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We are bombarded by many advertisements every day. Vendors try all means and ways to
gain our attention and sell us their products or services. Advertisements appear everywhere; on
television programs, radios, in the papers, magazines, pamphlets and so on.
Advertisements are actually very useful though we sometimes feel annoyed when they
interrupt our favorite television programs. They provide us with free information on the
products and services. There are two types of advertisements. The informative advertisements are
the ones which provide us with the details of the products or services. This information is
especially useful if the product or service is new. For instance, when we need to buy a computer,
advertisements describing the latest models and their different functions would be extremely
helpful. However, only a minority of the advertisements are informative ones. Many of them
belong to the second category -- the persuasive kind. These advertisements not only tell us more
about the products, at the same time, they persuade customers to buy them by claiming that their
products are superior to the rivalry ones. These claims may sometimes be untrue.
Besides being informative and persuasive, advertisements also help to subsidize the prices of
magazines and newspapers. Our newspapers are sold at a low price of about one
dollar, owing to
the advertisements in the papers; otherwise, the price would have been higher.
While advertisements can be good helpers for shopping, they do have their shortcomings.
Most advertisements aim to sell only. Faults of the products or services are usually hidden from the consumers. Hence, sometimes, we feel deceived if the product or service we bought does not
turn out the way the advertisements claim to be.
Sometimes, advertisements by rival competitors can get very intensive, especially when
there are many firms producing similar products. One common example is the washing powder.
There are so many advertisements for the different brands that customers sometimes get
confused over what they should buy. Furthermore, having more advertisements would mean that
the production cost of the firm would be increased. These rises in cost are usually passed on to the
consumers in the form of higher prices.
Hence, in conclusion, though I do advocate advertisements, I do not deny their flaws.
Without them, we might have to buy things based on incomplete information or go through more
complicated ways before getting to know the products or services. On the other hand, too many
advertisements also complicate our buying decisions. So I would say that we cannot live without
advertisements but we must be careful how we live with them. |
