How Advertising Informs To Our Benefit

I certainly agree with the writer about the fact that there is a useful connection between advertising and information. When we need information about something, noticing an advertisement might give us critical information, or it might spur us to carry out more research on our own. It is natural that an advertisement strives to give as much information as possible crammed in a short period of time. Along with this information, people know more about their products, their products can therefore sell.

However, while advertisements do provide immense amounts of information, one must be careful when it comes to what type of information they are providing to the public. As we all know, advertising something means to promote this product while denouncing all others. Therefore, we can conclude that the information that a particular commercial gives will only be those that support the uses of the product. For example, from an advertisement encouraging safe sex, the information provided would be that HIV and AIDS is a major cause of deaths around the world, that everyone should protect themselves. However, it fails to give the actual statistics which show cardiovascular diseases to be much more a potent killer than AIDS. Therefore, the viewers might be misguided by the advertisements due to the fact that the information given to them is selective.

The passage also says that through advertisements, we can get extra information at no charge. I agree on this statement, because while their main purpose is to promote something, advertisements often do so by giving information that causes the viewers to understand something and understand that their product has that something, or solves that something. For example, being a teenager, I have never really been interested in milk powder commercials, but having seen them so many times between my favourite shows, I would have remembered that the advertisements keep saying that DHA is good for babies, or that some product contained ImmunoFortis. While people like me see this as extra knowledge, these are actually the selling points of the product. The information giveaway propels the public to get the product, and in this way, the company makes money, which translates into money for making the commercial, which somewhat translates into paying for this information. However, this is merely based on case-by-case interest of the people who are attracted, and for the major public, it is just free information.

Advertisements do also elicit information from other sources. Through advertising, it is true that the society can become a better place under the influence of advertisements. Being affected by commercials, the public have a better awareness in that area, for example healthcare or self-protection.

Perhaps the most obvious way of advertisements benefitting us is the reduction of prices. When two or more advertisements of the same kind clash, this forms a sense of competitive advertising. Since competition brings out the best in us, same goes for the products and companies. While they look to out-advertise each other, they will inevitably and invariably adjust the price of their product so as to be more popular in demand than their rivals. The price reduction caused by this competition is perhaps the best thing that has ever happened to consumers since inflation rose by quite a bit.

Moving on to the honesty and integrity that companies that advertise their products should have. If you take a look at all the major companies, like the recent example of AIG, their values all include integrity. Yet, for an advertisement to be effective, it is almost impossible for it to be entirely true and unbiased. Therefore, it is a very fine line between positive influence and lying. Companies do need to have the trust of their consumers, and the integrity and transparency between them is a very important relationship. This is particularly important for healthcare commercials, since a single sentence unsaid might lead to deaths.

As a designer for a tobacco commercial, like in any advertisement, I would only state the benefits and pros of the product while entirely leaving out the cons. I feel that health warnings must still be made to warn the public, the rest is entirely up to the publics' discernment.