Paper Topic:

Truth in Adversiting

Some people believe that advertising is a moving force of the progress but if one takes a look at the truth in advertisement uncovered behind the scene , it becomes obvious that instead of the progress advertisement leads to degradation of values in our society and spreads the roots of consumerism all over the world . Using strong psychological tools in appealing to non-rational impulses of consumers advertising creates a consumerism-dependent society through three major areas of influence : by exploiting the feeling of self-esteem , by playing tricks with people 's ideal of happiness and

by creating the worship for brands that leads to mass consumer obsession

Modern advertisement doesn 't focus on the product itself , but rather appeals to the self as the main object of manipulation . Ads address the potential consumers with a message that alerts their feeling of worth and ability of being socially accepted . This , of course , gets the most vivid response from consumers , since the ability to socialize is among primary concerns of any human being . In her book called Decoding Advertisements ' Judith Williamson explains this phenomenon the following way : by depicting the self as a problem , ads then presented their products as wonder cures which will fix the self and make it socially acceptable (Williamson , 1978 ,

. 52 . Such problem could be a bad breath , poor appearance or wrong car . Thus , when Britney Spears tells me that Pepsi is the drink of the new generation , I suddenly feel old-fashioned drinking Root Beer , although it tastes better for me . It takes courage to stand alone against the crowd and do what you like , not what you are told to like from TV , but unless we keep our personal preferences over socially recognized ' ones , we have no right to be called individuals , since our mind becomes collective

The mental assumptions of our society were shaped in such manner , that now people believe that happiness and perfection can be obtained only when they possess certain objects advertised to them by various marketing schemes . But the truth is that as long as advertisement industry will generate profits for business world , it will generate new needs for consumer society , so that the wish-list will never end Moreover , the long-wished happiness will therefore not be achieved since as soon as one of the consumer desires is fulfilled , the new one will take place and the frustration will continue over and over . And such is the goal of any advertisement campaign : to keep the consumers feeling that they are yet less than enough . At the end it may lead to of depression and unworthiness . In order to avoid the manipulative nature of advertisement , our culture should put more emphasis on non-materialistic values , such as love , friendship , honesty , courage and others . These values can be obtained without money , and therefore make the rules equal for everyone involved

Advertisement endorses the semiotic dimension of consumption , which implies that in most cases what people desire is not a real object itself , but its meaning or brand endowed...

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