In the early 1900’s advertising was simple, you were shown a picture of the product and told what it would enable you to do. For example: a Coca-Coal advertisement from 1905 showed two women at a table drinking the well-known beverage. The slogan read “Coca-Cola Revives and Sustains.”
By the 1920’s the advertising culture began to change dramatically. Advertisers started to shift from promoting the product and its characteristics, to connecting products and services with life styles and values (Prewitt). Advertisers began to create an image of what the average American should look like, act like, and possess. Because of this, people began to be more obsessive and self indulgent, which has shaped the way American culture is today.
When modern advertising first took off, people were forced to work more hours to produce more products. Between 1973-1988 employees had less time for their families, their recreation and leisure time decreased from a median of twenty-six hours per week to under seventeen hours per week (Pool). In 1990 the average employed American was on the job an additional month a year compared to twenty years earlier. Which would account for the reported one third of American children who were caring for themselves by the end of the 1980’s (Pressman).
The positive effects of advertising are that they keep our economy from crashing to the ground. By keeping money constantly circulating throughout the United States, it enables people to have a higher standard of living. This means more toys, better toys, and bigger toys. Advertising also creates more jobs for people with higher incomes; this allows them to support themselves and their loved ones (which also contributes to more consumption).
Another thing about advertisers is that they claim to be informing people of new products and services, but if that were the case, then why would they spend so much time and money on trying to convince you to buy instead of just informing you of what is out there. For instance: When you turn on your television and see the all too familiar Gap commercials. Beautiful young men and women dancing around in what they believe to be the hottest new fashions, full of confidence and integrity. The people that produced this commercial obviously want you to at least consider buying the product, but they don’t necessarily like to verbally admit that.
Advertising has taken such a big role in American Culture that it is virtually impossible to avoid its presence. But the actual effect that it has on us is practically unknown to most people. They don’t realize that seeing skinny, beautiful and sophisticated women every fifteen minuets during a TV commercial can throw off their perception of reality, making them believe that they are inadequate, ugly, and fat.
Advertisements cause people to feel and act upon sheer emotion, they get cravings for articles of luxury and are aroused by false wants that hurt both individuals and families by making them ignore what they really need (Prewitt). Advertising promotes and glamorizes values that are overly materialistic. The idea of people having closets full of shoes and matching outfits is somewhat ridiculous, it is not necessary to obtain too much of one thing.
‘Brand’-related advertising can raise serious problems. Most of the time there is a minor difference between similar products of different brands, and advertising may attempt to persuade people in order to act on the basis of irrational motives, instead of presenting differences in product quality and price as bases for rational choices (Pontifical Council). Brand advertising tries to sell things like status, sex appeal, loyalty to the product or corporation, and other imperceptible items.
The average American household is exposed to 1500 commercial messages a day. When you watch TV one third of everything you watch is an advertisement. When children watch violent commercials for movies or video games, they tend to lash out in violence directly afterward. This brings up the question of whether or not children are effected by the commercials or movies they see.
Dr. Leonard D. Eron followed a group of young people for twenty-two years. He found that those who watched more TV at age eight were more likely at age thirty, to have committed more serious crimes, to be more aggressive when drinking, and to punish there children more harshly then others.
The idea of advertising, at first was ideal, people could get the message of their products out into public where it could be bought and used. But after over one hundred years of dealing with this, we can’t get rid of it. Advertising has become the one thing that keeps us on our feet, and it has just as many negative effects as it has good ones.
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