The Effect Of Unethical Advertising On Society And The Environment - Essay Example

The effect of unethical advertising on society and the environment Introduction: The paper is d the effect of unethical advertising on the society and the environment. On this paper I will focus on one topic regarding technology and its social effects. The hypothesis is that because society is becoming increasingly technologically innovative and people are consuming even more and more electronic goods. For example, computers are being updated more and more quicker than they used to be, in fact a certain laptop model will become obsolete in a mere six months after being bought however, because of this increased spending on electronic goods and quickly abandoning the old ones people are quickly filling up rubbish mines unnecessarily. People are also becoming greedy when it comes to consuming electronic products such as computers what they do not know is that by buying the newer products and throwing away the older products they are also polluting the environment. People also do not know that computers and electronic goods contain a lot of lead which could cause lead poisoning in some people and electronic products also use a lot of plastic. Plastic as everyone knows are not easy to biodegrade which means that the only way to get rid of them is to incinerate or burn them. The act of burning plastic also causes the ozone layer to become thinner which in turn will cause a climate change and easier sun radiation through the earth’s atmosphere. Many people are already getting skin cancer because of the radiation of the sun and the thinning of the atmosphere. The most important factor is that the electronics industry is being unethical because they are pushing people through advertising to buy more and more newer products. Another effect of advertising on people is that people are not aware that they are being manipulated to want for things they do not actually need. Electronic products are alluring because they make people believe that without the latest technology they are not able to live and this will increase people’s dependency on material things instead of focusing on other things which are more important like their life and the people they love. Goldman and Papson (1996)1 mentions that advertisements have the quality to enter the consumers’ ‘cultural fabric’ meaning that they are able to manipulate people’s ideas and how they perceive themselves through advertising. One of the bigger companies that are the leading advocates of unethical advertising of technology is Microsoft. Microsoft has collaborated with many of the leading technology producers such as Nokia2. Microsoft’s internet navigators and tools will be installed into the latest Nokia mobile phones like the most recent N series mobile phones. For example, in a recent advertisement concerning Nokia’s N series mobile phones they are showing what people have in their pockets and the last person has a Nokia N series mobile phone that has several functions including cameras and computers. Such mobile phones cost a lot of money and sometimes the companies will advertise such technology in music videos. A video of the Pussycat Dolls and even in one video of Puff Daddy shows the using the latest Nokia mobile phones. Such unethical advertising especially aimed at young people will make them buy the expensive mobile phones even when they cannot afford it. The companies are insensitive to the fact that by advertising through the mass media the of the young people will fall victim by paying for such unnecessary technology. They are also sharing an image to the young people that to have such expensive mobile phones, laptops or computers their life will be better when in fact the advertisements are misleading and its target and aim is only to make money. May (1993)3 argues that everyone has a social responsibility towards one another and that each of our actions have consequences towards the society. When richer people are able to buy such expensive products the poorer people will be pushed to want to buy such products too leading them to crime when they cannot afford to buy them. Another example of advertising in technology is exemplified by LG (Goldman and Papson 1996, p.217) where they show a picture of a young girl surrounded by candles and with a caption below it saying ‘We bring good things to life’. Such imagery indicates as if people cannot live without technology and that life is meaningless, the concept of such unethical advertising is not only to boost sales but to also boost the legitimacy of the company in the eyes of society and the consumers as if they are acting responsibly over their actions and that people could trust their products but this is further from the truth. The way that they construe their advertisements make people loyal to their brands4 and make them buy only from them. Another problem not told to many people is that computers and the computer industry emit thousands of tons of greenhouse gases in a year. When they should have limited producing even more computers to save the environment in fact they produce more to make people buy more and increase the price of the products. What is also not known is that when producing computers a lot of chemicals are used, the chemicals are so dangerous that it is reported many people who are in the production line of producing computers actually die horrible deaths. In an internet article by Cook and Thompson (n.d.), it is explained that many of IBM’s (a leading computer company) workers died of rare cancers. For example, people do not know that traditional computer monitors contain several pounds of lead which could cause lead poisoning (especially after it is thrown away). Lead poisoning (Rosner and Markowitz 2002)5 is very dangerous and causes long illnesses and death. Since theworld is becoming technologically innovative and in countries where people cannot afford to buy computers there is a boom on internet cafes how many people are actually exposed to lead daily? Another company, Intel, also had many of their workers who were pregnant experience a spontaneous abortion when working at the semiconductor factory. Semiconductors an important part of computers use several dangerous chemicals, what happens if when people buy newer products and throw the old ones away? This means that it would be exposed to the environment and in parts of America like New York it has been known that old computers are thrown into the river, this will cause a lot of the aquamarine life to die. Why are computers and technology such an alluring resource for everyone? This does not only affect adults but it is also known that more and more children and young adults spend their time watching television or playing with their computers. Young people also like to chat with their friends through the internet and there are also very addictive games on the internet like Maplestory an RPG (Role-Playing Game) that makes people spend hours and hours on the internet. There are also cases when people have died because of excessive time spent playing computers and games. There is a link to obesity and the use of technology. As people become more and more lazy to spend their time on other things like exercise or taking a walk and for children playing outside they become increasingly fat. Because of this some parents have limited the use of computers for their children as well as limiting them from watching television. Companies such as Microsoft that focus on people using the internet as being technologically savvy as well as being ahead than other people but they are also making people miss out on their lives. But as Goldman and Papson (1996) say, since advertising becomes entrenched into people’s cultures and lives it is also a fact that people are changing their values according to advertisements because that is popular opinion. As May(1993, p.56) suggests, there should not be just an individual consciousness to the process of being duped by advertisements it is that there should be a collective responsibility of society as a whole to keep in check that such problems do not occur. People are becoming increasingly irresponsible over their actions when it comes to their consumer habits and there is no government or national intervention to curb such habits that could affect the environment. It should be understood that sharing responsibility over one’s actions is obligatory for all humans in general as this concerns our environment (May 1993). The environment is especially a big concern because this will affect the future of our next generation and the generations to come. We are now living in the Holocene period the hottest post-glacial period in the history of earth the worry is that the snow capped areas of the earth as well as the ice caps in the Northern and Southern Pole of the earth will melt. When the colder areas of the earth melts the world will be engulfed in water resulting in an even less land to water ratio, in layman’s terms large parts of the world will be flooded causing death and even less land for people to live on. Why aren’t we concerned with such problems that will affect our lives and devastate our countries? In fact we continuously feed on our material wants and needs at the expense of our environment as we buy newer and newer electronic goods. We also continue to pollute the environment because of our irresponsible consumption, we should all try to make the world a better place to live in instead of focusing on buying the latest technology and there should be more activities that will make people more environmentally conscious of their actions. Conclusively, it seems that our lives are always manipulated by advertisements and the mass media pushing our greed to the limits. We actually forget that the earth is our responsibility and that our next generation and the generation after it will suffer greatly if we don’t change the way we do things now. It isn’t that the companies should change it should be that we as a people should try to change ourselves and how we perceive the world, that we should learn to love what earth and nature has provided for us, its something that even the Internet cannot provide. Reference: Cook, C.D. & Thompson, C., (n.d.) Silicon Hell Retrieved on May 12, 2007 from http://www.ylana.com/compdirt.htm Goldman, R. & Papson, S., (1996). Sign Wars, New York, The Guilford Press May, Larry (1993) Sharing Responsibility. Illinois: University of Chicago Press Rosner, D. and Markowitz G. (2002) Deceit and Denial : The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. Berkeley,CA : University of California Press Shillingford, Joia, (Monday,14 February,2005) Nokia announces Microsoft tie-up. Retrieved on 14/05/2007 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4264161.stm Read More