Moral Effects of Advertising Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Moral Effects of Advertising - Assignment Example Creativity is highly cultivated in the advertising department and organizations spend billions of money in creating them. The media, newspapers, radio, internet, and television have been commercialized and host the biggest percentage of advertisements. The media has become a platform for sales, and most of its revenue come is from advertising. Most of them have adverse effects on individuals, society, and environment. People have increased their consumption and resources have are strained due to increased demand. Advertisements falsify products through their language and create products that do not exist. Advertising exaggerates product qualities and adds non existing features, which create a hunger feeling for style in the minds of recipients. This has eroded morality of advertisers, and they use all kinds of slogans to sell their products. According to Mukesh & Ranju (2010), advertisers use terms such as government approved even on counterfeit products. These slogans are misleading and deceptive and encourage unfair trade practices. They create differences in products, which do not exist, and en up confusing consumers. Insurance advertisements are used to instill fear on people. They create insecurity in the minds of people without insurance covers due to uncertainty of the future. They are very persuasive and create a mind position of the viewers that only an insurance cover can satisfy their needs. Such advertisements force people to buy or acquire substandard products or those they do not need. According to Allan & Paul (1997), the general public beliefs’ advertising hazardous products such as cigarettes and alcohol is immoral and dangerous. The congress may have passed laws to ban such advertisements on radio and television, but these companies sponsor sports events and celebrity endorsement. Health officials urge advertising agencies such as the media to avoid such advertisements, but these agencies are beneficiaries. Cigarette advertising is misl eading and encourages children, adolescents and other individuals to smart smoking. These advertisements use attractive adventures and several youths are lured to smoking and alcohol drinking. Some of these advertisements are associated with vigorous athletics. They appear on race cars and sponsorship banners and are accompanied by slogans aimed at attracting people. Smoking has dangerous effects on health and is a leading legal killer substance in the world. Women magazines collect a lot of revenue from tobacco adverts. The use of â€Å"slim† and â€Å"thin† in these adverts illustrate weight loss in women, which attracts several women into smoking. Berger (2011) argues that advertising has affected socialization skills of people. Socialization is the process by which the society teaches individuals how to behave: rules to obey, roles to perform, and values to hold. Traditionally, this was done by parents, educators, religious leaders, and peers. Advertisements throug h the mass media have taken up this role with consequences that are mostly negative. Billboards and screens are splashed with adverts containing celebrities and role models to several people. The recipients are forced to copy the lifestyles of these people, which include using products they were advertising. Models appear in condom advertisements, and this attracts several teens to sexual activities. An advantage of such an advertisement is that, they use protection and avoid STDs and