|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Until The Day We Fall | ||||||
| With advertising pushing the importance of image, one must wonder if advertising reflects society as it is or if it produces the need to fit in. According to Charles A. O'Neil, advertising reflects the society which creates it and I must agree with him. We have always struggled to be part of a status group, posses a certain image, or a lifestyle other than our own. Some of us may want more money, or a bigger house, or more expensive clothes, or want a different style, or want to rebel. Advertising preys on these struggles and desires and persuades people by using messages that say "you can be sexier, cooler rebellious, classier, prettier, smarter?if you buy this product." Advertising is not simply selling products, brands, and image; it is selling society it?s own ideas, values and desires. In that respect, advertising reflects the society in which it functions. | ||||||
| We, as a society in general, are a wasteful and capricious bunch. We want things that have no practical value, things that can only serve to make other people look at us and think "I wish I had those things." Advertisers know what we want, and they do everything they can to make us think their products can give that to us. Diesel, Union Bay, Abercrombie and Fitch, Calvin Klein, and Tommy Hilfiger are some of the prime examples of companies with advertisements that push us to believe that their products will make us what we want to be. Their commercials and advertisements always portray their wearers as sexy and desirable, leaving the consumer thinking "If I wear those clothes people would think the same of me." | ||||||
| Using our fears against us is one of the most common strategies used by advertisers in today's market. The epitome of this can be found in the thousands of cosmetic commercials that plague our televisions. The effectiveness of these commercials depends greatly on women?s fears of looking unattractive. If women did not care about their looks, then these commercials would not have an effect on them. This is also true for clothing commercials. If teenagers and young adults were not so afraid of being labeled outcasts, then these clothing commercials would have little or not effect on them. Advertisers need our desire to be able to be effective, even if they have to drag those desires out from deep within us. | ||||||
| Does advertising reflect society? Yes. Is it fair? Of course not. I strongly believe that advertising is a dirty business. Their ads exploit our insecurities and can often make us feel as though their products are the only things that can give our lives value. They know what they are doing and they know how much is it affecting our society. It is not sensible to expect advertisers to change their strategies because they know that their strategies bring in the money. The only alternative we are left with is to take away the power they hold over us, our own desires. That is, however, almost as ridiculous as expecting the advertisers to cease their strategies. So here we are, stuck in this reckless cycle of desire which will most likely continue until the inevitable fall of our consumerist society. | ||||||
|
||||||