The Consequences of advertising Can be to create stereotypes, promote materialism, initiate violent behavior, encourage individualism, low grades, loss of time and others that I will explain later.
Every day, children and teenagers are exposed to more than 40,000 ads a year on television alone, increasing this number if we include the internet, magazines, or the posters we see on the streets. Even in schools you can find advertising.
It is easy to think that they are only ads, and that they only interrupt us and cause us annoyance. However, while we may believe that we have full control over our decisions, advertising can have more complex effects.
More current data indicate that the consumption of advertising is increasing. This is due to the invasion of ads also on the mobile devices we use continuously.
Experts in Digital Marketing estimate that we are exposed to between 4000 and 10,000 ads per day approximately, much higher than the one we mentioned earlier.
We are constantly exposed to perceive advertisements and, although we often do not pay our full attention to them, passively their messages are coming to us. There is also the belief that many are designed to implant important memories in our minds.
These memories are built because the ads have emotional tints, that is, they provoke feelings. And feelings are essential when setting memories in our memory. They also have a peculiar characteristic: they usually escape our conscious control and we find it difficult to recognize and manage them.
What repercussions can this have on us?
Naturally, entrepreneurs need to use advertising to publicize the usefulness of their products and thus capture potential customers. For this they develop strategies, so that the product or service is as attractive as possible to the consumer.
This generates a competition between different companies, perfecting and refining their techniques more and more so that the customer acquires its product and not that of a competitor.
However, advertisements are often accompanied by negative consequences, whether predicted or not.
1- Pressures to the media
Advertisers choose the means they see best suited to place their advertising, according to demographic characteristics of target consumers. They even cater to the content of that medium, whether it is consistent with the message that has its mark or not.
The media must sometimes fulfill the wishes of the advertisers, since in many occasions the media revenues come from the companies. This can be considered as a subtle censorship in the media.
2. Promotes materialism
It creates in people needs and desires that were not before, making them believe that their value lies in everything they can acquire or possess. Therefore, this makes it easier for people to judge themselves and others according to their belongings.
It is clear that they also invite consumers to buy more and more sophisticated items more frequently. Coupled with this, advertisements often create a feeling that our belongings are old and need to be replaced by newer and better ones.
This is related to programmed obsolescence, or the"wear and tear"society, a phenomenon that describes the existence of products that have been intentionally constructed with"expiration date".
That is to say, they create products of low quality, with the aim that the consumers discard it quickly and they are forced to buy another new one.
3- Create stereotypes
They tend to maintain and increase stereotypes, since each of them is addressed to a specialized audience and reflects the groups in a very stereotyped way.
An example is the frequency in which women appear in advertisements for cleaning products, which maintains and increases in society the belief that cleaning is a feminine task. In this way, they promote generalized and usually false ideas about what they are (or should be) members of these groups.
This is linked to Feelings of social maladjustment When the person feels that he does not fit with those falsely fixed stereotypes. This is very frequent, because although the ads apparently reflect daily life, they are very far from reality.
4- Models of living and being that are not realistic
The lifestyles Which appear in the ads function as a model for the consumer, called"referral".
They are used because potential customers are going to direct their attention to it by considering it attractive. The same is true with the emergence of models that are physically more attractive than the ad receivers.
5- Harmful effects on children and young people
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children under the age of 8 do not understand the purpose of the ads. They do not perceive it as an attempt to sell a product by a brand, but they absorb without control all the information that comes to them.
Care must be taken to keep children away from ads because they are more vulnerable to them. They therefore indicate that they can increase Childhood obesity , Feeding problems and increased consumption of alcohol and tobacco in young people.
6- It produces a little rational behavior
It promotes individuals acting impulsively, and according to instant rewards rather than reflecting their decisions. In addition to this, the sense of responsibility over the long-term consequences diminishes.
As we mentioned before, advertising is loaded with emotional content to awaken feelings in us. This can make us make less rational decisions.
7- Build an unrealistic image of the product
This occurs because it presents it idealized, exaggerating its qualities. For a product to be bought, it is promoted by creating feelings of power and satisfaction in the user, or as a rescuer that solves serious problems.
In addition, they appear in contexts that reflect a standard of living that is practically unattainable by most consumers.
It is also very often observed that the service or product advertised does not fit the real. This is gradually creating a sense of mistrust in consumers who are aware of this difference.
8- Fosters individualism and selfishness
The reason is that it increases the competitiveness among people by measuring them by their belongings. The goal is to accumulate and renew goods, to surpass the other. Thus, the good of the individual overlaps with that of society, forgetting cooperation and community ethics.
9- Trivialize or transform community or spiritual values
It is common in the commercials to commercialize a series of cultural and traditional values that, according to the ideals that have, can affect some groups of people.
10- The ads are"for the rich"
If we had to meet all the expectations of advertising, we would have to be rich in order to keep up with that rate of purchases.
That is, the ads seem directed to a very small part of the society (which is the one that has the purchasing power) with which the average people are compared, creating a continuous feeling of dissatisfaction.
11- Debts
To solve the tension generated by advertising, people are forced to consume.
That way satisfaction increases, but it is not something lasting, because there will always be a product to buy. Since most clients do not have sufficient financial resources, it is increasingly common to borrow heavily.
How to avoid or minimize these effects?
It is practically impossible to avoid publicity, but you can make an effort to change the point of view and take advantage of the positives and to counter the negatives. This obviously entails an extra effort:
- Think: When you are in front of an advertisement, analyze what it says and take a critical stance. Be aware that not everything you say is totally true, trying to see also the negative aspects that could have the product advertised.
- Cultivating intrinsic motivation Which is related to the satisfaction of one's own values and not to conduct behaviors by an external (or extrinsic) motivation that is more impulsive and materialistic. It is advisable to wait 48 hours when you want to buy something. Consider if there is a problem with purchases .
- Buy movies, TV series, music: Since it must be taken into account that free services for users must have a source of income, which in this case is advertising.
- If it is a company, adapt the advertising in such a way that it Good influence in the community . Offer more ethical, quality and durable products that are really necessary. It is advisable to avoid promoting stereotypes and focus on the qualities of the product with sincerity. As for the problem of influence on children, the advertisements can be directed to the parents directly rather than to these.
Want to know more about scheduled obsolescence? Then you can see the documentary "Buy, take, buy" .
References
- Broom, K. (s.f.). The Unintended Negative Consequences of Advertising. Retrieved on June 7, 2016.
- Committee on Communications. (2006). Children, Adolescents, and Advertising . PEDIATRICS, 118 (6): 2563-2569.
- Dachis, A. (25 July 2011). How Advertising Manipulates Your Choices and Spending Habits (and What to Do About It). Recovered from Lifehacker.
- Finn, K. (s.f.). Negative Social Consequences of Advertising . Retrieved on June 7, 2016, from Crohn's.
- Marshall, R. (September 10, 2015). How Many Ads Do You See in One Day? Retrieved from Red Crow Marketing.
- Martin, M.C. & Gentry, J.W. (1997). Stuck in the Model Trap: The Effects of Beautiful Models on Female Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents. The Journal of Advertising, 26 : 19-34.
- (May 27, 2016) . Effects of advertising on teen body image. Retrieved on June 7, 2016.