Effects of Advertising on the Population - Essay Example

Topic: Synthesis Introduction The world has become commercialized by advertisements to the point that everything revolves around them. Russ baker, who is a US investigative journalist, tackles the issue of advertising through placing televisions in schools and the effects it has on the target population in an article titled Stealth TV. On the other hand, Naomi Klein, who is a Canadian author as well as social activist known for her criticism for corporate globalization explores the evolution of branding and advertising in her article titled New Branded World. Further, New York Based reporter with the Associated Press, David Crary, brings to focus the conflict of interest that is linked with advertising particularly in relation to healthy living in his article: Group Wants Shrek off Anti-Obesity Campaign. All these articles focus on the different effects of advertising on the population, especially the advertising that does not focus on its effects on the population. Advertising today The degree of increase in wealth as well as impact on culture that the international companies have attained in the past two decades can be linked to one innocent notion that was established by the management theorists which maintained that for businesses to succeed, they are to create brands but not products (Klein, 1999). Before this time, the main focus of the manufacturers was to produce goods and at one point, it was argued that the reason why the economy of America had not made a recovery from the depression was because the nation no linger knew the importance of making things. This has led to an environment that is full of advertisements which are meant to market all kinds of products by different manufacturers with the aim of increasing their market bases and making as many people as possible know about their existence. Various companies use different forms of advertising including mounting televisions in schools which has been done by Channel one with conditions that all the teachers should air and the students have to watch the satellite broadcast programs that are aired every day (Baker, 2011). These broadcasts are filled with commercials that have been sanctioned by the schools and the company that is lending the television sets to the schools claims to have an audience that is more than fifty times that of MTV. It rakes in profits from selling two minutes out of every twelve programming minutes to commercials as well as in call contests. Some of these commercials include those that involve Shrek as the spokesman for an anti-obesity campaign. The advertisements that feature Shrek have come under criticism from several lobbyists stating that the character is linked with too many unhealthy foods to be used for a healthy eating campaign (Crary, 2007). Young targets The initial mass marketing campaigns started in the second half of the nineteenth century and mainly concentrated on advertising than it did on branding. The people that were tasked with advertising had to change the way the people lived their lives since most of the products that were being advertised were new. The advertisements had to enlighten the people concerning the presence of the new inventions and make sure that they were convinced better lives with their purchase. Numerous of this products carried brand names and some are still in existence today even though most were incidental. The products that were being advertised them made news and in some cases, this was enough advertising for them (Klein, 1999). Currently, advertising is at a whole new level and the environment has become highly commercialized with the advertising campaigns targeting particular groups of people. Despite having this commercialized environment and having advertisements that have been endorsed by schools, there are sinister motives that may be associated with this kind of product pushing. Schools are considered to be a safe place away from what the world offers but the broadcasting of the current affairs by channel one as well as their targeted advertisements makes the line between fact and fiction blur. The reporting may attempt to be objective but the advertisements that are carried by the channel have their own self-serving rhetoric. The target population of these advertisements who are the children in the schools do not have the media literacy skills that may enable them to completely comprehend what they are dealing with. For example, Channel one maintains that it holds the interests of the students since it delivers vital information in a manner that is appealing (Baker, 2011). This delivery of content and advertising in a manner that is appealing to the students most of whom are children is what has made different groups lobby for Shrek to be removed from campaigning against obesity. The advertisements chose Shrek since the young children could identify with him but they are being considered to be ineffective and in some cases promoting the opposite of what they were meant to do. The people who created the advertisement consider Shrek to be a well-known character to the target population as far as the campaign is concerned and aims to promote diets that are balanced and healthy but at the same time including treats occasionally. Even though these advertisements are being used in the promotion of exercise and not foods, the promotional deals that Shrek has with numerous food and beverage companies are more convincing (Crary, 2007). Non-beneficial advertising The world of advertising is always reaching newer heights through reaching higher records and planning to surpass them in the year that follows. Advertisers continue to spend more on their commercials so that their advertisements can be more popular than those of their competitors. This makes the consumers and the target populations of the different advertisement live a life that is seemingly sponsored. With an increase in the spending on advertisements, the populations will continue to be treated to nifty tricks that will make it more difficult and pointless to protest against them (Klein, 1999). Television content such as the one that is broadcasted by Channel one seeks to be judged based on its news content even though there is little to do so. In ten minutes of news, a mere two minutes is allocated to breaking news with the rest being given to self-promotion, music and other forms of commercial. Despite the fact that the channel has mounted television sets in the classrooms and students have to watch its contents, Channel One has never provided statistics to show that the programs it carries are beneficial to the students. The main reason why the school administrations work with the channel is because the company provides television sets as well as broadcast systems to the schools which are used for making addresses and other activities. The schools have to depend on the heavy pending of the advertisers for technology even though the broadcasts have no clear benefits when the grades of the students are considered(Baker, 2011). On the other hand, advertising like the one done to campaign against obesity through using Shrek as the main character has to stop so that the government is not seen to be endorsing Hollywood movies. The department states that the campaign will continue as soon as the all the excitement about the movie dies down in about one and a half months. It is clear that advertisements, even those that are developed by government agencies may have conflict of interest with other advertisements. However, putting an n expiry date on the conflict of interest seems to be absurd since the other advertisements will still be running and having the same effect on the viewers thus making the overall campaign ineffective. As long as Shrek is associated with the campaign, the children will consider it fine to be overweight, eat snacks and afterwards get some exercise while maintaining the same lifestyle (Crary, 2007). Conclusion Regardless of advertising being considered as the lifeblood of modern business, there is an increased view that money that goes to advertising is wasted. Advertisements are considered to be a kind of day-dream for people and it takes them away from reality into artificiality. Only a handful of products are useful to the people who are targeted by these advertisements. In most cases, a distorted version of the reality is also shown to the viewers and the consumers develop a belief in the products which pushes them to buy the products. People have continued to lose confidence in advertising as a result of its wrong presentation while others consider it to be confusing rather than helpful. References Baker, R. (2011). Stealth TV. The American Prospect. Retrieved 24 September 2014, from http://prospect.org/article/stealth-tv Crary, D. (2007). Group wants Shrek dropped from anti-obesity ad | Toronto Star. thestar.com. Retrieved 24 September 2014, from http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2007/04/25/group_wants_shrek_dropped_from_an tiobesity_ad.html Klein, N. (1999). No Logo. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 24 September 2014, from https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/klein-logo.html Read More