As markets become increasingly saturated and competitions between players offering homogeneous products are more intense than ever before, raising brand awareness is of the essence. To this end, advertisements have necessarily been heavily employed, resulting in them becoming visible almost everywhere. From my perspective, the omnipresence of advertising is an overall negative phenomenon.
On a personal level, the prevalence of advertisements exerts adverse impacts on individuals. Firstly, the fact that advertising appears with increasing frequency is a nuisance. In contemporary society, it permeates virtually everything we watch, read or listen to. For instance, YouTube videos are intermittently interrupted by promotions, TV shows are frequently hijacked by commercial breaks, and readers of newspapers and magazines have been decrying advertorial spreads taking up a greater portion of printed publications. It just seems impossible to enjoy ad-free content in this day and age. In addition, the insatiable desire to peddle products not only inconveniences media consumers but also sabotages the integrity of media content. In fact, many of the so- called articles on news outlets nowadays are actually engineered to incite naive readers to buy something instead of informing them of anything substantive. This calls into question the validity of the information that reaches us every day.
On a societal level, the ubiquity of advertising breeds excessive consumerism and contributes to a throw-away society. Regarding the former, no matter how discerning a consumer is, when one is routinely exposed to advertisements, he or she cannot resist the temptation to purchase the items advertised even if there is no real need for them. This incentivizes manufacturers to ramp up production and create more exotic products with a view to satisfying consumers’ ever-increasing shopping demand. With respect to the latter, This can be seen in industries producing apparel or electronic goods, where incessant promotional campaigns try to sway customers into discarding the items they currently have for new, improved, more fashionable offerings, making a society throw-away.
In conclusion, the growing popularity of advertising has numerous negative implications for both individuals and society. It is imperative that stringent regulations as to when and where a company can advertise be put in place in order to mitigate these problems.