Introduction
Advertising is one of the key roles in mass marketing. In this way, advertising contributes to the economic development of society. Advertising positively influences the development and production of new types of goods and services by providing effective ways of informing consumers about their appearance. The purpose of marketing is to influence people’s purchase behavior by creating a need for products and services (Sama 54).
Consumerism, on the other hand, is a phenomenon that stimulates the buying of goods and services in growing amounts. While some argue that advertising is a crucial component of capitalism, others consider that it has considerable negative consequences for consumerism. Thus, it is essential to provide a compelling explanation of the detrimental effects of advertising on consumerism and its influence on society.
The Importance of Advertising
The task of advertising in the modern market economy is to bring goods from production to the population, the formation of demand for them, taking into account socio-demographic characteristics of individual groups of consumers. Thus, advertising is required to stimulate demand and increase the market. When launching new products on the market, manufacturers use the power of advertising to provide an effective means of communicating with consumers (Sama 54).
By applying various associations to the properties of a product, advertising can arouse in the client an enhanced sense of benefit from its purchase, a sense of its worthiness. This is primarily an economic phenomenon, which is why it is always critical to understand its impact on market players and participants in economic relations (Sama 54). It affects both producers and consumers of goods and services. Consequently, advertising can influence consumer choice, providing consumers with accurate or misleading information and influencing their preferences.
The significance of advertising for the study of consumer behavior is that it demonstrates the ways in which marketers try to change consumer tastes and preferences in their favor. Advertising accompanies people daily and hourly, becomes obtrusive, or, conversely, passes over people’s minds. Moreover, billboards influence a person’s visual perception and leave a trace in the subconscious at the level of figurative thinking (Sama 54). Many customers consider that they buy goods and services without paying attention to advertising, for example, switching a commercial break, watching TV, or in some other cases. Almost all individuals firmly believe that advertising of goods and services is required and, moreover, that advertising plays a crucial role in decisions to purchase a particular good.
However, enormous resources are spent on the creation of commercials due to the powerful effect that advertising has on people. Many individuals have a skeptical stance when it pertains to advertising. They try to flip through newspapers and magazines, do not read advertising information on the street, and turn down the sound on the TV, but the impact of advertising on human consciousness does not diminish (Sama 55).
Marketers use techniques in their work that make people pay attention to the information, offering promotions, discounts, and vigilante offers. Moreover, the name of the product is included in the text of a famous song or poem; on the screen, the name of the product comes out of the mouth of famous personalities, with adoration and aspiration telling about the qualities of the product. The consciousness of the potential buyer is influenced by colors, smells, and sounds (Sama 57). Accordingly, even if people do not perceive the direct influence of advertising on their choice of goods and services, it affects all players in the market in a latent form.
Arguments
Advertising Encourages Materialism and Impulsive Spending
The first reason why advertising is harmful to consumers is that it promotes materialism. Advertising encourages people to buy goods that they may not need but rather that they desire (Alalwan 67). In other words, they can use their finances in an irrational manner. For instance, because they have been wanting to buy a new phone for a long time and saw an advertisement for a new model of phone, they can afford to purchase the desired device (Alalwan 68). However, this decision was impulsive and may have a negative impact on people’s living standards.
Instant Gratification Undermines Financial Stability
Furthermore, advertisements create a sense of urgency, suggesting that people can be happier and more fulfilled by buying the advertised product. Meanwhile, advertising encourages a consumer culture that values material goods over personal connections or experiences. Materialism can hurt people because it only increases their desire for material goods. Accordingly, advertising promotes the idea of instant gratification, which encourages consumers to make impulsive purchases (Alalwan 70).
The immediacy and excitement of watching an advertisement can trigger an emotional reaction in viewers, prompting them to make irrational and impulsive purchasing decisions. This practice has significant negative consequences, as it can lead to debt and financial instability. Instant gratification can also result in a failure to appreciate the value of things that require patience, perseverance, and dedication to achieve.
Consumer Culture and Overconsumption Harm the Environment
In addition, advertising contributes to the development of consumer culture by creating a strong demand for new and better products. Advertisers create new trends and dictate what people should purchase. Most advertising is placed on different platforms, from newspapers to social media. This is necessary to reach people of various age groups through the influence of advertising so they will be aware of the latest fashion trends and technologies. This trend has led to a cycle of overconsumption, where people constantly feel the need to buy new products, even if they already have similar things that still function (Piotrowska 4175).
This behavior is harmful to people and the environment, as it creates excessive waste. For example, the constant change of vehicles with the release of new and better models harms the planet. Vehicle recycling naturally produces technical water wastewater that contains environmentally harmful impurities, such as lead, oil, and plastic particles (Piotrowska 4175). In most cases, these effluents are discharged into water bodies, leading to overall water pollution. As a result, the impact of advertising on increasing people’s purchasing behavior can have a negative effect on the environment.
Finally, advertising creates a culture of wastefulness in society, which leads to a lower standard of living for people. The constant promotion of products increases production, which in turn leads to excessive consumption of resources. This overconsumption contributes to environmental problems such as pollution, depletion of natural resources, and global warming (Piotrowska 4175). It also perpetuates a cycle of consumption that causes waste and disposal of products that are no longer needed or wanted.
Advertising Promotes Social Inequality Through Material Competition
Second, advertising creates a sense of competition between people based on the goods and services they possess. Advertising often promotes a certain lifestyle or image that consumers believe will enhance their social status (Wu et al. 74). This creates a social norm that people are valued based on what they own rather than on who they are or what they have accomplished. This phenomenon produces a class structure based on material wealth that perpetuates a sense of inequality.
Consequently, society pays less attention to true values, such as people’s education or morality (Wu et al. 75). The negative impact of this factor is often seen in the creation of a more significant social gap and leads to discrimination based on this factor. Accordingly, advertising allows consumers to follow possible trends, and those who cannot afford to buy new trends feel pressure and discrimination in society.
Exaggerated Promises Lead to Unrealistic Expectations and Dissatisfaction
Another detrimental effect of advertising on the consumer is that it creates unrealistic expectations of what products can do for people. Advertisers often present products in idealized and exaggerated ways, leading consumers to believe that they will solve all their problems (Wu et al. 86). For instance, my family bought a robot vacuum cleaner a few years ago to make cleaning the house more accessible, and later the company released a new model, and the advertisement stated that it could replace full-time floor cleaning.
In fact, the new model of the robot vacuum cleaner will not replace the full cleaning of the house because it will not be able to clean the floor in difficult-to-reach places. Thus, the reality is that many products do not live up to their advertising promises (Wu et al. 87). This creates frustration and dissatisfaction among consumers, making them feel like they need to continue buying more to get the satisfaction they want.
However, the desire to find a product that matches the description of the advertisement, in reality, leads to a constant review of offers. Accordingly, in this way, advertising triggers a chain of sales of a specific type of product, and buyers become just another element of it (Wu et al. 89). As a result, they do not receive the desired outcome and spend a significant amount of money.
Counterarguments
At the same time, there is a position that advertising is an essential component of capitalism that promotes competition and stimulates innovation. The increase in people’s purchasing power leads to a wide range of offers, so every company tries to improve its products to be the market leader (Latif and Calicioglu 603). Furthermore, supporters of the positive impact of advertising may argue that advertising can provide consumers with helpful information, helping them to make informed choices about the products they buy. In addition, some may argue that advertising provides employment opportunities for people who are seeking work (Latif and Calicioglu 604). This position is based on the fact that advertising is a way of disseminating mutually beneficial information to the people who create it and those who receive it.
Rebuttals to Counterarguments
Although these points have some advantages, they do not outweigh the adverse effects of advertising on consumers. In a capitalist society, competition and innovation are necessary, but they should not occur at the expense of consumer welfare. Furthermore, small firms and organizations that are new to the market and need more financial means to compete in a particular sector with large advertising corporations see advertising as a factor that limits competition (Sama 61). As a result, fierce competition reduces the number of firms in a given economic sector, and the remaining companies have to compete more actively for the demand of potential consumers.
Moreover, it is crucial to distinguish between informative advertising and advertising that manipulates people’s emotions and desires. Advertising manipulating individuals’ emotions and desires encourages them to make decisions based on feelings rather than on rational thought, leading to impulsive and potentially harmful buying behavior (Sama 62). Additionally, the opportunity for employment through advertising does not justify the negative effects of advertising on consumers and society.
Therefore, as a rule, vacancies that offer unprofitable working conditions do not appear to be very popular due to low wages and poor working conditions. Accordingly, for their popularization, they use advertising as a way of spreading information in society (Sama 63). Thus, it is important to consider the long-term effects of advertising on people and the environment, not just the short-term benefits to the advertising industry.
Conclusion
In summary, advertising significantly impacts consumerism by promoting a consumer culture that values material goods and the instant gratification of personal connections and experiences. This creates unrealistic expectations and perpetuates a cycle of waste and environmental degradation. While advertising may be necessary for a capitalist society, it is essential to be aware of its adverse effects and work toward a more sustainable and responsible consumer culture. As individuals and as a society, people must make informed decisions about the products they buy and promote values that place social and environmental well-being above material goods. In this way, people cannot create a more just and sustainable world for future generations through the influence of advertising.
Works Cited
Alalwan, Ali Abdallah. “Investigating the Impact of Social Media Advertising Features on Customer Purchase Intention.” International Journal of Information Management, vol. 42, 2018, pp. 65-77.
Latif, Sadaf, and Cemal Calicioglu. “Impact of Social Media Advertisement on Consumer Purchase Intention with the Intermediary Effect of Brand Attitude.” International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, vol. 11, no. 12, 2020, pp. 602-619.
Piotrowska, Katarzyna, et al. “Assessment of the Environmental Impact of a Car Tire throughout Its Lifecycle Using the LCA Method.” Materials, vol. 12, no. 24, 2019, 4170-4177.
Sama, Ramzan. “Impact of Media Advertisements on Consumer Behaviour.” Journal of Creative Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 2019, pp. 54-68.
Wu, Ya-Ling, and Eldon Y. Li. “Marketing Mix, Customer Value, and Customer Loyalty in Social Commerce: A Stimulus-Organism-Response Perspective.” Internet Research, vol. 28, no. 1, 2018, pp. 74-104.