Negative & Positive Effects of Advertising

According to the International Advertising Association, advertising can encourage companies to compete and provide new products. This encourages more consumers to buy as these products meet the needs and desires of more consumers. 

More people are needed to manufacture, supply, ship, and test those products and services. Thus, more jobs are created. 

Public health experts realized that a diet consisting of more fibre could help prevent cancer. The National Cancer Institute did not have the resources to get the word out. 

The Kellogg All-Bran Campaign promptly grabbed the opportunity in the situation because their cereal contained “nine grams of fibre”. With the information from the NCI, Kellogg began running “fibre-cancer ads”. 

Sellers are less likely to stretch the truth when they know it may incite a relentless response from injured competitors.

This means that if one company advertises their product in a misleading way, another company with a similar product can be ruthless with comparative advertising. 

Advertising has little power over the consumer, if any at all.

Companies support entertainment with their ads, while receiving limited benefits. This is evident in the cases of sponsorship, in events like the Super Bowl or the Olympics. 

Many marketers understand that their ads do not affect the consumer. However, they do affect how they are viewed by distributors and retailers. 

As long as the ad can influence investors, salespeople and retailers, the company will prosper.

Advertisement ensures that many forms of mass media such as newspapers, radio, magazines, and television, continue to exist.

Advertising impacts society in a positive way because it helps to maintain mass communications media, making them much less expensive for the public. 

• Misrepresentation. Advertising strives to present a product in the best light possible, causing a potentially false representation of a product.
• False Images. Advertising influences what people believe about themselves. Images are often unrealistic and unattainable.
• Unrealistic Expectations. A study found that direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs has resulted in unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of drugs and their side effects.
• Political Influence. Conventional wisdom holds that political advertising in general is harmful to democracy.