more homogenous groupings to encourage counterpart conversations; however, data from the four communities were analysed collectively.

Not all participants who completed the profiling survey responded to all of the forums throughout the online conversations. The dropout rate overall ( Figure 1 ) was large, possibly due to the age group and length of the study, which led to the implementation of a referral system, whereby participants could invite their friends (who were then screened and profiled in the same way). While having participants invite friends more closely mirrors social media it may produce some confounding issues, where friends with like views are part of the online conversations. However, the friend referrals were not necessarily placed in the same online community in terms of how they were profiled by their age and interest in health. For participating in the study, participants received an AUD 100 gift voucher as an incentive, and the 20 most comprehensive contributors (i.e., five participants per online community) received an additional AUD 100 voucher.

Communicating Health online conversations study flow diagram.

2.3. Data Collection

The online conversations were operated and moderated by an independent market research field house with topics and questions developed by the Communicating Health researchers. Topics and questions were presented through an online “lounge” hosted on a private website over four weeks (10 May to 6 of June 2017). The online conversations included 20 different topic forums and two challenges which took approximately five minutes each to complete (approximately 110 min total), three short polls, and a journal entry that required at least four contributions throughout the four weeks [ 58 ]. There were two moderators including both a male (MMgt Marketing/Finance) and female (BA Psych Sociol, MA Applied Social Research) moderator who both had extensive experience in consumer and social research. As moderators were unknown to participants, an introductory forum was used to build relationships between participants and moderators. Forums were opened and different questions were posed at different stages throughout the four-week period. All forums remained open for the four-week period and participants were able to post responses in any of the forums up until the final day. Data collected were in the form of digital text responses and uploaded images in response to the questions posed. For this paper, two of the forums from the online conversations were analysed (discussion guide for each forum found in Table 1 ). These specific forums were chosen on the basis of their discussion of food advertisements and were therefore the only ones that provided insight into the research question about attitudes and experiences relating to food advertising. Discussion guides for the remaining forums and challenges in the online conversations are available here [ 58 ]. Due to the forums running over different weeks, there were different completion rates, with n = 166 young adults completing Forum 3 “Ads about food” and n = 145 young adults completing Forum 12 “The health ads we notice”.

Discussion guide and logic of enquiry.

2.4. Data Analysis

Inductive thematic analysis [ 59 ] was used to analyse the verbatim online text responses from both forums. The analysis was conducted on the group of participants as a whole, as making comparisons between different groups based on their characteristics was not the aim of this study. To familiarise themselves with the forum text responses, the authors (W.Y.S. and A.M.) independently read through all 369 responses from Forum 3 and all 190 forum responses from Forum 12. Text responses included individual answers to the posed questions as well as interactions between moderators and other participants. The responses were manually inductively coded and grouped into categories of like responses. This process involved reading the data multiple times to gain an understanding of the overall dataset and then coding the data line by line into codes relating to the subject of that line. These individual codes were then grouped into categories of like responses in order to develop themes. The analysis from both forums were interpreted collectively in the development of overall themes despite the topics and forums themselves being discreet. Analysis was focussed on food products, both “healthy” and “unhealthy” mentioned across both forums in line with the aim of the analysis. Investigator triangulation was employed to enhance the rigor of the thematic analysis and as a form of validation [ 60 ] where two authors coded the forums separately and grouped their like codes before meeting to compare and contrast their coding and to come to a consensus before developing and refining themes. The analysis of all forum responses was conducted by two female authors with backgrounds in nutrition science (W.S. and A.M.). For anonymity, brand and identifying names are removed from participant quotes otherwise quotes are verbatim.

3.1. Participant Characteristics

The demographics for n = 166 participants who completed at least one of the forums analysed (Forum 3 or Forum 12) can be found in Table 2 . Overall, 60.8% of participants were female, 53.0% were of a healthy weight, and 74.7% spoke English as their primary language at home. Participants were generally residing in an Australian Metro location (80.1%), with 48.2% currently living with their parents. Many participants were currently studying (66.9%) and were primarily completing an undergraduate degree (48.2%). The average overall disposable weekly income was low with 39.2% of participants having less than AUD 40 a week.

Participant characteristics of those completing either Forum 3 or Forum 12 or both ( n = 166 participants).

* Location question: “Please confirm where you live: 1. Sydney metro area; 2. Other New South Wales (regional/rural); 3. Melbourne metro area; 4. Other Victoria (regional/rural); 5. Brisbane metro area; 6. Other Queensland (regional/rural); 7. Adelaide metro area; 8. Other South Australia (regional/rural); 9. Perth metro area; 10. Other Western Australia (regional/rural); 11. Hobart metro area; 12. Other Tasmania (regional/rural); 13. Australian Capital Territory (Metro); 14. Northern Territory (regional/rural)”. † Participants could choose more than one response. ‡ Dispensable weekly income question: ‘During a normal week, how much money do you have to spend on yourself for recreational purposes?’

3.2. Thematic Analysis

During triangulation of findings, the authors had similar themes related to the promotion of products and price. The authors believed these themes fit with the marketing mix or the 4Ps of marketing framework that is an established framework in marketing [ 61 ]. Therefore, the 4Ps framework was used to guide the discussion of the results from the participants. The four major themes represented therefore were: Theme 1—promotion, Theme 2—product, Theme 3—price, and Theme 4—place ( Table 3 ).

Summary of thematic analysis.

3.2.1. Theme 1: Promotion

Nearly all participants believed they were well aware of the products that were being promoted to them in their everyday lives. As they were aware that products promoted to them were targeted on the basis of their search history and interests, the advertisements they described were generally of products they were interested in. When asked about health-related advertisements, some participants knew they could not recall such advertisements as they are not interested in health products, so those companies would not be targeting promotions towards them.

“The ads on my social media are tailored to suit what I would like to see, and the internet knows I don’t want to see health ads. I mostly see ads for website creation tools, online stores that I frequent and video games.” (Forum 12: Male, 21 years old)

While many were seemingly aware of the advertising environment they were in, some did not realise the effects the advertisements were having on them, particularly those advertisements that were more covert. Some believed they could “tune out” any product promotions and therefore believed they never really saw advertisements. However, these participants who stated they did not really see advertisements were still able to remember and recall different advertisements when prompted in the forums.

“Hey Y’all, I also saw the new [Brand name removed] chocolate block—it really grabbed my attention. I think using bright colours will always get people’s attention and I don’t even fancy chocolate that much. I think of myself as ad- impenetrable. I often won’t buy products specifically because they are being advertised” (Forum 3: Male, 22 years old)

Some participants stated that they use ad-blocking services so they do not have to see the large amounts of advertising on online platforms. However, these individuals were still able to recall example promotions, indicating even with ad-blocking services they were still faced with advertisements at some point or on some platforms.

“It could be I’ve just grown to tune them out. Oh, something interesting to note also, I do have an adblocker installed, but I turn it off for sites I like (such as facebook and youtube), it’s there purely to protect me from annoying sites or ones which load slowly due to the amount of ads on it.” (Forum 3: Male, 23 years old)

Promotion Strategies That Worked

There were certain aspects of the food promotion that appeared to commonly grab and maintain the attention of these young adults. Frequency and repetition of an advertisement was effective in gaining the attention and sticking in the memory of these young adults.

“As many have already said, the [fast food brand name removed] ad comes to my mind first. The new [fast food product name removed] ad... has come on the many times that my mouth waters and I get the urge to go past [fast food brand name removed] hahaha.” (Forum 3: Female, 20 years old)

Participants were more likely to enjoy when promotions were of food products and services that were relevant to their needs and interests. Moreover, promotions for new products that were related to, or similar to, products they already liked were of interest and something they could see themselves consuming. A combination of high frequency and foods that were relevant and appealing to them was described as a catalyst for purchasing a particular food.

Promotions that were visually appealing, made the food look delicious, and used “happy” or bright colours were mentioned commonly.

“I think this was down to the colours. The ad used pastel colours which made it very easy on the eyes so it was eye catching and pleasant to look at—I wanted to stop and see what the ad was for” (Forum 3: Female, 21 years old)

Other promotion strategies that were attention-grabbing included interactive promotions such as competitions or opportunities to win a reward or voucher to save money on the food. Jokes, wit, slogans, and jingles were attention-grabbing and memorable parts of food promotions. Also mentioned was promotion by celebrities and influencers. Some participants indicated that, at times, this encouraged them to try the products or make changes to their current lifestyle to live up to the outcome advertised by this celebrity or influencer.

Promotion Strategies That Were Disliked

However, advertisements were not always received favourably. Participants stated that advertisements that promoted deals were sometimes viewed as deceptive rather than the good value for money that was intended. Some participants were sceptical that special deals actually saved money and believed it was more likely to lure them in but then they would spend more than intended.

“Creating ‘meal deals’ is one of the best things fast food places have done. It makes people feel as though they are getting a good deal, while walking away having spent more money and eating more calories than they initially planned.” (Forum 3: Female, 24 years old)

Participants wanted advertisements that were tailored to their interests, so when they did happen to see products being promoted to them that they had no interest in, this was seen as annoying. Some jingles and repetitive aspects of product promotion were also viewed as annoying, despite them being “catchy” and even, in some cases, influencing behaviour.

“I guess that even if it’s annoying, the fact I remember it suggests that it worked. I even shop at [brand name removed], and recognise some of the specials.” (Forum 3: Male, 22 years old)

Mostly, seeing an advertisement very frequently was not viewed positively, despite it being successful in being remembered by participants. High frequency promotion was viewed as “annoying”, sometimes even considered “aggressive”, and generally decreased the likelihood that they would go and purchase the advertised food.

“It played sometimes 3 times an ad break. Once I saw it back-to-back twice. It was exhausting.” (Forum 3: Female, 24 years old)

3.2.2. Theme 2: Product

These young adults frequently described EDNP food products, with fewer participants recalling advertisements for healthy foods. Even when asked about health product advertising, participants often described unhealthy EDNP food or fast food instead. There was a sense of familiarity and affinity towards a lot of the foods being described, with participants stating they already ate and enjoy these foods. Knowing how the food tastes sometimes meant the participants were more enticed by the advertisement.

“I think it’s easier for food chains (especially the popular ones) to grab our attention because we already know what we’re getting, most of us would have tried their food before and know how delicious it is. so going back for a special deal or to try something new is motivating for us.” (Forum 3: Female, 22 years old)

Participants often discussed the perceived healthfulness of the foods being advertised to them. Some participants communicated their discontent with being constantly exposed to fast-food advertisements, as these advertisements also hindered their ability to make healthy choices.

“I’m trying to eat healthier and all I see is fast food around me. That really makes it difficult to stay motivated and to avoid derailing back into unhealthy takeaway option.” (Forum 3: Female, 18 years old)

The inability to consume a healthy diet, as the participants thought they should, often gave rise to feelings of guilt and shame as they mentioned they crave/could not resist “unhealthy” foods.

“Most of the food ads I get are for fast food or delivery services, and I try to hide them when I see them so that I can avoid temptation!” (Forum 12: Female, 24 years old)

Some participants indicated that having more healthier food choices advertised that satisfied their needs for convenience and price and less advertisements for EDNP food might ease the process of making healthy choices.

“I have to agree with the [EDNP food brand name removed] ad, that is the only ad I have really taken notice of as well. It’s a little bit disheartening when you think about it that unhealthy foods are the ones that get the spotlight. I’d love to see the 5&2 ads come back!” (Forum 3: Female, 22 years old)

3.2.3. Theme 3: Price

Participants often reported noticing advertisements that highlighted affordable deals, discounts, and special offers. These participants often described themselves as students or on a low income and therefore the affordability of food and budgeting were major factors in their purchasing behaviours.

“On a budget as a university student the only ads that catch my attention are either cheap or on a good deal, like ads about [fast food brand name removed], [fast food brand name removed], [fast food brand name removed] etc. I am not particularly happy with my food choices, but eating healthy can’t be achieved by comparatively expensive healthy options to unhealthy ones.” (Forum 3: Male, 19 years old)

Value for money often caught the eye of the participants as it was relevant to their needs. Price tempted participants to want whatever the advertisement was selling, and some participants stated price was the ultimate reason for them purchasing the advertised food. Even when specifically asked to recall advertisements about health, discounts and value for money of fast food and EDNP food were mentioned.

“With all the promos and deals that most junk food restaurants offer, they make it seems like a big bargain which sometimes it is, so it makes you want to go out and buy it.” (Forum 3: Male, 21 years old)

There were opposing opinions throughout the forums regarding the cost of convenience and takeaway foods in comparison to buying and preparing fresh foods from a supermarket. Some participants believed that buying and cooking their own food would work out cheaper, while others believed convenience and takeaway foods were cheaper, more readily available, and suitable for their busy lifestyles.

“I dislike these [fast food] ads because they are misleading and don’t offer anything positive. Often working class people feel as though these foods are all they can afford, due to dollar menus and $5 meals, however it is consistently shown that whole foods are cheaper in the end.” (Forum 3: Female, 24 years old)

While value advertising strategies were appealing, and initially sounded like a cost-saving purchase, participants described how they usually end up buying more. This was especially mentioned in relation to fast-food companies with “meal deal”-type promotions.

“The marketing they are using is to get people to visit the restaurants, people like myself are unlikely to spend only $3 because we concider this a good deal, it is likely that the more gullible of us (like myself) will spend more money than intended at the restaurant.” (Forum 3: Female, 24 years old)

The food products and services mentioned were most commonly of the convenient or ready-to-eat variety. Even the healthy food options mentioned were mostly convenient health foods or healthy food delivery services rather than whole foods. A perceived lack of time to prepare food drove participants’ desire for convenience foods. Some participants also stated they had no desire or know-how to cook food so instead opted for ready-made food or food delivery.

“Everyday I see this one [food delivery service brand name removed], first time I seen it got me interested for the convenience of the service. Ticked all my boxes healthy, easy, fast and not to much worry about planning.” (Forum 12: Female, 24 years old)

3.2.4. Theme 4: Place

When asked to recall an advertisement, most participants stated they see them passively when scrolling through social media. Participants rarely stated they were following the food brand of whose advertisement they were discussing. Facebook and YouTube were the most common social media platforms mentioned for seeing advertisements. Healthy food-related advertisements identified on social media were generally presented on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

“I’ve seen the 2 fruit 5 veg ad on Facebook multiple times. Definitely something that I find intriguing and occasionally try to do, but not always successfully.” (Forum 12: Male, 23 years old)

Despite being asked about online and social media advertising, participants commonly mentioned advertisements seen on traditional media, particularly on television, radio, and billboards.

“I have recently seen many ads on [fast food brand name removed] mainly on facebook, i find it very annoying i also see it a lot on tv I never really see healthy food ads on tv or in any media i use daily.” (Forum 3: Female, 22 years old)

Some participants described the overt traditional media advertising as more likely to catch their attention as they were not able to “skip” past it. However, some participants described social media advertising as more persuasive and preferred this more covert advertising, for example how Instagram incorporates advertisement into the feed more naturally.

“One of things I like about advertising on Instagram is that is very non-intrusive. It blends in with the feed very nicely. I believe that ads that are placed in Instagram are generally more reputable mainly because they are often accompanied with abosultely amazing shots of the food. It gives you a reason to like it. Also the fact that it is disguised as a post, instead of an ad is quite nice.” (Forum 3: Male, 23 years old)

Also important to participants was the place in which the product advertised could be purchased. Products advertised that could be purchased in convenient locations, such as ordering online and having food delivered to you or picking food up on the way home or near university, were appealing to many participants. Convenience was key to grabbing the attention of many of these time-poor young adults.

“Yes [brand name removed] ads seems to really persuade you. I always get persuaded with the [brand name removed] though. It’s nice to know I can get my donuts near my home instead of driving miles away for it.” (Forum 3: Female, 22 years old)

4. Discussion

This qualitative analysis explored Australian young adults’ experiences related to food advertisements. Elements relating to the promotion, product, price, and place of food advertisements were often discussed as aspects that increased the appeal and recognition of the advertisement. The use of algorithms to target native advertisements that bypass ad blocking software was also prevalent, although our young adults were often able to assess when they are being advertised to. Advertisements that would increase product related intentions were those that promoted the cost (affordability), convenience, and relatability of the product or even the advertisement itself. Companies that used frequent advertising were easy to recall but at the cost of being considered aggressive and reducing the appeal to buy those foods. Participants also suggested that the ability to eat healthfully is very difficult and led to feelings of guilt, as the marketing environment limits the ability to avoid unhealthy alternatives.

4.1. The Marketing Mix

Advertising, whether digital or traditional, supports a combination of elements of a marketing mix [ 62 ]. The marketing mix is sometimes known as the 4Ps of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion). While there are arguably other elements in marketing [ 61 ], the 4Ps were used a framework for the results of this paper as they were evident within the participants’ responses. In the context of social media advertising, the product can be an idea or information as well as any tangible good. It is the object that is at the core of the exchange. Price is the cost associated with adopting the product. Costs can be non-monetary such as time, effort, and consequences, and includes issues such as affordability and accessibility. This was evident in the desire for convenience expressed by participants. Some of these young adults believed they did not have the time or skills to consume healthy food and therefore the cost of purchasing convenient EDNP foods was more appealing. Place is where individuals take up or access the product as well as how they will be reached or engaged. This definition goes beyond geographic location and logistics and includes the types of social media and traditional media platforms mentioned by participants. Promotion is anything associated with getting a message from a sender to a receiver and includes both covert and overt communication techniques.

An alternative application of the marketing mix than promotion of EDNP food is its application in social marketing to positively influence health-related behaviours [ 63 , 64 , 65 ]. Successful adaptation of the marketing mix in healthy eating social marketing interventions has been shown to affect positive behaviour change, particularly when compared to using just communication strategies alone [ 66 ]. In the current study, advertisements that implemented multiple components of the marketing mix were noticed by participants to a greater extent, particularly those used in EDNP food advertisements. This could be because health-related advertising tends to use single P marketing and rely heavily on information/appeal promotion [ 67 ]. EDNP food advertising, on the other hand, evokes an array of emotional, sensory, and appetitive appeals of the product to promote intentions to engage [ 68 ].

4.2. Advertising on Social Media

Participants were less likely to discuss seeing advertisements on social media, despite large amounts of advertising expenditure in Australia being devoted to online advertising [ 69 ]. This could be due to the covert nature of social media advertising or social media advertisements being ignored or blocked by participants. It may also be that attention is not paid to advertising on social media, which is different to seeing and then ignoring ads, especially in the fast-paced world of social media where scrolling and swiping are prevalent behaviours [ 70 ]. Participants reported passive consumption of social media advertising (i.e., seeing but not engaging with the advertisement); however, the constant exposure to food advertisements received primarily negative feedback. While the number of advertisements is intrusive, impressions, exposure, and reach remain key metrics for social media effectiveness [ 71 ]. Consequently, there is unlikely to be a decrease in advertising over the coming years. Furthermore, social media is used by food advertisers to normalise products and increase product attractiveness to consumers regardless of the health implications [ 17 , 72 ].

Automatically sourced content and user-generated content are widely used on social media platforms to influence consumer engagement by embedding and tailoring advertisements on the basis of consumer interests [ 8 , 73 , 74 ]. Participants stated that advertising through social media had a greater persuasive impact and initiated more positive intentions than television advertising, even though more attention was paid to television advertising. This is consistent with prior studies that have found that consumers are less aware of the persuasive intent behind social media advertising [ 75 ]. The results of this study also support the contention of Dunlop et al. [ 8 ] who found that consumers underestimate their degree of exposure to advertisements on social media and are less likely to view social media advertisements as a form of advertising. Marketers have taken to using the power of peer-to-peer transmission of content on social media as a form of persuasion to purchase their unhealthy products, which is generally not distinguishable by young people as advertising [ 76 ]. Most participants described more covert forms of advertising online, which may be due to the need for food marketing to be covert to pass regulatory guidelines [ 77 ].

4.3. Food Prices and Affordability

The results also show that the price of products is an important determining factor for food choices, with affordability limiting their ability to access healthy alternatives. Food affordability is a common concern for young adults [ 22 , 78 ], especially when they first gain financial and social independence [ 19 ]. Young adults are in a unique life stage where they are learning to budget on their own and are often studying with limited income to support consumption of healthy foods [ 78 ]. Previous research has identified affordability as a major driving force for dietary behaviours [ 79 , 80 ], with people often perceiving healthy food as more expensive than unhealthy food, and therefore not something that may be a reality for their lives [ 80 ]. However young adults have also indicated that takeaway food is both expensive and unhealthy and that they could improve self-care by reducing the consumption of these foods and consuming more healthy alternatives [ 81 ]. To achieve the reduction in takeaway food, they would require a food environment that is supportive to change and reduces their exposure to unhealthy food [ 81 ]. Social marketing campaigns or advertising that aim to encourage consumption of healthy food therefore must consider the cost of the healthy alternatives they are promoting and may benefit from drawing attention to the cost per nutrition weight of these foods compared to EDNP foods [ 80 ]. Young adults, particularly those in university, are known to prioritise affordability of food and have a focus on budgeting to afford all their living expenses [ 82 , 83 , 84 ]. Our results also show that price was a key driver of unhealthy food choices, with most participants suggesting that healthy food was unaffordable and therefore often relying on EDNP food, particularly fast food. The food environment and accessibility of healthy foods is a likely contributor to this reliance on EDNP. Living in a food desert or food swamp with limited access to nutritious fresh food and/or greater amounts of EDNP convenience and fast foods have been linked to poor dietary habits and poor health outcomes [ 85 , 86 ].

4.4. Covert and Overt Advertising

The inclusion of attractive visuals and audio have been shown to increase the noticeability and attention paid to advertisements by young adults [ 9 , 46 , 63 , 87 ]. Young adults are often aware of overt advertising and are able to discern marketing activities that are being directed towards them [ 17 ]. On the other hand, covert advertising removes the freedom of choice surrounding whether or not people want to engage with information about a brand or product, as people are not always aware that consumed content is advertising. For example, the majority of U.S. top-grossing movies over 25 years portrayed unhealthy food (73%) and beverages (90%), with branded products accounting for only 12% [ 88 ]. However, despite being aware that companies are advertising EDNP food products to them, participants often felt a sense of guilt for buying into such advertisements and not consuming the healthy foods that they “should” be. As health professionals, we should avoid tendencies to moralise the discussion around food and healthy eating, as these are often filled with shame, guilt, and fear tactics [ 89 ].

4.5. Limitations

Several limitations of this current study include the method of recruitment, where only individuals from within market research panels were invited to participate. The sample of participants were likely to be completing tertiary education and were skewed towards those more educated. Participants were generally studying and living with their family. Although this is typically representative of the Australian population [ 90 ], this may have meant these young adults were not in full control of purchasing and cooking main meals and their discussion may have been more around convenience or snack foods. We did not ask participants whether they were primarily in control of shopping and cooking meals and did not measure dietary intake, and thus we were unable to determine the level of control these young adults had over their meals. Differences in opinions amongst those from different cultures were not explored. There was a large attrition rate across the four weeks the online conversations ran, which may suggest this length of study may not be suitable for this age group and may have led to a bias in those completing being more interested in health. As participants were able to communicate with each other within each of the forums, the likelihood of participants displaying features of groupthink may be higher. Rather than sharing their own unique thoughts and experiences, participants may have sought unanimity, limiting the experiences they shared.

4.6. Implications for Future Practice

Future work should focus on identifying strategies to overcome the persuasive nature of EDNP food advertising both online and in traditional media. Going beyond the current food advertising regulations, which mainly focus on children only [ 41 , 42 , 49 ], would reduce the frequency and nature of EDNP foods being promoted. Concurrently, there should be an increase in the marketing of healthy food and evidence-based nutrition advice, particularly online and on social media. Healthy food advertising could increase its persuasive power by utilising some of the marketing appeals that caught young adults’ attention in these findings.

5. Conclusions

In conclusion, advertising of food products is widely prevalent in social media and traditional media for young adults. Commercial food advertising is noticed and often discounted because of its overt persuasion techniques. Young adults in this study were increasingly using protective measures such as ad-blockers to avoid covert advertising. However, the “weight” of covert advertising and persuasion is un-assessable because attention is not paid to natural, native, or embedded persuasion attempts. Young adults in this study were susceptible to advertising that appeals to pleasure-seeking (taste), cost, and convenience. Health professionals seeking to change food-related behaviours can consider widening the use of the marketing mix and advertising strategies to include appeals that are applicable to young adults’ lived experiences. For young adults to realise healthy eating behaviours, the online and in-person advertising environment must support the consumption of healthy foods.

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the contribution of Associate Professor Catherine Lombard (dec) for the planning and conceptualisation of the Communicating Health project. We would like to acknowledge Karen Klassen for her work on the online conversations. We would like to thank all the participants who took part in the online conversations and the market research field house and other members of the research team for their work on the online conversations.

Author Contributions

Conceptualisation, L.B., M.R., M.S.C.L. and T.A.M.; methodology, A.M., W.Y.S., L.B., M.R., M.S.C.L. and T.A.M.; software, A.M. and W.Y.S.; validation, L.B. and T.A.M.; formal analysis, A.M. and W.Y.S.; investigation, A.M. and W.Y.S.; resources, T.A.M.; data curation, L.B., M.R., M.S.C.L. and T.A.M.; writing—original draft preparation, A.M., W.Y.S. and L.B.; writing—review and editing, L.B., M.R., M.S.C.L. and T.A.M.; visualisation, A.M. and W.Y.S. supervision, L.B. and T.A.M.; project administration, T.A.M.; funding acquisition, L.B., M.R., M.S.C.L. and T.A.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

The Communicating Health project was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (grant number GNT1115496).

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Business College Human Ethics Advisory Network (project number: 20489; date of approval 24th of November 2016) and Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (project number: 7807; date of approval 19th December 2016).

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study and to publish this paper.

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Negative Effects of Advertising on Society

• October 14, 2020

Adverts are everywhere. No one can really avoid them in the modern world. While there are some positives, and we’ll get to that, I want to highlight the negative effects that advertising has on society.

It is what is driving consumerism and what is making people update their phones every year even though they don’t need to. Advertisers are master manipulators. They play with your mind and take advantage of your vulnerability to make money. They can convince nearly anyone.

The scary part is that they are all around us and we sometimes don’t even realize. On our televisions, YouTube videos, websites, Spotify, billboards, at train stations… I could go on and on but I’m not going to bore you.

Without realizing they have managed to brainwash the world. And as all brainwashed people are, we don’t realize we have been brainwashed. We just think everything is normal. We have become completely oblivious to the effects that advertising has on us.

9 Negatives Effects of Advertising

1. promotes consumerism.

We are always told to buy new clothes, that girls need to wear makeup if they want to be pretty and that you can’t be ‘cool’ without having the latest iPhone. Adverts have taught us these habits and many more because it keeps us buying more and keeps companies rich.

There are so many things that we think are normal but if you take the time and really think about them, they don’t really make any sense. They are changing the way we think.

The majority of advertisements promote the fact that buying more stuff will make you happier. But this consumerist lifestyle is what is actually ruining your life.

2. Encourages you to spend money for no reason

Many companies convince you to think that you need their useless product even though the reality is, it wouldn’t make any significant difference in your life.

Think about it this way. For so many years you were able to live without their product. So why waste your money, which you worked hard to earn, on something that you could live without. It might make your life a tiny bit easier, but is it really worth it? Some even go into debt because of this.

People think that buying all this to make themselves happier but at the end of the day they are just doing the opposite. The old saying ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ is true in this case.

3. Buying more stuff is bad for the planet

Consumerism is also causing massive environmental destruction. To make all this stuff (that people do not even need), trees need to be cut down and metals need to be mined. Not only do these deplete our natural resources but these processes release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and ecosystems get destroyed. Now that’s a pretty big price for the earth to pay for something that will not make us any happier.

So, think twice before buying something.

Related: Can Minimalism Help the Environment?

4. Affects children

Companies have started advertising directly to children to bypass the skeptical parents. On television, there are too many toy commercials to count in between TV shows that children watch every day. As they grow a bit older companies also start promoting soft drinks and alcohol to them.

They are trying to get them addicted to these substances as well as the ideology of ‘buying more will make you happy’ as soon as possible so they can make more money.

5. Promotes harmful substances

The promotion of alcohol and smoking is making more people addicted to them. They are extremely bad for our health, yet they make them seem amazing. Teenagers, for instance, think that drinking and smoking will get them more friends and make them more popular. That’s what society is telling them and after so many years, they believe that too.

6. Use of stereotypes

Most times, they enforce stereotypes in the hopes to make more people relate. For example, most beauty products are marketed towards women because they know women use these products more. But these stereotypes are stopping society from moving forward.

They are telling us what we need to do to fit in. Men need to buy these in order to make them more ‘manly’ while women need to buy those items in order to be ‘pretty’ and be liked by men. Many adverts promote gender stereotypes which is something that society is trying hard to get rid of.

But if you grow up seeing these everywhere and it’s the only thing you know, that’s how you will be when you’re older. Before, we could limit our exposure to them, but since everything has become digital and even children are in possession of phones, there’s truly no escaping.

Not to mention how they can even be offensive to some people who have decided to go against these social norms.

7. Makes you feel bad

What adverts often try to do, is make you feel bad about yourself by lowering your self-esteem in order to persuade you to buy that specific product which claims it will make you happier and a better person.

The most common way they do this is by making you feel bad about your body image or how you look in general. They make you think taking pills or wearing makeup is the only way to make yourself look ‘pretty’.

This is a toxic mentality. No one should make people feel bad and take advantage of their insecurities and vulnerability.

8. Clutters our minds

This is not one of the obvious effects of advertising but it’s certainly an important one.

Everywhere we look we hear or see adverts. This is constant unnecessary information that our brains must process. Individuals are trying to simplify their lives in this hectic modern world, but adverts are making it 100 times harder for them to declutter their lives.

9. Misleading

More often than not, companies make products look amazing in advertisements but do not perform nearly as well in real life. This is done to benefit the company since more people will buy their products. The only thing concerning them is increasing their sales. They couldn’t care less about the fact that they are robbing you of your money.

Any Positives?

Now that you know the negative effects of advertising on society, let’s see if there is anything good about them.

While there are a few positive outcomes from advertisements, the list is short. The most obvious positive is that they inform us. Either of new products or inform us about social and environmental issues. They can keep us up to date (although this is not always a good thing).

However, the biggest upside is that they can keep things free and allow people to make money. I’m not talking about the companies that created the adverts. I mean the ones who are showing the adverts. People get paid to do this. It’s the biggest source of money for TV shows, websites, blogs, and other kinds of media. All these can stay free for the user as long as they show adverts.

This is why they are everywhere.

Final Thoughts

Adverts empty your bank accounts for something that will not make you happy. When it comes down to it, it’s all about money. While they allow creators and businesses to make money, in my opinion, the amount of adverts that we are constantly bombarded with, is not good for ourselves, our mental health, or the environment.

Adverts are unescapable. It’s impossible to avoid them unless you go live in a forest. But you can try your best to ignore them and not pay any attention to them. Don’t believe everything that you are told. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Sofia Hadjiosif

I've always cared about the planet but never knew how I could use my skills to create an impact. But that's when I decided to start Terra Movement. To get other creatives involved in the climate movement and inspire more people to help the planet and its people.

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Incredible points. Great arguments. Keep up the great work.

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Positive and Negative Effects of Advertisement

This is the age of digitalization and globalization. Because of this, the entire world seems to be just a very large village. There are also many private and public businesses these days than ever. And because of that more companies are investing in marketing or advertising about their products and services than ever. Before proceeding any further it is important to understand what advertising really is. And according to different experts, an advertisement can be defined as a type of marketing conversation which consists of a calculated approach through which a company notifies its target audience regarding its products and services in a very proactive and strategic manner. The importance of advertising has grown so much over the years that now it is considered to be one of the most essential factors to the growth and success of any particular business or company. However, just like anything else in life, there are bound to be positive and negative effects of advertising. And in this academic writing piece, readers will be able to learn about positive advertising, negative advertising, positive and negative effects of advertising, and the effects of advertising to children.

An Introduction to Advertisement and its Types

Advertising can be defined as the process of effectively notifying the target audience of a business or a company regarding its products and services. According to various experts, there are different key components of advertising. And some of those key components of advertising are

• Studies on the demographic
• Targeting marketing identification
• Creating advertising and marketing campaigns
• Developing and implementing various publicity and promotional campaigns
• Development of different social media accounts, advertisements, branding strategies, and websites
• Targeting various community outreach programs and handling campaigns of public relations

These are the major components of advertisements. It is also important for readers to remember that there are majorly two different types of advertisements. And those two different types of advertisements are mentioned below.

• Positive Advertising

According to experts, positive advertising is more appealing to an average individual than negative advertising techniques. Positive advertising can be defined as some sort of marketing strategies which show the target audience all the positive effects which one can receive due to any particular product or service. Positive advertising techniques are optimistic and persuade customers to switch to the desired product or services. Positive advertising is also more common than negative advertising. Positive advertising techniques allow customers to trust the company in question more easily.

• Negative Advertising

Negative advertising, on the other hand, is the advertisements which work by warning the consumers about the negative consequences of some habit or behavior. A good example of negative advertising could be smoking advertisements. It is important for readers to remember that even negative advertising strategies have many positive elements in it.

These are the two main types of advertisements. It is also vital for the readers to keep in mind that with the advancement of science and technology, there is also a growth in the number of different forms or mediums of advertisements. And some of the common forms of advertisements are social media advertisements, print media advertisements, television advertisements, radio advertisements, direct mail advertisements, electronic mail advertisements, and many other forms of advertisements. There have also been a number of debates which tend to judge the effectiveness of each of these forms of advertisements. However, it is important for one to note that no form of advertisements is simply better than the rest but instead, the selection of the most effective form of advertisement depends upon the company and the target audience of that company.

Most Effective Techniques of Advertisement

In this section, the readers will be able to learn about the important techniques of effective advertising. And some of those techniques are mentioned below.

• Bolder Headline

It is important to remember that it is the headline of an advertisement which is the main point of contact between any particular business and its target audience. Hence, the headline should be intriguing and informative. It should also be ideally able to generate an emotional response.

• Cross Promotions

One of the most effective ways of promoting your business is by collaborating with other businesses. If companies engage in a very well thought out cross promotional strategy than that can be beneficial for both the parties involved.

• Using Humor

Using humor content is one of the most fantastic ways of gaining more customers as it tends to be one of the most memorable forms of advertisements.

• Internet Marketing

There are millions of internet users all across the globe. And because of that companies and business can tap into the large spectrum of internet marketing to experience possible an exponential growth.

These are some of the most effective strategies of advertising. In the next sections, readers will be able to learn about the effects for advertising and the effects of advertising to children.

The Positive Effects of Advertisement

There are many positive effects of advertising both for the company and the consumers. And some of those positive effects are mentioned below.

• Social Benefits

There are many social benefits which advertisements can provide. For example, advertisements can highlight various social issues and promote free speech in nations where it might still be suppressed. This is a very important effect of advertisement. It is also important to remember that it is the freedom of speech and advertising-supported content which are the promoters of various social changes.

• Economic Benefits

According to research, advertisements can make companies and businesses compete to provide higher quality products and services. This ensures that more high-quality products and services are available in the markets which are able to meet the needs and requirements of all customers. This is a very important positive effect of advertisement.

• Free Entertainment

Another important effect of advertisement is that it provides all viewers with a free form of entertainment without getting anything back as a guarantee.

• Mass Communication

The most important effect of advertisement is that it has enabled the various forms of mass media to exist in the form which it does today.

These are the biggest positive effects of advertising.

The Negative Effects of Advertisement

In this last section, readers will be able to learn about the negative effects of advertisements. And some of those negative effects of advertisements are mentioned below.

• Misrepresentation

All advertisements tend to display the products and services in the best possible light. And many advertisements often tend to cross the line of a little exaggeration to utterly falsely representing the product or the service. There are many government organization which charges hefty fines for misrepresentation.

• False Image

Advertisements tend to invade all possible spheres and because of that one can often develop a false image. This false image also often tends to make an individual feel bad about himself or herself. This is also one of the negative effects of advertising to children.

• Unrealistic Expectation

This negative effect is common in case products which tend to exaggerate regarding its effectiveness. It sets unrealistic expectations which are hard to meet.

These are the major negative effects of advertising.

The Conclusion:

Advertising is a form of marketing communication through which a business or an organization informs the target audience about its products and services. There are two major types of advertisements. And those are positive and negative advertisements. There are also many forms of advertisements. There are also many negative and positive effects of advertisements like the unrealistic expectations, false image, and the social and economic benefits of advertisements.

The References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/advertisement-ad.html

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-advertisements

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/advertising

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/top-five-advertising-techniques-21367.html

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-common-advertising-techniques-15273.html

https://www.weidert.com/whole_brain_marketing_blog/bid/108524/top-10-most-effective-marketing-strategies

https://medium.com/@James.Ashley/negative-positive-effects-of-advertising-9242650ae767

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/positive-effects-advertising-24688.html

Negative Effects Of Advertising

It might not be too farfetched to think that on any given day consumers are persistently targeted by companies striving to get their business. A company’s persistence to get consumers in the door and to purchase their product and brand, typically comes in the form of advertising. Companies have the ability to utilize many forms of advertising to reach consumers such as, television ads, social media, billboards, instore displays, newspapers, magazines, etc. Advertising can be significant aspect for a company as James Kelly points out, “First and foremost, it tells prospective clients we’re here, and keeps our name fresh in their minds. It can help drive a company’s growth, overall brand strength and resilience.” (Kelly, 2010, para. 7). Essentially, advertising can almost be viewed as a form of communication; a company is conveying a message to consumers about who they are and what they have to offer and if communicated adequately it has the ability to result in financial gain. Seems to sound simple enough, however, in reality although advertising can have a positive impact on a company, if it is not done appropriately it can have the complete opposite effect. Not only can this potential negative impact happen to companies that are strictly advertising in the U.S., but even more so when a company is advertising abroad. A company that is attempting to establish themselves internationally should heavily scrutinize their advertising strategy and ensure that there is an adequate

Advertising : The Effects Of Advertising's Effects On The Consumer

Magazines are popular in the United States; they can be found in stores, offices, and houses. They are popular for advertising. Television, news, radio, billboards and online websites are just a few forms of media that companies use to advertise their products or services. Companies use advertisements to influence the consumer to either buy or use their products and services. Advertisements are used to manipulate consumers in many ways.

The Impact Of Advertisements On Society

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.

The Negative Effects of Advertising

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

Effects Of Advertising On Children And The Overall Effects It Has On Our Society

Marketing to children is not a new phenomenon; however, there have been many ethical debates on its rightness; is advertising to children a gentle persuasion of the innocent or a sinister threat to our society? There’s too much as stake if we remain silent and simply assume that marketing companies have our children’s best interests at heart; the truth is they don’t. This paper will explore to implications of marketing to children and the overall effects it has on our society. I will argue that advertising to children is a social problem. In the first part of my paper I will discuss why advertising to children is ethically wrong, I will then discuss what has changed; this will be followed by a discussion as to why it is a social problem and finally, I will conclude my paper by discussing what should be done to change it. Please note this paper is written in the first person as I have children and I have a vested interest in this topic.

The Influence of Advertising

What is the Influence of Advertising on our children today? The influence of advertising on our lives, for both our children and us, for many years the influence of advertising has changed. Some people may remember when the advertisements of toy companies were directed at the adults instead of the kids, hoping that the adults might buy the products. Today’s advertisements have changed. Advertisements are more pervasive, sophisticated, and are now aimed directly at getting kids addicted to “products” at a very young age (Marconi, JM.). This goes to show that advertisers have realized that it is better to go right for the person who the product is for and not for the person that will be buying it for someone else. So how has advertising

The Effects Of Advertising On The United States

Nine hundred sixty three million dollars was spent this year by McDonalds on advertising. This is up 8 percent from last year. The sad truth is that the number of fast-food ads produced each year is increasing, as well as the percentage of obese people in the United States. Advertisements of high in sugar and calorie foods are almost directly related to obesity within America. There needs to be a stop to this epidemic. Companies spend vast amounts of money to put out an enormous amount of ads. Many of which are viewed by children ages 2-11. On average children in the US see about 253 McDonald’s ads a year. One might see common fast-food ads on TV, billboards, or just about anywhere else in the media. Advertising is a growing market and it is expanding all the time. There is no way to can cut them out of your life.

Is Propaganda Used In Advertising

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.

The Affect of too much Advertising

If you think excessive advertising is harmless and affects no one, sadly, you are absolutely wrong. Advertising has many problems and negative effects on people and you are right to be annoyed by the waves of ads you are attacked by everyday. The problem I chose to explain is advertising targeting teens & tweens, this affects people by draining them of money, priorities, and even their social obligations. However, you can solve this problem by educating yourself and being aware of all of the marketing techniques and ads that you, not just kids, are deluged with daily.

Advertising Is Harmful

Today I went to the bathroom in Tyson’s mall, and I saw a Lenovo camera advertisement stuck in front of the stool. It made me feels like a camera recorded everything in the bathroom. No matter where you go, walking on the street, taking the bus or subway, looking for websites or watching TV shows you always see advertisements. So I believe advertisements are harmful.

Effects of Advertising on Children Today

According to Lefebvre, Goodman,Weinberg & Loughrey,(1995). Young children can be motivated to change their eating behavior to approach by telling them of the risks to their health or discussing the nutrient value of foods has not been effective. Behaviorally focused nutrition education targeted to children uses such strategies as exposure to foods in a positive social context, modeling by peers and adults, and appropriate use of rewards (Contento, I. et al. 1995).

Positive Effects Of Advertisement

Advertising is how a company encourages people to buy their products, services or ideas. An advertisement is anything that draws good attention towards these things. It is usually made by sponsors and are broadcasted using variety of media.

The Negative Effects Of Advertising's Effects On Children

According to outlets such as Media Smarts, “Parents today are willing to buy more for their kids because trends such as smaller family size, dual incomes and postponing having children until later in life mean that families have more disposable income.” Being so, this allows children to have access to more devices in which they can watch TV wherever they go. Parents who have a higher income, and can afford to buy their children TV’s for their bedrooms and smartphones for daily use, they do it because they want to compensate for the time they do not spend with their children. Also according to Media Smart, “Today’s kids have more autonomy and decision-making power within the family than in previous generations, so it follows that kids are vocal about what they want their parents to buy.” One resulting cause can be that parents buy materialistic items because they are guilty that they can not afford to spend quality time with their children. Therefore, as a result children spend more hours inside watching TV instead of doing any other social activity. Additionally, more time spent watching TV means the more advertisements children are exposed to per day. Also with the usage of smartphones, children have access to the internet which collect information from recent searches and then presents children with personalized advertising.Therefore causing children to be influenced by these advertisements.

The Pros And Cons Of Advertising

Every day we see advertisements all around us that are there to specifically persuade viewers to buy a product or donate money to a certain organization. While these organizations are morally good the authors of advertising continually come up with new ways of persuasion to, as stated before, persuade. As the endorser of the BCSPCA Sarah McLachlan persuades viewers to help abandoned and abused animals she appeals to our pathos, logos, and ethics while also applying weasel words, and multiple propaganda strategies.

The Negative Effects Of Advertising And Its Effects On Children

Advertising has a large impact on today’s youth. This impact is largely created through use of commercials on television. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention published an article which explains that food commercials are one of the major components of advertising and they are leading to an increase in health and weight problems in children. In addition to this, psychologists such as Sandra L. Calvert have discovered that commercials give children a distorted sense of reality and can lead to personality conflicts. Parents and scientists alike have found that advertisements also can cause self esteem issues in young people, and this is a major concern. In conclusion, the negative effects of advertising on children are alarming.

Negative Long term Effects of Advertising

Advertisements are a way to promote sales of a product or service through visual communication. Magazine covers, advertisements or any publication embed a set of ideologies. O’Shaughnessy and Standler describe ideologies as “sets of social values, ideas, beliefs, feelings and representations by which people collectively make sense of the world they live in” (2012; 174). Ideologies try to “manipulate people into buying a way of life as well as goods” (Dyer, 1982:5). Adverts such as the Pravda vodka example above, which appeared in the January 2014 issue of GLAMOUR magazine add relevance to a product whether it’s a certain trend, desire or mutual value in order for the product to become a highly favoured commodity. Glamour magazine is popular amoungst young women of all races who are middle class citizens. This specific advert was used to introduce Pravda’s new vodka range aimed at women. It communicates ideologies of feminism, class, leisure, night life and enjoyment. The purpose of this essay is to use semiology to analyse the attached article. The Advertiser, “should do more than just label or identify the product; it should also bring flattering associations to mind, associations which will help to sell it.”(Dyer, 1982:141) and that is where semiology comes into play.

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IELTS essay, topic: Advertising affects what people think is important and has a negative effect on their lives (agree/disagree)

• IELTS Essays - Band 8

Today people are surrounded by advertising. This affects what people think is important and has a negative impact on people’s lives. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

With the advent of the Internet, advertisements, originally displayed only on TV, billboards, posters and so on, are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and commonplace for the general public. In my view, this kind of impact could be both crucial and, on a certain level, detrimental.

On the one hand, this phenomenon could denote that although we have already had a diverse range of , people are still capable of inventing innovative approaches catering for all kinds of requirements of advertising. It is a symbol that demonstrates the creativity rooted in human beings. Apart from that, it also represents that the speed of spreading information is conspicuously escalating. More purposeful is, therefore, the fact that, besides booming of the advertising, it constitutes a major reason why people could be so prosperous in this digital age.

On the other hand, there are various unpleasant consequences as well. Firstly, with the omnipresent , it could potentially cause people to do impulsive shopping. Secondly, the , if regulated in a mismanaged , could make people constantly feel uncomfortable or annoyed. In this sense, instead of being an instrumental tool to promote amenities, advertisements could be considered a hindrance when people are frequently blocked by them. Furthermore, it would cost one precious time to have to sift the helpful ad from a host of others.

In conclusion, as far as I am concerned, advertising is a beneficial phenomenon for all with a number of insignificant drawbacks. I believe that in the future we can improve the way advertising is done at present, and embrace the positive influence of advertising even further in the long run.

This essay is another example of what Band 8 writing may look like. It’s weak point is that the author goes slightly off-topic while trying to discuss whether advertising affects what people view as important and instead talks about the reason advertising is spreading and about human creativity. However, the other part of task type (negative effects of advertising) is covered well, the ideas are well-developed and supported. There is a clear logical flow of information and a range of transitional words is used appropriately to sequence ideas. The way author uses synonyms to rephrase the task topic in the intro paragraph demonstrates their lexical skill, which is also evident in other parts of this essay. There are many complex sentences and very few errors. Overall, this essay seems worthy of IELTS Band 8.0.

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4 thoughts on “IELTS essay, topic: Advertising affects what people think is important and has a negative effect on their lives (agree/disagree)”

Advertisement has the main role of developing countries. advertisement is shown on the internet ,tv or radio .it has good aspects as well as bad aspects.it gets more income for the company All the company dont show their products or facilities on tv or internet .for example,one company show his product and gets more money but another company dont show his product and dont get money. On the other hand ,it helps purchasers to know the quality of the product before they buy it .also ,the company and tv or radio benefit of advertising the product In conclusion, advertisment has more advantage than disadvantage ,it helps people enjoy todays life in the world

Nowadays, people are enveloped with the advertisements of many product and services offered by the companies as well as individuals. Modern marketing techniques has impacted the public on a high scale to decide what is good, bad, essential and important to them. Necessarily, in my opinion, advertising is required to reach out to the customers while keeping them authentic. In this ever-growing competitive world, organizations as well as local sellers find it challenging to sell their products due to the availability of many alternatives. One of the best ways to promote their services are through novel publicizing ideas that should reach the target customers. On the other end, the needy customer may not know about an existing item if it doesn\’t appear in their day to day activities, and so, it is imperative to bring them to their doorsteps. When many commercials persuade the audience to buy their product with false and incorrect information, others do it truthfully whose core business ethics is strong. Finding a difference between a bogus and genuine advertisement lies within the audience\’s virtue. Easily manipulative people often end up losing their hard-earned money and trust in these fake companies & their products. Moreover, the public often think or enquire less, when an instant application of that product is necessary. For instance, a diabetic patient who falls short in his/her daily supplies would opt for an alternative medicine without looking deep into its credibility that can exacerbate their medical condition. In conclusion, the media board of the country should step up their measures to ensure the authenticity of the advertisements before they reach the public regardless the medium, whether it is through television, digital media, postures, banners, etc.

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Advertisements are becoming more and more common in everyday life Sample Essay

Updated On Dec 13, 2023

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This article contains Advertisements are becoming more and more common in everyday life sample essays.

Given below is a real IELTS Writing Part 2 Essay question. We have provided sample essays as well as an essay outline so that you can practice writing your own!

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Learn how to write the perfect essay introduction with the guide below!

Read the sample essay for Advertisements are becoming more and more common in everyday life. Is this a positive or negative development?

IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample Essay

Advertising is gaining more popularity in the marketing of products or services. While advertisements are considered to be advantageous, they can have numerous negative influences.

It is unquestionable that there are several benefits of advertising. By dint o f the large-scale expansion of advertising in almost every kind of mass media and nearly all hoardings , this sector is likely to generate a diversity of employment opportunities . In other words, it provides occupations for artists, painters or copywriters in designing and preparing logos, contents or ideas for advertisements. Another advantage is that advertising may enable the messages involved in products and services to reach potential customers , followed by an increase in sales for businesses. Additionally, only thanks to advertisements, can customers be kept informed about newly-launched products . Therefore, they have more choices to make about their beloved products, contributing to the enhancement of their comforts and standard of living.

However, advertising could cause several disadvantages for customers. No sooner might companies or business exaggerate or even distort the facts related to their products for commercial purposes than the customers can experience feelings of confusion about these items, making them have troubles   selecting the products to their taste. Furthermore, the facts show that the more advertising expenses increase, the higher the product price is. The reason can be that the selling price of the advertised items covers the high cost of advertisements . As a result, the advertised products can cost more than they should. Finally, when customers cannot resist the temptation of products which are advertised beyond customers’ expectations , there is every likelihood of them purchasing products which may be unnecessary. This trend could be seen as a waste of money.

In conclusion, based on the aforementioned explanations, individuals may gain both considerable benefits and drawbacks through the growing prevalence of advertisements.

Band 9 Sample Essay

Today, as is rightly said by many, is a world of marketing and endorsements. In the competitive world that we have today, advertisements and commercials are a must. This essay shall advocate the development and constructive impact of advertising.

Early-stage or mid-age startups, organizations and companies, the more we see, the more we observe the encompassing pervasion of businesses these days. One niche has typically umpteen business models. With the rising era of entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and digital nomads, the vigour and strife amongst businesses have only been exacerbated. Therefore, advertisements are of greatest essence keeping in view the current times, thereby, resulting in the increasing usage of various adver

tising channels, be it, pamphlets, hoardings, flyers, newspaper commercials, or the entire digital marketing rigmarole. The more the marketing, the more is the awareness.

Many people might not even be acknowledged to the new product line a company launches or a new product that paves its way in the market. In such a scenario, making them aware is the only perspective initially thought of. Moreover, making a new customer be a stalwart, remarketing branding and endorsing are what businesses primarily and obviously look for. During today’s time when options are many, in the pursuit of customers, a recognition of a brand evanescing is not uncalled for, reminding them of one’s existence, in such a case, is majorly solicited.

Some may argue that advertising tactics today have been misguiding, well, that’s not the case amongst those who are prudential and wakeful of the multiple sources available.

Conclusively, it could be stated that advertisement has been progressive development, and not only should it be treated as an option to ponder upon, but also considered as one of the key constituents of a business model and the relevant campaign.

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Negative Effects Of Advertising Essay

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A Brief Review Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

It is obvious that media plays a significant role in our society. It affects every aspect of our lives - political, social, and cultural. In the various works including articles, lectures and films, Jean Kilbourne presents an insightful and critical analysis of advertising and its profound negative effect on all of us. She states that, “Advertisement creates a worldview that is based upon cynicism, dissatisfaction and craving” (p. 75). She discusses the issue in a very objective and impartial manner, “The advertisers aren’t evil.

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Advertisement is a method of mass promotion that’s typically used by different firms to reach large groups of potential consumers to persuade and inform them about a particular brand of product or service through oral or visual message. This means that the aim of any advertising is to differentiate and deliver various information about the product and the company to the prospective and existing consumers, it is therefore vital to make the message of the advertising effective, clear, focused and singular to make it easy for the target customers to hold on to it and catch it; as this provides a basis for

Essay On Misleading Advertising

Introduction “The term ‘misleading advertisements, is an unlawful action taken by an advertiser, producer, dealer or manufacturer of a specific good or service to erroneously promote their product. Misleading advertising targets to convince customers into buying a product through the conveyance of deceiving or misleading articulations and statements. Misleading advertising is regarded as illegal in the United States and many other countries because the customer is given the indisputable and natural right to be aware and know of what product or service they are buying. As an outcome of this privilege, the consumer base is honored ‘truth in labeling’, which is an exact and reasonable conveyance of essential data to a forthcoming customer.”

Advertisements Use Semiotics In Advertising

Every single day we are bombarded with advertisements, and we are sometimes subconscious to it. Advertisements play an eminent role in influencing our culture by moulding the minds of its’ viewers. They grab our attention left, right and centre; leaving us feeling insecure about ourselves wishing that we could look like the size 4 model depicted in the Guess advert. Messages are delivered to us in all sorts of ways through television, radio, magazines, social media and text messages aiming to capture our attention wherever possible. Everywhere we look, we are plagued with images of the latest products, which in essence attract consumers because we as humans are constantly wanting to satisfy our wants and needs because what we have is never

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Task 2 Essay: Effects of Advertising

Question: We are surrounded by all kinds of advertising, which significantly influence our lives. Do the positive effects of advertising outweigh its negative effects?

Band 8+ Sample Answer:

(Intro) It has been proven that advertising is playing an increasingly crucial role in our daily lives, which has also resulted in a detrimental impact on consumers. While commercials and other forms of marketing may accelerate the delivery of product information and create economic benefits, these are overshadowed by ethical problems and annoyance caused to audiences.

(Body 1) On the one hand, the prevalence of advertisements may increase the propagation of information of a brand or product range and create job opportunities. Firstly, advertising helps promote the distribution of product information to customers via social media and more traditional forms such as TV or newspapers. In fact, people in the 21st century are overwhelmed by a variety of products on supermarket shelves and find it hard to make the right choices. With the help of adverts, people are provided with the essential information, so they can make comparisons between products where necessary and make wiser decisions. In addition, the boom in advertisements also helps fuel this industry. That is, more lucrative jobs in this field are created, making it a dynamic economic pillar of the society.

(Body 2) However, the demerits are more significant when it comes to deceitful sales tactics and customer satisfaction. Primarily, many companies are using advertisements as a tool to boost sales by any means. For example, By exaggerating the real quality of their products with exaggerated descriptions or misleading images, manufacturers are trying to lure customers into purchasing increasingly more products without taking their real needs into consideration. As a result, some products are left unused, bringing about a “throw-away” society as resources are wasted. Fast fashion exemplifies this perfectly. It is also noteworthy that commercials are incredibly irritating in many cases. For instance, advertisements are routinely added to films, both online and on television, effectively ruining the viewer experience.

(Conclusion) In conclusion, despite some positive economic outcomes and better-informed consumers, advertisements may raise moral concerns and frustrate audiences. Authorities should have legally-binding minimum standards for agencies to offer an appropriate amount of advertising on radio, TV or social media as well as monitoring misleading content. (345 words)

Words: Student essay, corrected & upgraded by Nick Kemp, former IELTS examiner.

Image: Robinams / Pixabay.

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Positive And Negative Effects Of Advertising Essay

Show More Nowadays we see advertisements in every aspect of our lives. Wherever we go, whichever place were at the toe, some form of advertisement will always be exhibited. Some people would use advertisements for a noble purpose, such as encouraging people to donate money to a legit charity. However, others would use advertisements for their own self-gain, such as promoting specific products increase more profits. Advertising most definitely has positive and negative effects, by informing the public or manipulating consumers, but most importantly it allows any institution or individual the freedom that is important to an open society. Overall advertising has more positive effects than theirs negative, especially consumers which exceed the positive ones. There is no doubt that advertisement is used to encourage people to do something in order to help others has positive effects on people and the society as one. This advertisement links people to their society by advising them about how they can help others. It is properly used to promote the overall health of the society, however, by also encouraging the people to communicate with …show more content… Once condemned as unethical, the same tools can be used for highly laudable purposes. There a good ads then there are bad ads, it all just matter with what is within the content of the ads. Advertisement at its very core is simply speech, a method used to convey information, much like a voice (Wakabayashi). Are the vocal cords responsible for hateful or deceitful speech that resonates through them? The most important, yet least often discussed effect of advertising is its role in protecting free and open discussion in our society. All individuals and Institutions have the same venues through which they can express themselves open as a result of advertising. It 's power is clear, yet that power just as any power, can be used for positive or negative effect on

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