The Bad Things Advertising Promotes

Advertising is an important method of competition, especially in industries that are highly concentrated. Where companies are unable to compete on price, advertising is fundamental to promote the subtle differences between products. Advertising has gone beyond informing people of the benefits of a product and how to obtain it and has moved into the area of market creation, Hiding behind globalization and partial truths, advertising has become morally questionable by promoting gluttony, vanity, materialism, and other unhealthy ways of thinking in order to create artificial product needs in consumers.

Advertising is an excellent form of communication. Advertising delivers a wealth of information to consumers on varying topics including healthcare and education. The commercial "Above the Influence," is a good example of informative and helpful advertising. This particular commercial attempts to reduce teenage addiction to cigarettes. Other helpful advertisements inform consumers on healthcare topics such as heart disease and diabetes and sources of assistance for social issues such as community events, education opportunities, and political meetings, to name just a few.

On the negative side, advertising has expanded from word of mouth and print to include radio, television, and the Internet, among others. The quantity of advertising encountered by people has become so great that the human sensory system is being overloaded. We see thousands and thousands of ads every single day and we get so immune to it that sometimes we forget that they are ads. Advertising has become so powerful and so subtle that consumers accept most advertising content without critical thought. Unable to exercise careful analysis of every message, consumers find themselves in a mental overload caused by indoctrinating propaganda.

The increase in the number of venues for advertising has allowed advertising markets to expand and grow. Along with the expansion came the opportunity for those markets to become irresponsible in their displays to the public. Advertisers have entered a world where nothing is sacred. Hayman Communications Group, a marketing and advertising firm states, "Human beings, being only human, have been known to respond to appeals based on any and all of the seven deadly sins… Advertising that's boring, however, won't be read."

Lust and sex, two of the most commonly used advertising strategies, are often employed for fragrances, automobiles, fashion items, and luxury goods. Many items that have a well-known label, such as Gucci, Luis Vuitton, Prada, and others, exhibit a common thread in their advertisements -- sex. Vuitton does not need to reveal Kate Moss' nipple through a gauzy top, nor does Gucci need to depict a submissive woman kneeling at the feet of a semi-dressed man with a digitally enhanced penile outline in his tight jeans, to sell shoes and purses. Relying on hasty generalization, advertisers equate the labeled products they are promoting with lust and sex. The intent of the advertiser is not to identify the qualities of the product, but to seduce the consumer into believing they will become more desirable to the opposite sex by owning or wearing the product.

A recent double-page advertisement in Esquire magazine for Dolce and Gabbana, designers of men's and women's fashions, includes five very physically fit male models and a lithe female model. The scene, evoking imagery of gang rape and reeking of violence against women, has one of the males holding the woman's shoulders to the ground, her hips thrust into the air, while the other four men stand in the background. In an ad populum fallacy, the advertiser, by appealing to the supposed prejudices and emotions of the masses, is suggesting that purchasing the advertiser's brand will cause men to become "studs" and the women wearing this label would become the targets of their unbridled lust. The advertiser is using violence against women, in this case a stylized gang rape, to sell clothes to women and men.

Children are especially susceptible to advertising because children do not understand the concept of a sales pitch. Children believe what they are told and may even assume that they are being deprived if they do not have an advertised product. In grocery stores, toys and candy are placed at the eye level of toddlers riding in the seat of the shopping cart. The average child sees more than 40,000 thousand commercials each year, the majority of which promote sugared cereals, candy, fatty foods, and toys ("The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity"). With one in five children in the United States being severely overweight, obesity in children has reached epidemic status. Obese children now suffer from diseases, such as insulin dependent diabetes, that used to only occur in adults (Torgan). Overweight kids tend to become overweight adults, continuing to put them at greater risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.

The conditioning by marketers in childhood follows into adulthood. As adults, Americans seem to ignore the healthy standards based on science and research and continue to fall prey to advertisements for McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King, and other fast food establishments. Approximately 39.8 million American adults, approximately 1 in 6, are obese, making America the "fattest nation on earth" (Teresi). Despite the fact that a healthy diet, normalized weight, and moderate activity can delay or prevent heart disease, 22 million adults suffer from heart disease resulting in more than 280,000 deaths each year and the increased costs in healthcare affecting all Americans ("Diabetes Public Health Resource").

The desire to consume more than one requires, gluttony, is not confined to food and drink. Advertising creates excess "want" in a society that does not know the meaning of "need." Americans are compulsive shoppers who have an insatiable appetite for products and services and consume more than their fair share of the world's resources. This consumption caused by Western style marketing and advertising drains developing countries of their natural resources. The argument that globalization is raising the standard of living in low-income countries is belied by the simple fact that a large portion of the world's population still lives in acute poverty.

Advertisements that appeal to people's vanity or ego are typically used to market high profile items that people sometimes buy to make themselves feel important or better. Brand name products mean sophistication, wealth, or elevated class status. Consumers buy shirts and bags with large logos and "show off" their purchases to friends, hoping to elicit a little envy. Producers take advantage of this and display their logos or brand names in conspicuous places on their products. For example, Ralph Lauren shirts have the Polo horse and Chanel purses have two interlocking "C"s emblazoned on the side. Many people are so afraid of not "fitting in" with their peers that they "end up splurging on unnecessary and costly" clothing and accessories to obtain a "sense of belonging.

Advertising fosters competition. Not a competition of excellence, but a competition of owning things. Constantly keeping up with trends is impossible and will land people in financial trouble. The use of credit for both in-store and Internet purchases has become a popular form of payment among American consumers. Unfortunately, many consumers spend beyond their ability to repay resulting in negative personal savings, bad credit ratings, and bankruptcy, all of which result in higher product and credit costs for everyone.

Advertising is an excellent form of communication, capable of delivering a wealth of information to consumers on varying topics. Yet advertising has become so powerful and so subtle that consumers accept most advertising content without question. Thinking he or she is a capable and shrewd shopper, the American consumer is at the mercy of the marketers. Where sound economics suggest people buy the cheaper products, Americans pay more for name brand or logo products that have no significant improved functionality. To sell their products, advertisers are willing to sacrifice the health and welfare of the consumer, turning them into gluttons, and lowering the moral standards of our society.

Works Cited

"Diabetes Public Health Resource." 27 June 2006. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 28 Feb. 2007. <http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/>

Hayman Commuications Group. n.d. 23 Feb. 2007. <http://www.haymancomm.com>.

"The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity." 19 July 2006. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 28 Feb. 2007. <http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia071906pkg.cfm>.

Teresi, John. "Americans have earned the title of 'fattest nation on Earth'." 1 Dec. 2004. Voices. 28 Feb. 2007. <http://newshound.de.siu.edu/voices04/stories/storyReader$1107>

Torgan, Ph.D., Carol. "Childhood Obesity." June 2002. National Institutes of Health. 28 Feb. 2007. <http://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/jun2002/childhoodobesity.htm>