The Effects of Advertising

Advertising has been around as long as anyone can remember, it’s been promoting ideas and products since the age of time. Grasping an opinion on advertising is hard enough, but when you get thrown all these pros and cons, it will engulf your mind before you can even blink. But even with the best evidence thrown at me, I take my stand with advertising being defective. It’s unfortunate enough that advertising can get us to buy things that we don't need, but it’s getting mothers in third-world countries to put their own baby in danger. With the water being full of nasty bacterias, mothers should refrain from using powdered milk to feed their baby. They should breast-feed them because not only is it free, but it’s healthier. Renato Sesana agrees when she says, “It’s a form of violence to psychologically force in the mind of a rural woman to be modern she has to feed her babies with powdered milk.” Without the sanitary water to mix in the formula, those mothers still feel the need to feed their baby with powdered milk because advertising gets into their head. But what’s more important ladies, being modern or keeping your baby healthy? Although there are pros to advertising like: economic growth, organized helping/supportive groups, and being able to learn about necessities about life; the cons can outweigh those. Tell me how one can put themselves in danger knowing the the terrible outcome. From ages sixteen-plus, cigarette ads have captured the minds of our people, but how? Their eyes are open to the health risks, but still keep smoking. Summarizing what Eric Shaw once said, just as like their consumers, cigarette companies also keep their eyes open, not to the risks, but the the variety of promo tools to reach their buyers satisfaction. This shows that advertising not only is a health risk to millions, but that it has too much power. While some ads target a variation of people, or age groups, some ads try to reach out to a specific group; which raises some red flags. “”Unfortunately… [i]t can reinforce racial, cultural, and sexual stereotypes,” noted Nancy Day. Those are the last things we need being displayed on our televisions, computers, or out on the street. Our nation has a diversity of human beings, we don’t need to be hurting their morals just because we want to sell a product. Nancy Day also says that ads can not only build up bad buying habits, but can also make us greedy towards the things that we don’t have and forgetful to the miseries of the millions who don’t have a portion of what take for granted. Advertising has led to many negative things, from the death of innocent babies to insecurities within us. Even if they are some benefits to advertising, do they outweigh the negative aspects of it? I don't think so.