When I was a little girl, I was very much drawn to TV commercials and advertising. My favorite was an Alafya Oil commercial set in an Arabic wedding; the oil was the “bride,” wearing a wedding dress and holding flowers, and there were fishes playing the wedding song as vegetables were dancing. When this commercial would come on, I would run to turn the TV up and dance. Commercials like these have entertained me ever since. Some people argue that advertising only encourages us to buy things we do not really need. I disagree. Just as I find a great deal of advertising enjoyable, I also think that advertisements inform us about new products that actually may improve our lives. Advertising, then, offers many benefits to us.
Advertising, as noted, exists to introduce new products to the public, even as it seeks to sell. Sometimes we use a cleaning product that we think is satisfactory, but we think this only because we do not yet know of the better product on the market. In plain terms, we would never learn about this new cleaner if advertising did not present it to us. Then, advertising keeps us informed of changes to existing products. Kindle commercials make it clear what new and improved features are on the devices, just as Toyota advertisements present new safety and gas usage improvements to their cars. Even snacks become improved, and commercials for Lays Potato Chips introduce new flavors. Without advertising, we would have no dependable way of being informed about these changes.
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This informational aspect goes to another benefit of advertising: namely, it may help us to change our lives for the better. This is clear in advertisements for smart phones, which present how the devices may enhance ordinary living. The commercials sell, but they also let us know how valuable the tools may be in finding locations and connecting to others in different circumstances. Commercials for the iPhone and Galaxy S4 are designed to offer and explain the many advantages of the devices. Through the advertising, we learn that we can create notes for ourselves, communicate in a variety of ways, and make videos from the phones. Because of market tie-ins, we also discover how adding a Yelp application eases finding any place at all. Health advertising also serves to better our lives, as it tells us all about new medications or new, local facilities. This occurred when AlSaad hospital first opened in my country of Saudi Arabia; simply, people began to go and be treated there because the hospital’s advertising was in place.
Not only does advertising help us to know about new products and make our lives better, it also acts to give us a better understanding of what is happening on local and international levels. As popular as Facebook is, the reality is that most of us would be unaware of it without advertising directing us to it. As the site grew, advertising of all kinds, on television and in newspapers, began to refer to it. This led to many of us investigating the site online, joining, and then becoming more aware through all the shared information. We make friends and interact socially, but we also learn what is going on in the news because of shared posts. Similarly, advertising expands our world by informing us of new places to visit, such as parks, malls, and fairs. Orange County Fair, for example, is a beautiful place to visit with the family, and advertising introduces us to it.
Then, it is important to note that a benefit of advertising lies in how limited we are without it. As commercials sell, again, they also inform and take advantage of the educated consumer. An example of this is Tide, an expensive laundry detergent. It is likely that many people buy cheaper brands, but the Tide advertising then helps them to make a better choice, by pointing out that the high quality of the product actually saves the consumer money. With no Tide commercials, people would not understand why the detergent costs more and why this is necessary. Many people would buy a cheaper product, simply, if the advertising did not explain the reality. The same factor of no advertising as being harmful may be seen with food products; when the public learns through commercials that Progresso soups are made with better ingredients, it saves itself from buying inferior foods.
All the benefits of advertising noted, there is still a responsibility on the consumer’s part. Plainly, all advertisers want to sell as much of a product as they can, and many will use beautiful advertising to sell a bad item. This is certainly the case of pharmaceutical commercials for products like NuvaRing. Millions were spent in advertising the product as safe and helpful for women, using models clearly delighted with the sexual freedom the device gave them. Then it became known that massive health issues were created by NuvaRing. Consumers must always then be aware of the advertiser’s agenda and not allow themselves to be taken in by expensive and seductive commercials. People are responsible for the choices they make, and it is unfair to blame advertising when poor choices are made by those who let the advertising “do their thinking for them.”
Ultimately, advertising helps us to find what we need. It tells us what is new in the markets and what is happening in the world, and it can also change our lives for the better. Then, and going back to my oil commercial, advertising is usually fun and entertaining. The songs in commercials, in fact, often become hits. Characters in commercials are also loved by the people, ranging from the old Charmin figure of Mr. Whipple to today’s Progressive Insurance’s Flo. Because of entertainment, information, and real help in living, advertising provides a wide variety of benefits to us all.
