In today’s consumption age, advertising becomes the door to influencing human choices. There are people who believe that the main purpose of advertising is to encourage individuals to buy what they do not truly need, and there are others who are certain that advertising simply informs them of products that already exist. I tend to believe mainly the first perspective because advertising most often leads individuals to buy something that they may not truly need via emotional and convincing tactics.
Firstly, the majority of the adverts are meant to make people believe they require something without actually needing it. Many dollars are paid for commercials that invoke emotions such as happiness, fear, or desire to belong to a superior social class. For example, luxury brands show their products as identifiers of success, but identical products at lower prices can do the same. Therefore, people may be influenced to buy expensive products that are not absolutely needed.
Second, advertising tends to appeal to people’s dreams or fears in order to sell more. This happens in the fitness and beauty sectors, where the ideal body type or beauty ideals are marketed. Individuals then purchase products in an attempt to measure up to the unrealistic standards. Rather than purchase based on genuine needs, they are driven by the desire to fit in or feel good about themselves.
But it is also true that advertising informs people about new products or services. Advertising informs people about what the new product can do and why one might want it when there is a new product out. So, it helps to make consumers more informed in their purchase decision. But most of the time, advertising does not necessarily try to inform but to influence people to spend.
In conclusion, although advertising can have some informative value, its main goal today is to increase sales, often of non-neccessary commodities. Most commercials depend on the emotions and psychological tricks in a bid to make people buy more than they really need.