Arvind Mohanram
4 October, 2010
FD2
Advertising confronts us all the time in whatever we do and wherever we are – even in outer space. They seem to be like ‘invisible’ zombies following us wherever we go and affecting us constantly. We appear to be influenced by advertisement. Whether the impact is negative or positive is totally subjective. Ads are informative. They are the best barometer to judge the nature of the society and keep us up to date with the changing trends. More importantly, ads are powerful means of communication during crisis and aid in solving social issues. So, [Thesis] In general, ads or commercials ultimately have a negative impact on our lives, is incorrect. [Thesis]
The ‘Million’ ad created by Droga 5 is a proven example of positive impact of advertisement on the society. The ad I saw yesterday, shows how the New York City department of education decided to raise awareness of importance of school to the children to give away free cellphones to the school kids in New York. The school kids earn points towards free minutes, text messaging, movie tickets, music download and discount at partner stores based on their academic performance at school. This includes being regular, participation in class, completing assignments, tests and grades. Kids seem to love using their cellphone to do homework and interviews with the parents and school principals showing marked increase in the performance of kids in attendance, improving grades and increased class participation. Finally the ad says that the concept the ‘Million motivation campaign’ was an instant success and was widely acclaimed as a revolutionary idea and sought after by schools in Texas, New Mexico and Chicago.
The Million campaign was named after the one million students currently in attendance in NYC public schools. It is interesting to see the cell phone becomes an education tool with web access at school. Outside school, it is a normal cell phone. By this program, a banned item at schools of New York turned into a learning tool that neither students nor teachers could live without. So powerful was the impact that Droga 5, the ad agency that developed this campaign was awarded the Titanium Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2008. This is one of the best proven examples of commercial in motivating the youth and changing the lives of kids across the country. Thus, commercials do not have a negative impact on our lives, they have the ability to contribute to the betterment of the society.
Apart from raising awareness the commercials become important during crises, holocaust and times of calamity as the recent Haiti earthquake. Without advertising there would have been a huge disconnect between those willing to give and those in need. Over 2 billion dollars were raised by various charitable organizations due to advertising and media campaigns. The media popularized the charitable nonprofit organizations in our local area and grocery stores such as Safeway where people were asked to give away the change of their purchase towards Haiti relief. This made it easier for anyone interested to contribute; even a small amount for a good cause.
In India, every year, the government advertises in radio, TV and newspaper to get their children Polio vaccination if they are between zero to five years. The success rate (defined as number of children vaccinated) has been over 80 % (anonymous). Again, without commercials, this would not have been possible. Thus, advertising played a crucial role in the success of Pulse Polio campaign.
Another outstanding advertisement that calls for ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ comes from manufacturer of beauty soap, Dove. The ad I saw on YouTube last week, is a parody and called ‘Evolution’. It shows a contemporary women walking in the studios and sitting in front of giant lights for makeup. The ad shows only her face and the millions of changes that take place in fast forward – how makeup changes the face to become attractive. In the next shot Photoshop is used on the photo of the face, editing her blemishes, lifting her chin, making her face more symmetrical - giving the final touch to a gorgeous and extremely attractive face. This final face of the women ends up on the giant billboard of the streets people walk by. The commercial ends with the words ‘No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted’. There is a link to the website that calls people to be part of Dove movement to improve self-esteem and promotes beauty as source of confidence – not anxiety. This ad shows anybody on the street can be a super model with professional help - you do’nt have to look attractive. While there are tons of commercials that we watch every day that promote skin deep beauty using celebrities and super models, this one stands out in promoting character traits such as self-esteem. The company has put its own products at risk by taking social responsibility. This is a great example of a brand that educates its audience of the myth of ‘beauty’ and importance given everywhere around the world.
Our classmate Nor Nordin says that “In a free market economy like the USA, the foundation of the economy is based on competition and freedom of choice. Advertising is the catalyst that allows competition to occur at every level. The business that can offer the best product, at the best price, in the most convenient way to the consumer wins the sale. Ultimately, the consumer benefits because they have the power to decide which product or services they want at the price they want to pay.” I completely agree with her statement. A recent finding by (Kotwal, Gupta and Devi) echoes her statement which studied the buying pattern of 100 adolescent teenage girls. 70 % of the interviewed girls responded that TV ads helped them to make better buying decision on the type of brand to choose and educate them with variety of choices available. Thus, ads are helpful to improve the knowledge base on which decisions can be made for purchases.
While the above two commercials are great examples of positive impacts of ads, the negative impact is obvious. Advertising create a subconscious desire through repetition. First the ads tell us what we want. Then it sows the seeds of need in our minds. This subliminal seeds germinates into a desire. The desire drives us to buy. This is powerful concept and to consider the fact that commercials have hypnotized us is scary. But this is true. How often do we realize that a product did not work to our satisfaction? The gullibility factor is more in children than adults. Some of the parents are much at anguish, unable to afford the Xbox or Nintendo, while the children are left unhappy. Thus, advertisements appear to cause a negative atmosphere and disturbance in the family. In addition, it has been found that kids that grow up watching TV have very short attention span when they become adults. The continuous bombardment of ads makes it difficult for children to focus for a long duration in class or doing homework and they tend to give up easily.
My friend Scott Cohen brings up yet another interesting point on negative impact on advertisement. He says that ads deplete the natural resources by creating waste in this statement “ .. are the waste they are producing in desperate attempt to deliver the information of production to the consumer. The wastes are for instance: Flyers; billboard; money spent on producing television and radio commercial; and junk mail. Those methods took chunks out of natural resource to get information to the consumer”. I support his argument and from the economic point of view it is clear that ads increase consumption, which in turn causes increase in demand and production. The production increase means more raw material consumption. Since the sources of all our raw materials are our environment, advertising adversely impacts the environment we live and breathe.
In conclusion, advertisements are crucial and necessary during time of crisis and calamity to spread awareness. Commercials do not have negative impact on our lives; but are the key for spreading the word on socially important issues such as education, smoking and drugs. Commercials are powerful tools that, if used properly, have been proven to have a positive impact on our society. They promote competitiveness in industry, give details regarding the availability of product, quality of the product; about how the product works; about how it is made and what people think about it. Consequently, ads provide valuable information to make a decision. While the vast majority of beauty ads such as Cover Girl, L'Oréal highlighting the importance of physical attractiveness, there are other campaigns (e.g. Dove ‘Evolution’) that are honest and address the critical issue of pervasive skin deep culture. The ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ clearly wins over the Brittney Spears syndrome.
Works Cited
Cohen, Scott. “Yes, Ads Have Negative Impact!”. Online Posting. 24 Sep. 2010. Laulima Discussion. 03 Oct 2010 [https://laulima.hawaii.edu/].
Kotwal, Nidhi, Gupta Neelima, and Devi Arjee. "Impact of TV Advertisements on Buying Pattern of Adolescent Girls." J. Soc. Sci 16.1 (2008): 51-55.
Nordin, Nor. “No, Ads don't have a negative impact!” Online Posting. 22 Sep. 2010. Laulima Discussion. 03 Oct 2010 [https://laulima.hawaii.edu/].
”82 p.c. children administered polio drops in State.”. 7 Jan 2008. The Hindu. 3 Oct. 2010 [http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/07/stories/2008010767400300.htm].
