People hold different views about how advertising affects our shopping decisions. While a number of people believe that advertisements help us to approach new products that enhance people’s living standard, I would argue that advertising is manipulating us to buy products that are not actually based on our demand.
On the one hand, there are compelling reasons why many believe that advertisements can bring information about newly launched products that will enhance our lives. Firstly, by enlightening the population about the technical details and benefits of products, it helps them to make a decision about buying an item. Moreover, from online and offline advertisements, consumers are provided with useful information that helps them to choose the most suitable product or service for their daily life. This specifically helps them to fulfill their demands and needs, thus also improves their quality of life. If there was no marketing tool to introduce a new product, people would have never known about something that matches their needs.
Having said that, I would agree that advertising encourages people to buy unnecessary products. The first reason is that large companies often exaggerate the usefulness of a small feature of their products. These kinds of advertisements will lead to giving untrue and misleading information to attract as many consumers as possible. Another reason is that through advertisements, consumers are persuaded to follow the latest trends and fashions on the market. This obviously leads to their impulse buying in which they purchase a large number of unnecessary items without careful decision. Therefore, it wastes the amount of money that, in fact, they can spend on other fundamental needs instead.
In conclusion, to me, by exaggerating the quality of their products in advertising, the businesses could attract people to buy unnecessary things.