Effects of Advertising on Society

To a certain extent advertising has both positive and negative effects on society. Advertisements both promote prosperity and also is propaganda. Advertising can effect people by making themdonate blood (Source A), smoke cigarettes (Source B), and “reinforce racial, cultural, and sexual stereotypes (source D). Advertisements try to get consumers to follow what they are advertising or buy a product, sometimes through the use of subliminal messages, celebrity endorsements, or obvious signs. People in society are influenced by most advertisements they see and either buy what they see or talk about what they saw to other people. Advertising has a positive effect on society in some ways as it promotes prosperity. In the American Red Cross poster (source A) the band aids are a symbol of how easy it is to donate blood and how painless it is. Donating blood saves lives, and at the cost of a wound that will heal in a day, anyone could do this to help save a life. Advertising also “tells us about important issues such as the benefits of seatbelt use” (source D) Wearing seat belts has saved the lives of many people. Advertising helps to promote awareness of health and safety issues.

Advertising has had a positive effect on me when I donated to the Haiti Relief Fund. Advertising has negative effects on society as it is propaganda. Smoking advertisements have “promoted the continued social acceptability and encouraged the incorrect belief that the majority of people smoke” (Source B). People who smoke may have seen a smoking ad that made it appear as everyone smokes, so they feel they need to fit in and start to smoke. Advertising also has made people become more “worried about dandruff… embarrassed by teeth that weren’t blinding white, toilets that didn’t smell fresh” (Source D) Ads have made people become paranoid about their looks and how their material objects appear to others.

Advertising has had a negative effect on me when I wasted my money on The Perfect Pull Up, the ads showed that they were specially designed exercises, but they weren’t. Advertising can help to save lives, but can also create false images in a consumers mind, making them buy material things that aren’t necessities to their life. Society is influenced y every ad that is shown and it helps and ruins society at the same time. When society is influenced by an ad they can promote something for good, such as the Red Cross or they can help to promote corporations that just want to make money, such as Wal-Mart.