FD 2- Wait There’s More! - How Advertising Affects Our Lives

Thomas Akiyama
Oct 12, 2010
FD2

Wait There’s More! - How Advertising Affects Our Lives

The impact of advertisements on our daily lives has created a new sense of idealism, which we base our individual decisions on. Advertisements took root in the use of televisions, posters, flyers, billboards and any type of media available. The economic impact of advertising generated a large amount of money through global industries and provided a foundation for products and services to reach any consumer. The main effect on society is how it influences us to buy a product over another, which manipulates our judgment. Many believe advertisements including commercials and paper ads are causing a negative effect on our lives and implore the use of controversial statements and claims to convince the purchaser to acquire the item or service. [THESIS] The statement, “In general, ads or commercials ultimately have a negative impact on our lives” is true and the reasoning for my judgment along with how ads affect society will be conversed. [THESIS]

POM Wonderful LLC has been supplying the public for nearly a decade with 100% pomegranate juice marketed under the brand, POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice. In a video clip advertisement, I found while reading a New York Times online article last Thursday, a picture of a POM juice bottle appeared in an empty room covered in a gray background. A woman in about her 50s’ dressed in workout clothes, a red tank-top and shorts, sluggishly walked over to the bottle and picked it up subsequently drinking the bottle and quickly began to revert her age to about mid 20s’. After drinking the entire bottle the younger woman smiled and said, “New research offers further proof of the heart-healthy benefits of POM wonderful juice, so drink up to a longer, healthier heart!” Then she swiftly ran toward the gray background, which instantaneously changed into a brightly lit park scene filled with people exercising and smiling. The implication is that if I drink POM juice, I will literally become a younger more energetic person. This is a hasty generalization since the advertisement is basing the evidence that on the result of one average person, the woman in the video. Furthermore, another logical fallacy in this ad is a non sequitur since it does not necessarily follow that I will have the same consequence as the woman. Her age reduction is overly exaggerative and a product of film editing. The assumption that POM juice will regress your age can influence an individual in spending his or her money to produce results that are physically impossible. Due to the nature of POM juice’s claims in its advertising, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has cited several complaints against the company (Fredrix). POM Wonderful LLC has currently halted many commercials and other advertisements containing claims on the POM juice health benefits.

A statement made by Liza Nordin in the Laulima discussion, “Yes, Ads Have Negative Impact!” complements my findings that ads ultimately have an adverse effect on society. Nordin writes, “Advertising encourages the conspicuous consumption and materialism so prevalent in our modern society…” which revealed how it influences individuals to consume a product that they do not necessary need. Excessive promotion for products and services can directly affect the environment through marketing waste such as promotional paper goods. Advertisements also can affect the environment indirectly as the individual continues to buy more items and discards previously bought commodities. Nordin also describes her view of how advertising and materialism are linked together through the unnecessary need for more products. Gathering more products to satisfy the expectations of how you want others in society to view you as causes individuals to become a slave to the mass media marketing. Another issue related to Nordin’s quote is increasing debt problems, which people then run into financial troubles. However, the issue of advertising and its impact on our lives creates two sides toward the argument.

In the Laulima discussion, “No, Ads Don't Have a Negative Impact!” Gregory Jenkins writes how ads create an identity and lifestyle with what we buy as consumers. Jenkins states, “Advertising leading to society’s alignment with consumer brands is an endorsement of positive freedoms...” which is skewed based on the logically fallacy of ad populum. In Jenkins’s testimony on the positive effects of advertising, he is appealing to the emotions of the people by utilizing certain terms such as positive freedoms, which construct an idealistic barrier. The term freedom is associated with independence and an expression of uniqueness, however in his argument he asserts that ads build an identity to which we correlate with others. This can conceive limitations in how we express freedom since if we buy a certain product that others are not particularly fond of, we usually change it based on another’s opinion. Jenkins also implies that branding oneself is a typical thing we do to create our own identity. The formation of an identity through the brands we choose from advertisements limit our accessibility to others. If one identities with a higher monetary value brand such as a Ferrari automobile, he or she is more likely to have friends with similar tastes in expensive goods. Nonetheless, advertising does have some positive impacts on our lives.

The positive impacts of advertising are seen through its effects on the prices and variety of assorted goods and services. Advertising a product or service allows the seller to have a better chance of persuading a consumer to purchase, which generates revenue for the business to pay its employees. The concept of competition amongst various advertisements allows society additional choices therefore permitting more opportunities. Advertising is also a tool used by many consumers to judge which product stands out and performs more effectively. The type of advertisement that is often conveyed as a positive impact is informational advertising on health-related issues. An example is a public service announcement on the health benefits of quitting smoking, which offers information rather then marketing a certain product.

The statement, “In general, ads or commercials ultimately have a negative impact on our lives” is true and correlates with my findings. The effects on society are mainly seen in a negative direction since advertising can involve many logical fallacies such as the hasty generalizations and non-sequiturs. The POM juice advertisement previously discussed comprises of a hasty generalization and a non sequitur made by the content of the commercial. In spite of these negative attributions, ads do have a few positive acknowledgements for instance, the competition it creates among products and service, which generate favorable prices. However, these hopeful elements in advertisements do not outweigh the detrimental factors, which influence our lives. Advertisements promote a false reality and cause excessive waste in our society therefore negatively affecting our daily existence.

Works Cited:

Fredrix, Emily. “FTC says POM juice ads are deceptive about health.” Yahoo! News.
27 Sept. 2010. 28 Sept. 2010. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_bi_ge/us_pom_wonderful_ftc_complaint].

Jenkins, Gregory. “No, Ads Don't Have a Negative Impact!” Online posting. 23 Sept.
2010. Laulima Discussion. 1 Oct. 2010.
[https://laulima.hawaii.edu/portal/site/KAP.XLSENG215js.201110].

Nordin, Liza. “Yes, Ads Have Negative Impact!” Online posting. 22 Sept. 2010.
Laulima Discussion. 30 Sept. 2010.
[https://laulima.hawaii.edu/portal/site/KAP.XLSENG215js.201110].

“Quick Review for Logical Fallacies.” ENG 215W. 6 Jan. 2009. 1 Oct. 2010.
[http://eng215kcc.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/quick-review-of-logical-fallacies-2/].

Log of Completed Activities
X Sep 17F- Intro to Paper #2. Read the Guidelines for Paper #2. (Confirmation reply required.)
X Sep 20M- Complete readings for paper #2. (Confirmation reply required.)
X Sep 24F- Laulima Discussion: Ad Pros and Cons
X Sep 28t- Laulima Discussion: Logical Fallacies Exercise
X Oct 4M – RD2 due [50 pts]. Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)
X Oct 8F- RD2 evaluations due [50 pts]. Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)
X Oct 12t- FD2 due [125 pts]. Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.