Today, as we live in a technology, business and consumerism world, advertising surrounds us everywhere wherever you go. You just can’t hide from it whatever you do – it will find you, trough television, internet, newspapers, magazines, outside and inside, on packages and so on. If one seize to exist, another, more modern and successful will reappear that will have more chances to reach you. In reality, people tend to hide from most advertisements and in most cases find it irritating, but it still exists and thrives more than ever. Why is it so? Why does advertisements doesn’t care and persists of putting the ideas in our sub consciousness that we need a new, better life with a bigger television, hair shining shampoo and the newest model of Lexus? In general, where did advertising came from and why?
The word advertising comes from Latin language with its original meaning being "to turn toward.“ Sociologists and psychologists believe that advertising is a cultural thing. It is believed that first advertisements were created in Egypt 2 thousand years before BC. Then advertising was only notes on clay, wooden or metal tablets which offered information about what profession was of the shop keeper or what goods did he sell. Others believe that this still wasn‘t advertising, and that true advertising began when separate job roles and trade of goods were established. It was stated, that the value of advertising grew the most when in trades middlemen started to take action. They were searching for how to present goods in a more fascinating way. So, nowadays as the business sector grew to everyday norm, advertising grew with it together accordingly.
As the advertising is so wide and multiplatform, in my opinion, it can be friendly and harmful which depends on the use of it. Clients in the wide range of products often feels lost on the decision that to choose. It’s hard to choose whose company name to trust, so advertisements informs buyers about the products of companies, what is the nature of them and for what reason were they created so that accordingly to your demands you can choose more easily.
But in reality it is often that the viewers are just being manipulated and lied to. As advertising creators progressed along with it, they learned of how advertising can actually make you buy. Consumers are influenced by sounds, picture, color and other mean used to act, to buy. Advertising specialists with the help of these factors ties the products with wonderful feelings, experiences. A woman buying lipstick is actually buying hope that this will help her crave attention, meet someone, fall in love and so on. Coca Cola sells us not just a drink but an illusion that this drink will help us transform our ordinary day to a happy day. In videos we only see beautiful, happy, healthy people. Advertising dictates to us what we should want and who to become. It makes us to desire. The model to work to buy to work to buy is established with that as it is beneficial to large companies and governments. For companies that wish to be successful advertising is a great tool for achieving that. Billions pass every year in advertising sector and investments pays off even more.
Advertising is especially effective for kids. Children are weak not only psychically but also psychologically. They are people who are yet to learn about communication principles so they are easy bait for manipulation. One of these manipulations is used in creating products with kid’s favorite hero faces. For example after Harry Potter movies emerged soaps, shampoos, toys, pens, backpacks, t-shirts, bedding and other everyday products with Harry Potter on them. Research was made, after which it became clear how effective is advertising for kids – in kindergarten children were asked to create a list of what they want for Christmas, and most of their desires came from what is currently being shown on TV. In Great Britain people organized an incentive group called “Leave our kids alone”, which demands advertising industry to stop targeting kids younger than 11 years old. Of course most countries have advertising law which forbids many things including targeting children, but it can’t forbid everything and companies still use it in a lot of cases.
But, as I mentioned, advertising is a wide social occurrence, so it isn’t only bad and harmful. Advertisements can make the viewer to double think about certain event. For instance, social advertisements are originally created to generate attention of society to such things as alcoholism, smoking, global warming or help for the poor.
In conclusion I would like to say that advertising can be a friend and can be foe, which mostly depends on the situation and the case in which it is used. The effect of it to humans depends of their own perception of the world, values, demands and priorities. Consumers should be more aware of how they are influenced by advertising and be conscious when they buy something. People should understand that things don’t bring happiness and a brand new car is still only an aid to get from location A to location B.