Advertising

Advertisements show up everywhere from newspapers to television and signs. We see them everyday and usually tend to not even notice advertisements. Even though the range of advertisements differs greatly there are common ideals that are portrayed in order to get a consumer to purchase something. The constant ideal is of having a better life, an example of this is the AAA insurance advertisement that depicts a happy family and states "15% extra savings=extra fun." This portrays the idea that it is good to save money and that saving money makes life better. Yes that is somewhat true, but can't we still enjoy our lives without saving the extra 15%? What connection is there even between an insurance company and having fun? That is like connecting apples with being smart, it just doesn't make any logical sense.

What about the ideal of how buying something makes you an important person. Advertisements do this all of the time, especially with actors and actresses. Take for example the Coca Cola Santa advertisements that portray Santa as a Coke drinking man who can't get enough. If Santa, the most important man in the world who is giving out free presents is drinking Coke so should I! That is the common way to draw in consumers and to me that seems unfair and a complete lie because we all know that opening a bottle of coke is not gonna make you an important or famous person like Santa Claus.

We are also constantly promised to have a life of fortunes and live lavishly if we buy certain products. This is very common in clothing and jewelry advertisements that portray people with high end fashion as living lavishly and having perfect skin and appearance. We know for sure that by buying these things we aren't going to become one of the top 10% but we still allow these kinds of advertisements to dominate the market today. An example of this is from the L.L. Bean magazine in which a man is portrayed who is modeling a red jacket yet he appears to be in very good shape. He is carrying firewood in the advertisement which also ties into the classical ideas of male roles which is providing for the family, he is being strong and carrying the firewood to keep his family warm. It is so ridiculous that this ad is basically hinting that buying this jacket will make you a better man, because it is not true. It is just a jacket!

As a society we need to start relying less on the ideas of living better lives, looking better, and being a better person just because you buy a product. When is buying a product just going to be about the product itself and not the person or people being used to manipulate the consumer audience?