Influence of Advertising on Daily Life

The impact of advertising is a matter of continuous debate. For and against claims about advertisement have been made in different contexts. Cigarette manufacturers have been claiming that cigarette advertising does not encourage smoking and their eventually successful


opponents just the opposite. Children under the age of four may be unable to distinguish advertising from other television programs, as the faculty to judge a message

develops on attaining adolescence. There is, however, no doubt that Advertisement-loaded media do influence our daily lives.

Marshall McLuhan, media thinker and philosopher of the electronic age, in his Understanding Media observes: “The continuous pressure is to create ads more and more in the image of audience motives and desires. The product matters less as the audience participation increases.”

An observant netizen has culled a few nuggets from the currently popular television advertisements that tellingly illustrate McLuhan’s point:

Before going to propose to a girl

Believe in the best—BPL.

Proposing to a girl

Vicks ki goli lo kich kich door karo—Vicks.

For writing a love letter

Likho script apna apna—Rotomac.

If you love someone

Go get it—Visa power.

Not satisfied with your date

Yeh dil mangey more—Pepsi.

Have many girl friends

The Complete Man—Raymonds.

Having many boyfriends

Yeh hai hamara suraksha chakra—Colgate.

Advertising promotes consumerism and encourages mass production. Some advertising campaigns inadvertently or even intentionally propagate sexism, racism, and ageism. Is the advertisement industry creating or merely reflecting cultural trends? Advertising often reinforces stereotypes as it banks on recognizable “types” for telling stories in a single image or 30-second time frame.

The public perception of advertising is getting increasingly negative. It is accused of dishing out half-truths and hoodwinking the consumer to benefit the advertiser or Big Business. Realizing the social impact of advertising, Media Watch educates consumers about registering their concerns with advertisers and regulators.

Advertisement sustains the media [newspapers, televisions, internet, e-mail, telephone] and the media impact on our daily lives. They are full of advertisements. One has to search for the news in the ‘national’ dailies. They justify advertisements as newsreaders can use. From morning till late night, men, women and children have to bear a blitz of advertisement.

Our tastes, our habits, our clothes, modes of travel, entertainment, our choices of schools, colleges, universities, leave aside products, get decided by advertisements. Our hopes and frustrations too are ordained by advertisement. The electronic society is losing touch with reality, as did the industrial society with nature. We now live, not in a real but virtual world. We care more for the photograph than the face before us.

Perhaps the most pernicious effect of advertisements is on middle-class children and their relations with parents. Some of them have become “couch potatoes”, watching too much television, and unavoidably, too many advertisements. Craze for fatty, fast foods among boys and girls is due to advertisements. This is affecting children’s health and growth. Working couples do not have time and give hefty pocket money to please their children who spend on chips and candies, spoiling their teeth and digestive system.

Advertisers make viewer/consumer believe that their product will make them achieve goals or fulfil desires. They are commercializing our festivals, religious practices, sports and cultural events. Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Gurparb, all have been tuned into commercial displays of saleable goods, bought, at times, beyond means.

There is also a brighter side. Advertising is a powerful tool capable of motivating large audiences to participate in campaigns against disease, poverty and war.

Power of advertising is overwhelming. It may not brainwash overnight. It will change you subtly, but surely. It has the power to prevail. Our daily living is tightly in the ad grip!