Effects Of Advertising: Information Or Manipulation

It can be seen at every turn; there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no matter how steely and impenetrable a mind may be, it still manages to gain access to the deepest of desires and most vulnerable of beliefs. Advertising pervades the lives of anyone exposed to it, bending moral and emotional principles at the will of the marketer. Advertising controls consumer decisions without concern for the actual consumer, leaving behind empty, exploited shells of people with open wallets. Traditional methods of advertising negatively influence consumer decisions because they encourage materialism, promote unhealthy habits, and exploit human emotions for monetary gain. Advertisements are intended to create artificial needs among a target group of consumers, market the latest and greatest models of unnecessary products to said audience, and shortly after proceed to encourage a society in which planned obsolescence is commonplace and products seem to be discarded with abandon as soon as the novelty wears off. …show more content…
“Advertising tells you what you need. Before advertisers told us to, who worried about dandruff? Who was embarrassed by teeth that weren’t blinding white, toilets that didn’t smell fresh, or water spots on drinking glasses?” (Day). Nancy Day, an author who focuses on the effects of advertising in her book Advertising: Information or Manipulation?, highlights specific instances of occasions in which advertisements directly “told” consumers what they needed, promoting the idea of consumption regardless of actual necessity. Psychological strategies are often used in advertising to create a desire that was not present until an artificial need was fabricated by the