The Powerful Roll of Advertising Essays - Advertising, Marketing

The Powerful Roll of Advertising Society is consumed with an overwhelming amount of advertisements day by day. The powerful roll that advertisements have in society has engulfed the thoughts of consumers regardless of where they turn to. Ads on billboards, magazines, television and social media have influenced their ideas and actions in ways they dont realize. Charles A. ONeill, a professional advertiser stated in The Language of Advertising (p53) At heart, advertising is nothing more than the delivery system for salesmanship, something woven into the fabric of our society. There is nothing a consumer can do to hide from sales messages. The consumer becomes the falling victim to overbearing advertising ploys that impact their minds. Advertisers have an amazing ability to explore creative ways in order to target and manipulate the minds, especially of the younger audience. Advertisements propose dangerous threats to the young viewers with a powerful language causing great harm on their identity. According to businesses, they do not propose dangerous threats and that advertisement is a vital aspect to their business and society; it allows vital communication between businesses and their consumers. Their intensions are not to instill harm but to promote their product, but yet these advertisers study tactics to manipulate and corrupt specific audiences using a language like no other, the language of advertisement. As stated by Charles A. ONeill, Every successful ad uses a creative strategy based on an idea intended to attract and hold the attention of the consumer. This may include a photo of a pretty girl, strong creative execution or a straightforward list of product features, or as weve seen, even mind-numbing repetition.( p13) The purpose of this language is to keep the viewer from thinking and to make buying choices based on emotional response. It not only promotes buying choices but leads young viewers to misleading advertisements. As a result from untruthful advertisements, the language of advertisement manipulates the young viewers mind and can jeopardize the idea of what beauty really is. Young viewers can become obsessed by the way they look, especially through billboards and beauty magazines where a skinny woman with beautiful skin for a face cream ad is displayed on the front cover, skin that has been corrected with an editing program. The young viewer has very little knowledge of what the media can do to trick the human eye leading to believe that the product they are promoting is effective by using promising words. This is where the misleading words come into place; they are called weasel words. They are words used to misrepresent, and mislead consumers. William Lutz, an English teacher at Rutgers University alerts us of the special power of these words, appears to say one thing when in fact they say the opposite or nothing at all.(pg 121) For example, the word like is used when advertisers want you to ignore the product but want you to think the product they are claiming is effective. As stated by Lutz (p16)For skin like peaches and cream, claims the ad for a skin cream. Since there is no verb in the claim, it doesnt mention using the product. How is skin ever like peaches and cream? The ad is making absolutely no promise or claim whatsoever for this skin cream Young viewers believe that this cream will give them the soft, smooth sexy skin they desire, encouraging them to buy the product that will not give them the results they expected. Young consumers get discouraged of the false ads and it contributes to bigger problems. Another effect on advertisements leads to a bigger problem which is childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is an epidemic, a serious public health problem. It increases morbidity, mortality, and has substantial long term economic and social costs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence rates of obesity in teens ages 12 to 19, have tripled (5.0% to 17.6%). Obesity in childhood places children and youth at risk for becoming obese as adults and associated poor health such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer. As discussed in the same article, Research has found strong associations between increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and rates of childhood obesity. Children