This is a question that I have heard over the past few years during the course of all my communications classes. Each time it is brought up I think that no, advertising isn't bad for society but then I really think about it. Now i believe that advertising isn't bad for society in moderation. Everywhere we go in this society we are surrounded by advertising, from logos on clothing to billboards and bus ads to those annoying pop-ups online that you can never get to go away.
To a certain extent Americans have been able to adapt to this world where everything is an ad, and now we can tune most of the stuff out and pay attention to what we really want to, and that is good. However it becomes bad when you cant escape the ads, when no matter how much you try to tune them out, the find a way to follow you and make themselves known, when the ads push themselves upon you.
Advertising is a bittersweet enterprise because even if the ad is good or bad, at the end of the day you know that the people behind the ad only want your money, and your best interest isn't at heart. One of my favorite things to do when I watch television is to try and guess what product is behind what advertisement. Now-a-days its hard to tell sometimes, because the commercial will have nothing to do with the product. I feel like those types of ads are the ones trying to trick you, trying to lull you into this world where you feel like you have to get the product they are pushing, which is bad advertising in my book.
No comments:
Post a Comment