21st century is referred as the era of information. These days, people are literally swamped with tremendous bunch of information and the ability of distinguishing valuable information from false or trivial information is highly valued. In this perspective, advertisement does more harm than good in modern society in that it prevents people from judging which information is real or not. Although ads provide the public with a quantity of information, ads cannot guarantee its quality of information.
First and foremost, the ultimate purpose of ads is to create profits for commercial companies. To achieve their initial goal of selling products, ads do not hesitate to deceive or mislead consumers. Sesana firmly supports this argument. According to it, ads “create unfulfilled desires” and “push us to buy the products that we do not need”. For instance, there are no ads for flour and breast-feeding, since they are inevitable for our lives. However, there are ads for soft drinks and powdered milk, which are not necessary in core. In short, ads deceive consumers to regard unnecessary products as basic needs for their lives. Consequently, consumers become unable to make an independent and wise decision by themselves.
One of the sophisticated and technical ways to mislead consumers is to fabricate a desirable image of using a specific product, thereby promoting the sales of it. A case in point is cigarette advertisement, mentioned in Shaw. Without any government regulation, cigarette advertisements do not inform people of the detrimental influence of smoking. Rather, they show the “cool” images of smokers, and thus persuade countless teenagers to be the “cool” guys in commercial films and movies. Even if smoking in adolescence is illegal in Korea, teenagers do smoke if they want to. Day clearly explicates the profound impact of advertisements in high teenagers. It even states that “reach(ing) for a girl in her Seventeen years” plays a pivotal role in making the ads successful. Taking into consideration that teenagers are easily misled by the cool image of smokers, cigarette ads are unjustifiable and morally wrong.
In addition to fabricate a false image, to suggest a one-sided viewpoint as if it is a fair and reasonable perspective is another strong strategy of marketers. Red Cross is an apotheosis for this claim. When people first come into contact with the advertisement of Red Cross, they will be convinced that “Together, they can save a life”. However, they will not notice that “they can create a profit” for a company. In Korea, the Red Cross gets blood from selfless volunteers who really want to help others. By abusing such devotional mind, Korea Red Cross makes profits, by selling the collected blood to hospitals. Although there is a common misconception that the Korea Red Cross provides free blood for the poor, it is not true at all. That it makes profits by blood donation is never mentioned in the ads. In summation, the seemingly beneficial work for the whole society also can be a fabricated image for profits.
In conclusion, advertisements in modern society make people more confused than informed. As it is aforementioned, the ability of differentiating real information from false information is appreciated. In other words, it means that there are tremendous sum of false information in modern society, mostly provided by ads. Ads fabricate a false image and provide a prejudiced notion to consumers solely for profits.
