Advertising – Good for Society or Bad?
By Faiz Ahmed
The question was posed to me about whether advertising is a positive activity in relation to society or whether it is a negative one.
There are two types of advertisements, informative advertisements and commercial advertisements. Informative advertisements are just that – informative. Informative advertisements are used to inform us about health issues, political issues, social issues, religious issues etc. Commercial advertisements on the other hand, are used to inform people about goods and products in the market. There is nothing wrong with that, however when advertisements start effecting the consumption patterns of people, wherein people become so attached to acquiring material possessions that the rest of the world suffers, then advertising in indeed a danger to society.
Materialism, through advertising and marketing has created some of the most dangerous problems for the world as a whole. Materialism has created the problems of global warming and global poverty and even oppression of people by way of wars, power coups, dictatorships and covert and overt regime changes and civil strife in many parts of the world.
The first problem is global warming. Global warming is the heating up of the earth’s atmosphere due to green house gasses. Green house gasses are generated by factory emissions, by automobile emissions, by natural gas consumption and by aerosols. These gasses heat up the earth’s surface, causing the polar ice caps to melt thereby causing an increase in the oceanic water level. If the water level keeps on increasing at the present rate, many islands will drown, and the coastlines of continents and landmasses will recede.
So how does global warming relate to advertising? People who live in an urban lifestyle are very wasteful, energy dependant and are big consumers. Consumerism is the norm. Advertisements create a constant demand for goods and services in the urban consumer society. Most of these products are really useless, needless and unnecessary. This constant demand for manufactured goods is in reality making us use the earth’s resources very unsustainably. Not only are we causing deforestation on a massive scale, we are also releasing all kinds of harmful gasses into the environment.
If people want to combat global warming, all they have to do is control themselves and their urges when they see advertisements enticing them. If people can reduce their consumption on a massive scale, the demand will automatically reduce. As soon as the demand for these unnecessary goods and services is reduced, the production will decrease. The point is that do people really need an iPhone 5 if they have an iPhone 4? Do they really need a brand new pair of Oakley sunglasses if they already have five pairs? Do people really need a brand new car every five years even though they have two cars sitting in the driveway? If people can control themselves, and not fall for the advertising then people can say, they have a solution.
The second problem that is created by commercial advertising is wars and bloodshed, be that civil war, declared war, undeclared war, covert or overt regime changes and the rule of dictators and tyrants. Of course, you might either have widened you eyes or furrowed your eyebrows as you read this. But what I am articulating is indeed very true.
What is the real reason that the underdeveloped world is at loggerheads with the developed world? The industrialized nations in the world have one of the largest demands for oil, rubber, metals and other raw materials, and these companies have lobbying groups that pressurize the governments to keep a military presence in these resource rich countries. This is done by keeping the puppet rulers in power because they allow corporations to take control of the resources at very cheap prices in return for safety and protection and continued dominion. These rulers would not be in power for more than a month if the U.S.A and her allies would remove their military support.
This is in fact one of the major grievances of most of the victims of the multinational corporations.
The Texaco oil company ruined the health and the communities and the environment of the Ecuadorian people, and human beings as young as 30 are coming up with diseases and cancers. This is also the case in the Middle East, in Latin America and in Africa.
There are two types of advertisements, informative advertisements and commercial advertisements. Informative advertisements are just that – informative. Informative advertisements are used to inform us about health issues, political issues, social issues, religious issues etc. Commercial advertisements on the other hand, are used to inform people about goods and products in the market. There is nothing wrong with that, however when advertisements start effecting the consumption patterns of people, wherein people become so attached to acquiring material possessions that the rest of the world suffers, then advertising in indeed a danger to society.
Materialism, through advertising and marketing has created some of the most dangerous problems for the world as a whole. Materialism has created the problems of global warming and global poverty and even oppression of people by way of wars, power coups, dictatorships and covert and overt regime changes and civil strife in many parts of the world.
The first problem is global warming. Global warming is the heating up of the earth’s atmosphere due to green house gasses. Green house gasses are generated by factory emissions, by automobile emissions, by natural gas consumption and by aerosols. These gasses heat up the earth’s surface, causing the polar ice caps to melt thereby causing an increase in the oceanic water level. If the water level keeps on increasing at the present rate, many islands will drown, and the coastlines of continents and landmasses will recede.
So how does global warming relate to advertising? People who live in an urban lifestyle are very wasteful, energy dependant and are big consumers. Consumerism is the norm. Advertisements create a constant demand for goods and services in the urban consumer society. Most of these products are really useless, needless and unnecessary. This constant demand for manufactured goods is in reality making us use the earth’s resources very unsustainably. Not only are we causing deforestation on a massive scale, we are also releasing all kinds of harmful gasses into the environment.
If people want to combat global warming, all they have to do is control themselves and their urges when they see advertisements enticing them. If people can reduce their consumption on a massive scale, the demand will automatically reduce. As soon as the demand for these unnecessary goods and services is reduced, the production will decrease. The point is that do people really need an iPhone 5 if they have an iPhone 4? Do they really need a brand new pair of Oakley sunglasses if they already have five pairs? Do people really need a brand new car every five years even though they have two cars sitting in the driveway? If people can control themselves, and not fall for the advertising then people can say, they have a solution.
The second problem that is created by commercial advertising is wars and bloodshed, be that civil war, declared war, undeclared war, covert or overt regime changes and the rule of dictators and tyrants. Of course, you might either have widened you eyes or furrowed your eyebrows as you read this. But what I am articulating is indeed very true.
What is the real reason that the underdeveloped world is at loggerheads with the developed world? The industrialized nations in the world have one of the largest demands for oil, rubber, metals and other raw materials, and these companies have lobbying groups that pressurize the governments to keep a military presence in these resource rich countries. This is done by keeping the puppet rulers in power because they allow corporations to take control of the resources at very cheap prices in return for safety and protection and continued dominion. These rulers would not be in power for more than a month if the U.S.A and her allies would remove their military support.
This is in fact one of the major grievances of most of the victims of the multinational corporations.
The Texaco oil company ruined the health and the communities and the environment of the Ecuadorian people, and human beings as young as 30 are coming up with diseases and cancers. This is also the case in the Middle East, in Latin America and in Africa.
If a country wants to keep its resources to itself and sell it at its own terms, or if some leader chooses not to trade with a particular company, sooner or later, that leader will be removed either by coup, or by war or by covert or overt military interventions. People who live in these countries remember their grievances even if others do not, because it was their family members who died.
If you do a root cause analysis, the reason for all this is the demand for raw materials is because the people in developed nations have so many wants and desires.
Is it necessary to buy new clothes every week? Is it so important to be able to buy a new computer every year to be able to play those computer games whose technological requirements keep increasing?
The third problem is that of global poverty. The metropolitan way of life is fuelled by advertising and it is fuelled by marketing because of all the cut throat competition. It is the same in Chicago, New York, Bombay, Karachi, Dubai or Singapore.
The sad truth is that although this seems to be a very beautiful and luxurious lifestyle, it is based on a very unfair system.
A major part of the world population is under poverty. When one group of people is getting spoilt fat by riches, always another group of people will be starving thin.
How did the disparities come to such an extent?
It is unfettered capitalism. Advertising is its main tool. For example let us see what would happen to the world if advertisements did not create a larger market for eating expensive food at posh restaurants or binge eating at fast food joints. For the sake of understanding, we need to understand that the so-called third world countries have a surplus of food production each year. Let us take India as an example. Bombay City in India has the fourth largest number of millionaires. Yet starvation remains a big problem, in Bombay. The GDP of India is increasing rapidly every year and the major contributor to Indian GDP is the agricultural industry. In India there is a surplus in the production of food. Some of this food is exported to countries that have a high demand, some is stored and the rest is sold locally at high prices. If it was not for advertising, the developed countries would not have such a big demand for binge eating or for eating at fast food joints. If the demand was not there, then all that excess food would not be exported from India. If the lesser developed countries were not exporting so much food at exorbitant prices, then the profits from exporting the food would be lesser and at least nearer to the profits gained from selling it locally. If the price of food would be lesser than the current price in underdeveloped countries, then I am sure the poorer strata of society could afford it. It is the second law of supply and demand in economics, that is, “if the demand decreases, with supply remaining the same, the price will decrease”.
Materialism is the root cause of many of the problems of the world. Advertising and marketing are its tools. Advertising and marketing are not always bad, but the problems begin when advertisers start using psychoanalysis by studying psychological methods of mass persuasion, and then, advertising becomes diabolical.
Robert Griffith and Paula Baker, in their book “Major Problems in American History Since 1945” record an excerpt from Vance Packard’s bestselling book, “The Hidden Persuaders”.
In the excerpt, Packard mention that “two thirds of America’s hundred largest advertisers” are using what they call “motivational analysis” (Griffith and Baker pg94).
He also mentions that “ many of the nation’s leading public relations experts have been indoctrinating themselves in the lore of psychiatry and social sciences in order to increase their skill at ‘engineering’ our consent to their propositions” (Griffith and Baker pg94)
Advertisements create demand for products where the demand was not there by picking at our impulses and picking at our material desires. The least we can do to contribute to solving the problems or at least to be able to tell ourselves “I had no part in it” is to reduce our unnecessary consumption and by not reacting to advertisements impulsively. We must make a difference between needs and wants and stop falling prey to psychoanalytical advertising schemes.
If you do a root cause analysis, the reason for all this is the demand for raw materials is because the people in developed nations have so many wants and desires.
Is it necessary to buy new clothes every week? Is it so important to be able to buy a new computer every year to be able to play those computer games whose technological requirements keep increasing?
The third problem is that of global poverty. The metropolitan way of life is fuelled by advertising and it is fuelled by marketing because of all the cut throat competition. It is the same in Chicago, New York, Bombay, Karachi, Dubai or Singapore.
The sad truth is that although this seems to be a very beautiful and luxurious lifestyle, it is based on a very unfair system.
A major part of the world population is under poverty. When one group of people is getting spoilt fat by riches, always another group of people will be starving thin.
How did the disparities come to such an extent?
It is unfettered capitalism. Advertising is its main tool. For example let us see what would happen to the world if advertisements did not create a larger market for eating expensive food at posh restaurants or binge eating at fast food joints. For the sake of understanding, we need to understand that the so-called third world countries have a surplus of food production each year. Let us take India as an example. Bombay City in India has the fourth largest number of millionaires. Yet starvation remains a big problem, in Bombay. The GDP of India is increasing rapidly every year and the major contributor to Indian GDP is the agricultural industry. In India there is a surplus in the production of food. Some of this food is exported to countries that have a high demand, some is stored and the rest is sold locally at high prices. If it was not for advertising, the developed countries would not have such a big demand for binge eating or for eating at fast food joints. If the demand was not there, then all that excess food would not be exported from India. If the lesser developed countries were not exporting so much food at exorbitant prices, then the profits from exporting the food would be lesser and at least nearer to the profits gained from selling it locally. If the price of food would be lesser than the current price in underdeveloped countries, then I am sure the poorer strata of society could afford it. It is the second law of supply and demand in economics, that is, “if the demand decreases, with supply remaining the same, the price will decrease”.
Materialism is the root cause of many of the problems of the world. Advertising and marketing are its tools. Advertising and marketing are not always bad, but the problems begin when advertisers start using psychoanalysis by studying psychological methods of mass persuasion, and then, advertising becomes diabolical.
Robert Griffith and Paula Baker, in their book “Major Problems in American History Since 1945” record an excerpt from Vance Packard’s bestselling book, “The Hidden Persuaders”.
In the excerpt, Packard mention that “two thirds of America’s hundred largest advertisers” are using what they call “motivational analysis” (Griffith and Baker pg94).
He also mentions that “ many of the nation’s leading public relations experts have been indoctrinating themselves in the lore of psychiatry and social sciences in order to increase their skill at ‘engineering’ our consent to their propositions” (Griffith and Baker pg94)
Advertisements create demand for products where the demand was not there by picking at our impulses and picking at our material desires. The least we can do to contribute to solving the problems or at least to be able to tell ourselves “I had no part in it” is to reduce our unnecessary consumption and by not reacting to advertisements impulsively. We must make a difference between needs and wants and stop falling prey to psychoanalytical advertising schemes.
First Published with East West Link News - www.ewlnews.com
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