John Calfee who agrees that Advertising is good for society, tells us that this benefits consumers. Advertising creates competition that allows for conpetetive pricing and bargans. Dinyar Godrej on the other hand believes that advertising can be seen as a pretty way to lie. The images and ideas that advertising portray are usually not the outcome of the product.
Yes: John E. Calfee
Advertising induces consumers towards wanting the product of service. The want being the key word, because ususally we don't need advertisment for things we truely need in our day to day lives. Calfee in a some states that comsumers knowing what the purpose is of advertisment there is significant data that implies we are still very critical and suspicious of what advertisers say and do.
How useful is advertising?
Advertising is not only to identify a products specific benefit, but it can provide a large amount of information that may beneifit all parties other than the advertiser. There is a goal to achieve credibility through advertising stimulating research neccessary. The example given was that of The National Cancer Institute and Kellogg Corporation. Combinging their advertising power for the better health of society. "The National Cancer Institute believes a high fiber low fat diet may reduce your risk of somke kinds of cancer..." The link was made from studies by the NCI that high-fiber was liked to cancer, which meant Kellog's All-Bran line was a healthy choice to a healther body. In this case Advertisment benifit all. This started a popularity of firms sponsoring reasearch on their products anticipating persuasive advertising claims of their product being a needed benefit. "Sellers focused on the information that favored their own products...the benefits to consumers arose from the imperatives of the competitive process." Advertising is expensive, therefore they push in the beneficial ideals in the short amount of time, with any warning information listed in small letters. This creates "Less-bad advertising". For example the logos reading "less fat, less dangerous, and so on". In all there will always be products can are better because advertisment makes them out to be as cigarettes do with their camel. The journey of Camels advertisment lead to other cigarette brands to lead a continued journey of "less-bad" product. As did Advil when Tylenol in 1996 was reported to cause liver damage in heavy drinkers. In all advertiment is a way to spread that bad in the good, but in the end its to benefit the comsumer and add competition to the free market.
No: Dinyar Godrej
How the Ad Industry Pins Us Down
Gordrej begins with bold statement, "Advertising is invovled in soul fraud instead". Advertisment isn't to provide product or service information to consumers, it is a vicious platform to induce dreams, emotions, and virtues. Would we really pay attention to Ads if their were only words and not images? I don't think so...The slogan for Sprite (owned by Coca-Cola) wasn't wrong when they proclaimed: 'Image is nothing thirst is evertything'. Trial and error make advertisment successful. Mass advertising is a game to push the smaller companies off the stage. The game is played with tricks, money, and ultimatly control or a media channel. Adverting leads to portray that a wanted lifestyle is beyond the reach of all except for the wealthy. This leads to a greedy and materialistic society. Following this you'll find and Ad seeking donations for animals or inpovered children, but what you don't see is it foul play, or sincere. Deny them that privlilage Godrej says. Don't let the images become a part of our lives "The distorting mirow will need to shatter first before a floating world comes into view."
I really like how you stated that things we "want" not "need" is advertised because we do not need to see the things we actually need. Its very true that through our daily lives we come across so many things that we want to in some way use, although we may not necessarily need them, and most of the time those things trigger our minds by some sort of advertisement that tells us to incorporate it in our lives. I also thought it was great how you pointed out that the warning information is usually listed in small print or so quickly that is obviously doesn't give enough time to fully read. I feel like certain brands do this to say "hey we warned you in a way that benefits us" and therefore cannot be blamed for anything that my go wrong with the product.
ReplyDeleteI liked your insight! :)