Advertising Does Work

It is very common to hear people saying that advertising does not affect them in any way; that only uneducated people could be influenced by it, not them; but this is not true. Some people might be deceived by the fact that advertising works in a lot of ways, some obvious, but others tricky. That’s why they could think that it hasn’t influence them. A good example of how almost everyone gets influenced by advertising is that people are getting medicines from advertisings more than from doctors´ prescriptions. So advertising does work, and it is not a bad thing. In fact, every person has advertised something at least once in their lives; when someone introduces itself to another person, defends a thought or idea, and other daily situations. It is clear, then, that advertising is in fact part of everyone’s lives, and for that reason it is important that people start understanding and paying attention to its benefits and controversies.

Not only is advertising part of everyone’s lives, but a very important part in it. People don’t realize how influential it is in current society. It supplies cultural patterns that have become the ones which shape and guide the lives of people. Like always, people are very used to shape their lives according to social patterns, given in most cases by advertising. For example, if someone doesn’t wear the kind of clothing or style, or use the technology considered to be the best by society, in many cases that person is rejected. Society listens and obeys to media and advertising orders. When people least expect it, they are already trapped in an advertising game, get influenced by it and end up buying what it tells them to buy. For this to stop happening, people need to become familiar with the term advertising literacy, which is described as “The skills of analyzing and evaluating persuasive messages across a variety of contexts and media”. Potentially dangerous messages are still going to be delivered by advertising, but as long as the audience is advertising literate, meaning they know how to react and protect against them, rarely any harm will be made.