Hayley Scheidemantle
EGL 220
Dr. Bunny-Paines Clemes
November26th, 2012
Advertising Paper
Whether it is television, radio or newspapers, advertisements have become part of our everyday lives. Advertising is a powerful and persuasive medium. It is a form of communication for our society. It involves a process of information by the manufacture or a seller of a product to modify the behavior of the buyer to buy a particular product.
On the one hand, advertisements entice us to over buy and over spend on useless items that we most likely will never use. For example, while I was on Thanksgiving break Black Friday advertisements flooded our home announcing all of the fabulous deals available to get us into their store to purchase an abundance of needless products. A majority of what advertisers sell consist of customer items like food, clothing, cars and services. These are products that most people desire to have. On the other hand, it is believed by some advertising experts that the greatest influence in advertising happens in choosing a particular brand at the point of sale. Advertising appeals to consumers through common images; the logo used is well designed and there is a clear idea of who they want to target with their product. Advertisers use these images to appeal to consumers because they symbolize or stand directly for a particular product.
In my opinion, one major problem that exists in advertising and TV commercials is the increasing amount of imagery directed at children and young teens that encourages them to buy goods like toys and unhealthy snack foods. The advertisements concerning fast food items are extremely bad for young children as well as adults. Children cannot discern that the slim trim models advertising McDonald's burgers hardly ever eat these foods themselves. It is all in how the advertisers can entice or lure the consumer to buy their product. Children are attracted to fast foods that are detrimental to their health and well-being. Many parents worry that these advertisements put too much pressure on the children, while some advertisers claim that they provide useful information to them. In my opinion, showing Jessica Simpson eating a juicy hamburger does not demonstrate to children what proper nutrition is.
When I was growing up my Mother was very particular in providing us with good nutrition. She did not like the McDonald commercials because as a child I was hooked on their TV commercials especially when Ronald McDonald would say, “I’m Loving it," in addition to advertising all of the toys that accompanying the children's Happy Meals. Now, as an adult I can understand why parent’s worries about these establishments were justified. Children under a certain age lack the ability to make wise judgments as to what they want or most particularly what is neither right for them, nor do they have the spending power. Children are attracted by colorful pictures on advertisements and swayed by misleading information.
As far as ads that are racist, sexist and other prejudicial attitudes one ad that shows this, is women’s makeup. This is sexist because its obvious men don’t wear makeup except Kiss and Alice Cooper. Generally speaking, however, men do not wear makeup ergo this type of advertising is sexist. Another ad that is in the prejudicial arena would be those ads that pertain to Spanish speaking individuals. These types of advertising exclude the mostly English speaking America. But we all know that is not true, we speak all different languages in America. Therefore some ads relay false advertisement. The person may catch your attention into buying their product but you may never know if what they are advertising is really true.
Many ads depict motorcyclists that are always men...there; they are discriminating against woman riding motorcycles that demonstrates a particular profession such as a lawyer. This also addresses the gender and the fact that these types of