Forums > Social Discussion > advertisement: good or evil?.. essay fragments, please give oppinions

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Konstilovable smart-ass
785 posts
Location: vineyards, Vienna, Austria


Posted:
hey guys

im writing an essay on this and it would help if i could get some oppinions:



heres a little bit from my essay introduction to start the thinking process:



Advertising has developed an omnipresence in our lives. We are exposed to advertisements through the media that we consume, as well as involuntarily through billboards and posters on the streets. This creates the question of how much impact this advertising has on our lives. Most people would say that advertisements have little effect on them, as they can tune them out. Are we really so aloof that it doesnt affect us, that we simply tune it out and make our own independent decisions on consumption? Or is exactly this idea conveyed to us through advertisements that stress and compliment our independent self-image?



questions?

comments?

rude gestures?

"is optimism in austria just a lack of information?"
-Alfred Dorfer


LycanthropeThe original drunk/stoned/vegetarian shapeshifter
209 posts
Location: Blackhill, Australia


Posted:
did they set an essay question

Lycan:are you a citrus fruit?
Orange:no
Lycan:dam, i wanted to make citrus fruit pie.
*Lycan walks off completely unaware he has once again been outwitted by the intellectual orange*


roarfireSILVER Member
comfortably numb
2,676 posts
Location: The countryside, Australia


Posted:
I like it so far. I like when people ask rhetorical questions in essays...it's a good persuasive technique.

How many words does it have to be?

Good luck with it all.

.All things are beautiful if we take the time to look.


LycanthropeThe original drunk/stoned/vegetarian shapeshifter
209 posts
Location: Blackhill, Australia


Posted:
mayb give you opinion on whether it is good or evil in the opening

Lycan:are you a citrus fruit?
Orange:no
Lycan:dam, i wanted to make citrus fruit pie.
*Lycan walks off completely unaware he has once again been outwitted by the intellectual orange*


Konstilovable smart-ass
785 posts
Location: vineyards, Vienna, Austria


Posted:
hehehe, if i would give my oppinion i would influence peoples replies, as they would reply to my oppinion and not stae their own....

no essay question decided to write about it myself.
im gonna focus on the advertisments impact on us individually, socially. also the impact of ads on gender stereotypes, and advertisings effects on news media....

"is optimism in austria just a lack of information?"
-Alfred Dorfer


Konstilovable smart-ass
785 posts
Location: vineyards, Vienna, Austria


Posted:
ok i just wrote this please comment:



News media in the face of advertisement



News Media has grown dependent on advertising. To understand this, news media has to be seen this as the business that it is. Media has fostered the globalisation of the world but at the same time it got changed by it. Concentration of ownership is steadily increasing. This has to do with the technological advancements of the industrial revolution that increased start up costs from roughly a thousand pounds in 1837 to start a national weekly publication in the UK to 50,000 pounds to start a London daily publication in 1867 . The necessary rules and guidelines that were meant to keep media independent, have fallen victim to deregulation of media and the subsequent integration of the media into the economy. This pushed the news media into an oligopolistic market structure, where a few companies are dominant in the market, raising the barriers to entry (start-up costs) and barriers to exit (how much you can lose in the process of leaving a market). Of course these practices are referred to as non- price competition as they keep the prices stable by not admitting new competitors with lower prices into the market. So where is the money coming from? Advertisement. News publications used to rely on their sales price to generate revenue and profits in order to keep working, with the advent of advertising, sales prices became lower and lower as publishers had a different source for income, and could be competitive in pricing. Publications which failed to join this trend quickly became unprofitable and had to be sold to a larger company or quit altogether. This put more critical publications into a weak position, as advertisers would not want their products to be associated with certain opinions of certain news publications. This drives the diversity of reporting down, creating the image that certain opinions are not widespread or not existent at all. Textbooks on advertisement claim that there is no definite influence, as "there is no consensus that could enable advertising to bring influence effectively to bear on the media." This is a faulty argument because it states that advertising as a whole has no influence. That creates a more subjective environment, as single companies have the power of influencing news media. For example: in 1985 WNET (part of the PBS network) aired a documentary on the influence of multinational corporations in the developing countries, and Gulf and Western quickly cancelled its corporate sponsorship. In some cases this could mean a multi million dollar difference in revenue for that news outlet, and would cause internal trouble. So in the future, to make sure there is no economic repercussion, the news outlet is going to be showing more moderate ideas on topics that could turn away advertisers. Personally I think that a news outlets main function is to deliver objective information based on the available facts. Opinions should be clearly labelled to make sure there is no confusion between fact and opinion. Todays mainstream news media is labelling the opinions of businesses as facts, partly because of financial dependency, convenience of the readily available information, or simply because they are part of the same corporation. In some cases the corporations have grown so large that they own the production of a product, as well as plenty of news media outlets to promote it. This is the case of AOL Time Warner. It owns Warner Brothers as well as TV stations that serve as promotion channels, for these movies.

Self censorship has legitimate purposes such as national security, privacy or the compliance with laws. However this is taken too far. The Media foundation was promoting its "buy Nothing Day" action. All 3 major networks refused to air it as it was "controversial"-ABC or an "advocacy ad"-CBS or more honestly "inimical to our legitimate business interests"- NBC

Advertising is contributing to the trend that news media becomes entertainment and not serious information on subjects. I think that the term "Infotainment" is misleading for naming these programmes, because we have to be made aware that all of media is, somehow influenced by a business interest and will do anything to keep us in our shopping mood. It is the advertisers who have the real power, as they are concentrated, organized and highly competent in what they do. They have one common goal that they strife for: to keep consumers watching their advertisements happily. The Media consumers role should be the most powerful one, however it is next to impossible to organize and concentrate this power. Consumers do not have a common goal to strife for. There always will be a large group of consumers that would disagree with whatever suggestions another group of consumers is bringing up. We as a society are so used to this routine, that it is hard to raise awareness to a level where consumers would ask for change, and change their media consumption. That is the only power we have, as the advertisers pay media outlets according to how many people are reached. This could happen by taking media literacy into the school curriculum and teaching children from their youth on, how media is misleading them.

"is optimism in austria just a lack of information?"
-Alfred Dorfer


onewheeldaveGOLD Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,252 posts
Location: sheffield, United Kingdom


Posted:
I think the fact that companies spend so much money on advertising constitutes evidence that they are effective- this would mean that people are affected by them.

It's worth noting that just because someone says that they're not affected, or believes sincerely that they are not affected, doesn't mean that it is true.

IMO advertising is bad, for the following reasons: -

1. It's an incredible waste of resources; billions of £/$ and vast amounts of man/woman hours spent purely on attempting to influence others.

2. In the long view it's ineffective- while a successful campaign will give a company a considerable edge over its competitors, it simply creates a situation where each of those competitors then has to spend similar resources on their own campaigns to create what is essentially the same level playing field as existed in the first place.

3. Most of all, it's an insult to 'civilised' humanity that, in a world with very real problems, and immense suffering, so much of the wests resources are devoted to influencing and deceiving its own members.

"You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it."

--MAJOR KORGO KORGAR,
"Last of The Lancers"
AFC 32


Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE!


The Tea FairySILVER Member
old hand
853 posts
Location: Behind you...


Posted:
I did quite a bit on gender stereotypes, youth culture and the media last semester. Wrote an essay on the changing representations of women in the media. The way advertising and the media form a part of our social world is particularly prominent when observing youth culture. The basic conclusion was that people have different relationships with their media consumption, how this contributes to their sense of self and their consumer choices depends on other aspects of their social life.

I'll try and fish out the lecture notes over the weekend and I'll PM you if there's anything particularly relevant in them. smile

Idolized by Aurinoko

Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind....

Bob Dylan


eSC.dA3m0nnewbie
13 posts
Location: Uk, England, Devon, Plymouth


Posted:
Advertisments cant affect us consciously because we have the will power to suppress them, but within our sub-conscious they can defy even our own thoughts making them an evil if used effectively form of communication, we are not allof we just think we can have control of ourselfs, but sub consciously we are the ones controlled.

~^^Everyone has the right to be stupid, but your abusing the privaledge^^~


Tao StarPooh-Bah
1,662 posts
Location: Bristol


Posted:
i used to think i wasn't that affected by advertising, at least it was a concious thing anyway, but then while i was going home on the bus i decided to deliberatly NOT read any advertising at all, and it was sooooooo hard!

the advets were everywhere, and i also realised that i had internalised a load more than i thought....like has anyone seen that 'london let's recycle more' billboard? i can tell you exactly what all those packages are by the type, even silly magazines that i don't read....it was worrying.

i've become much more concious of this recently, i#'ve started noticing everytime i hear a piece of music and automatically think this product or whatever. it's really scary! eek

I had a dream that my friend had a
strong-bad pop up book,
it was the book of my dreams.


LycanthropeThe original drunk/stoned/vegetarian shapeshifter
209 posts
Location: Blackhill, Australia


Posted:
i was enlightened when i watched josie and the pussycats.
we are being brainwashed through pop music.
*covers ears, bashes head against wall, turns on local uni radio station*

Lycan:are you a citrus fruit?
Orange:no
Lycan:dam, i wanted to make citrus fruit pie.
*Lycan walks off completely unaware he has once again been outwitted by the intellectual orange*


ado-pGOLD Member
Pirate Ninja
3,882 posts
Location: Galway/Ireland


Posted:
I think its important not to confuse advertisement and marketing

an add is an add, if it doesnt appeal to you then you wont read it....

Love is the law.


SkulduggeryGOLD Member
Pirate Pixie Crew Captain
8,428 posts
Location: Wales


Posted:
There was a survey recently of young children...... I think they were under 7...... anyway the survey showed them various shapes and colours that were used in ads I forget the percentages and such but I was shocked at how high they were. They recognized almost all of them, but when they were shown various vegetables they could name hardly any correctly.

We are bombarded with ads and marketing in the form of TV, billboards, Magazines, product placements in shops. It gets taken in whether we know it or not.

I'll see if I can find the results of the survey I mentioned. It might help.

Feed me Chocolate!!! Feed me NOW!


Konstilovable smart-ass
785 posts
Location: vineyards, Vienna, Austria


Posted:
thx everybody,
but,
has anybody bothered reading that paragraph i posted. it would be nice to get some feedback on the actual text.

thx again

"is optimism in austria just a lack of information?"
-Alfred Dorfer


duballstarSILVER Member
slack rating - 9.5
2,216 posts
Location: Suburbiton, Yoo-Kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
badbadbadbadbadbadbad.... mad

i haven't got time to get into this at the moment but will come back to it next time i wanna procrastinate or rant. i'm currently writing my dissertation on critical photographic theory so can give you a million reasons why but until then you might wanna try reading:

Victor Burgin, 'Art, Common Sense, and Photography' - short essay can be found in lots of photo/visual culture books
Judith Williamson 'Decoding Advertisments'
Roland Barthes 'Mythologies' or 'Music, Image, Text'

all good old skool introductions to images/advertising stuff, probably a bit out dated a bit by now but essential reading none the less.... smile

PM me if you want any more stuff an i'll read your thing/ write something useful later... now back to work spank

It is our fantasies that make us real. Without our fantasies we're just a blank monkey' - Terry Pratchett


Mr MajestikSILVER Member
coming to a country near you
4,696 posts
Location: home of the tiney toothy bear, Australia


Posted:
hey Konsti, i just read your big speil(well i'm in photography atm, its kinda relevant).
Its really good, t all made sense and flowed really well. i was getting confused with you writing .” all the time, i'm guessing you were swearing?

Just another thing, have you considered graffiti art? some of it is a form of advertising i think, but because it is not driven by profit or it might be objective, unlike businesses owning news, it is condemned. a response to this might be that graffiti is wrong because you dont own the thing you are writing on, but doesnt that prove my point? graffiti is the old style of just working to get the news out. they cant do it any other way because the bigger comanies would buy them out.

Graffiti is the only objective advertising, and bussines is trying to crush it.


thats somewhat my opinion any way. (stickitt to tha power!)

"but have you considered there is more to life than your eyelids?"

jointly owned by Fire_Spinning_Angel and Blu_Valley


JauntyJamesSILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,533 posts
Location: Hampshire College, MA, USA


Posted:
.:picks his nose in contempt:.

is that a rude enough gesture?

seriously, though, good writing

-James

"How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask? Or angry? Or ready for dessert?"


DoktorSkellSILVER Member
addict
475 posts
Location: Van Diemans Land, Australia


Posted:
Advertising pisses me off.

Especially people advertising things that are cheap.

SALE!!! BARGAIN!!! CHEAP!!!!! LOW PRICES!!!!!

i'm sick of everyone advertising that they are the cheapest around.
i HATE this. Whatever happened to advertising that your products are quality?
i would rather spend the extra money and buy a product that is quality instead of one that is cheap

Fair luna bright, fair luna moon
it shines at night but fades too soon
fair luna moon, fair luna bright
forever we dance
we dance under starlight


Konstilovable smart-ass
785 posts
Location: vineyards, Vienna, Austria


Posted:
.&109102 are problems with the coding, they are suppused to be quotation marks. i fixed it now.



more feedback, i demand

*spoken in yoda voice*

"is optimism in austria just a lack of information?"
-Alfred Dorfer


duballstarSILVER Member
slack rating - 9.5
2,216 posts
Location: Suburbiton, Yoo-Kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
just read your blurb dude... good ideas... hope this might help:

soapbox

in the burgin essay he explains how ideology is perpetuated through images. the ideology perpetuated through advertising is one of consumerism. this ideology affects the way we create and produce images ourselves or in other areas (eg. the media). in this was a consumerist ideology is perpetuated. for example the nuclear family is a construct of post war american consumerism, the perfect consumer unit...

if you haven't read it already guy debord's (1969?) book the 'society of the spectacle' supports most of what you say in the last paragraph. we live in a society mesmerised by 'the spectacle' in the media and in the arts, which distracts us and keeps our interest and helps us forget the fact that we're all slogging away in a cycle of consuming goods and producing profits for someone else. (see marx) in this way the consumerist ideology is perpetuated and consolidated... in the case of the news, there are arguements for and against the fact that it needs a stylistic presentation in order to compete with other forms of entertainment and advertising which try to 'grab' our attention....

you might be interested to know that during the 70's there was a strong grassroots 'community newspaper' movement in Britain, set up alongside community history projects in an attempt to provide an alternative to the alienation of mass media consumerism. (based on a mixture of poulist and marxist theory). i think it was eventually decided though that the kind of stuff people wrote for themselves was still based on the consumerist ideology thay had already developed and that it would be better to educate people in the deconstruction and demystification of the media process. there were a number of critical journals which fulfilled this job such as 'Screen' and 'Camerawork'...

most of it all ended in the 80's though when media studies became more professionalised and integrated with the academy. interestingly this happened at the same time as advertising subsidies of magazines and newspapers really took over...

it's really a lot more complicated than all that but this is already turning into an essay...

for more info on commnity newspapers see 'Here is the other news: Challenges to the local commercial press' Minority Press group, london, 1980
'screen' and 'camerawork' have also published colloections of essays with good explanations of the intellectual climate. also the chapter on culture in Perry Anderson's book 'English Questions' explains a lot about the commercialisation of the press in relation to british and global politics...

you might also want to consider the position of the BBC in all this who do not rely on advertising at all (although there is definately some politics going on and they do still need to appeal to the masses).

and FINALLY i just want to say that the worst possible kind of advertising is that aimed at children. it makes me censored sick... 'mummy mummy i want that' 'mummy can't afford that dear' 'but i want it it's so cool, all the other kids have got one'... they really are a shamless bunch of censored

and yes i totally agree with you that media/advertising/image studies should be an integral part of every child's education. otherwise its like sending someone swimming in a pool of sharks without telling them they eat people....

*steps off soapbox * wink

It is our fantasies that make us real. Without our fantasies we're just a blank monkey' - Terry Pratchett


dreamSILVER Member
currently mending
493 posts
Location: Bristol, New Zealand


Posted:
So far so good...

For some reading, i'd suggest

No Logo - Naomi Klein
- some good stuff on the invasion of public space by advertising

The Corporation (book, though the film's good too) Joel Bakan
- A section covering Initiative media and their survey the nag factor which was designed to help corporations create ads which cause kids to nag their parents in a more effecient manner

Understanding Power/Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky
-General overview of the propaganda model and the role of advertising within it

Inventing reality: the politics of News Media - Michael Parenti
- Advertising, consumer ideology and the impact of advertising on the media

Adbusters.org
-anti advertising magazine/website which often has worthwhile articles

There's loads of really well written critiques out there...

It's a really good (though frustrating - the more you read the angrier you get) essay subject.

Have fun

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Nietzsche


ben_in_a_spinBRONZE Member
member
32 posts
Location: london / cambridge, United Kingdom


Posted:
i've had a cursory glance over your stuff konsti, and while i don't have time atm to dive in, something does suggest itself:

When my little brother was learning to read, i remember my mum saying all the time 'enjoy what the world looks like now, because once you can read, it'll look totally different'.

imagine walking down the street without recognising that the squiggles around you are trying to tell you something, sell you something. no words anwhere, only simple but incomprehensible little doodles.

the sad thing about advertising is that it is so cleverly designed to pinpoint our every weakness. marketing executives invest inconceivable amounts of money in figuring out how to target each demographic group individually. do you have self image problems? they will find a way to make money out of them. lonely? single? they'll get your money. stressed? write them a cheque.

shrewdly and with a great deal of care and thought, someone, somewhere is planning the shortest route through your heart (empathic ads - "isnt this puppy cute? BUY OUR TOILET PAPER!"), head (rational ads - "our product is better/cheaper/more effective"), or body ("buy this set of matching forks, and you can look like this!"), through your morals, your aspirations, your waist size, your sexual appetite, your lifestyle choices, your fears or insecurities, straight to your wallet.

please help keep the world clean - others may wish to use it


VixenSILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,276 posts
Location: Oxfordshire/Wiltshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
ooo if you want an interesting view on advertising then look up the work done by Oliviero Toscani - personally i think his work is amazing - but he still lost his job over it! xxx

tHeReS gOoD aNd EvIl iN EaCh InDiViDuAl fIrE, iDeNtIfIeS nEeDs AnD fEeDs OuR dEsIrEs.



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