The Art Of Capitalism Advertising And Culture Article

The Art Of Capitalism Advertising And Culture Article The Art Of Capitalism: Advertising And Culture â€" Article Example > Exploitation of Humanity by Advertisers for Commercial AdvantageAdvertising has played a very critical role in the growth of capitalism by aiding commerce, enhancing brand visibility and sustaining the growth of multinational companies. Advertising is the use of media technologies, artistic skills and recently psychological knowledge to appeal to the target market. The ultimate aim of advertising campaigns is to get consumers to buy particular products and services to support the growth of the producing companies. The logic behind advertising is that the effective an advertising campaign is, the higher the value of projected sales. While an increase in sales and growth of an enterprise is good for any economy, there is a thin line between the growth of businesses and exploitation of masses through advertising. Critics of advertising argue that advertisers employ artistic and scientific skills to capture the attention of the target market and influence it to buy the advertised prod uct or service. This has led to unsustainable consumerism where people buy more than they require for their needs. Advertisers also design campaigns meant to influence children whose cognitive ability if not fully developed. Advertising also contributes to gender stereotyping by objectifying women as sexual objects in advertisements that rely on sexual appeal to attract attention. Some messages in advertisement campaigns may be cleverly misleading and may thus cause injury or unexpected expenses to an unsuspecting consumer. Advertising clutter sent via email, visible on WebPages and public places constitute an incursion the attention of the audience subconsciously. The numerous negative implications of advertising seem to support Raymond Williams that at one level, 'the advertisers are people using certain skills and knowledge, created by real art and science, against the public for commercial advantage'. This paper will discuss the negative implications of commercially exploitive advertising in society. Advertising to childrenChildren were not as significantly exposed to advertisement messages before the 1950’s as they are currently. This can be explained by the widespread consumption of television and internet entertainment. According to a news articles by Bruce Watson in The Guardian, The average consumption of TV commercials in countries such as America is estimated at 16,000 (Watson, 2014). It is such statistics that have contributed to debate and scientific research on the effects of advertising on a child’s brain. Several arguments have been advanced against advertising to children. For instance, advertising has been partly blamed for the rising cases of childhood obesity in developed countries. Fast-food restaurants, sugary foods processors and retailers, and carbonated drinks manufacturers have been blamed of contributing to childhood obesity by advertising to children. This has led to fast-food restaurants such as Subway to launch healthy eati ng marketing campaigns meant to appeal to children and avoid a social backlash from the markets where it operates. In 2014, Subway agreed to spend $41m in a campaign-“Playtime: Powered by Veggies” to promote healthy eating in children. Subway’s action is a reaction to a widely discussed ethical marketing issue relating to advertising to children (Watson, 2014). Psychologists argue that children below the age of five years do not have the ability to distinguish between entertainment and commercials in television programs. Children between seven and eight years can distinguish between and entertainment and commercials but cannot recognise the persuasive intent of advertisers. It is not clearly evident if children can appreciate the fact that advertisement messages can be inherently biased towards encouraging consumption of a certain product or service. The fact that the cognitive ability of children does not enable them to understand advertisements messages from a realistic pe rspective creates the ethical dilemma of whether to support advertisements to children or not. Advertising to children indirectly contributes to childhood obesity, poor impulse controls and inability to distinguish between products by their actual value and brands. Advertisers have consistently argued that advertising can help children to develop critical analysis of issues relating to their worldview. However, it is only fair to appreciate that advertisers are primarily interested in persuading children to purchase their services and products. Countries such as Sweden have laws that completely bar advertising to children below 12 years. From a cognitive development of children perspective, it is clear that children cannot appreciate the persuasive intent of the advertiser. Therefore, advertising to children is the use of science and art against public good for commercial advantage.