by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: April 07, 2009

Advertising is used is a way of alerting potential consumers to the existence of a particular product or service. With thousands of different items on the market and a proliferation of ways to promote their product, advertisers have had to become more creative in drawing attention to the item being advertised; this can even extend to being creative with the truth. Creators of advertisements are paid to generate sales, and so their main priority has to be demonstrating what their product has to offer which others do not. They also aim to leave an imprint in the audience's mind about what that particular company represents, and so the emphasis is very much about trapping potential consumers, rather than enlightening them.

Advertisements can victimise individuals in more ways than one. The most obvious way has to be through the propagation of stereotypes. Perhaps this is less evident than once it was, as an increasing number of outlets for advertising means ads, in general, are targeted towards their particular niche. Thus on channels targeted at men there tend to be more ads for cars, razors and aftershave than on channels aimed at women. Even though people are increasingly choosing to skip through ads using television services which allow them to do this, and are not all watching the same programmes as they may once have been inclined to, stereotyping is still very much a part of advertising. For instance, it is not unusual for the notion of women's sexuality to be exploited in order to dupe men into buying a certain brand of body spray.

The use of stereotypes may seem rather trivial; they are used for a reason, enabling people to recognise who the advertised product is being aimed at, and making the advertiser's job easier. More serious is the way in which advertisements target the most vulnerable in society. It is not unusual to see advertisements for consolidation loans and credit cards during daytime television programmes, cynically trying to target the unemployed. The best market for advertisers, though, has to be children, as they are extremely good at badgering their parents into buying them exactly what they want.

Many European nations have been coming to the realisation that people in advertising are never going to effectively regulate themselves when their whole business is based on cynical manipulation, and so have started to impose legislation which bans certain ads being shown during children's programming. Advertisers will no doubt find away around this, particularly as the internet and viral marketing has really taken off, and the fact that children tend to be more technologically aware than their parents.

Overall, anybody can fall victim to advertising, as advertisers are exceptionally aware of the techniques and strategies required to induce people into buying the goods on sale. From the imagery and pictures used to the words, phrases, quotations, and statistics employed; every aspect of an advertisement is contrived to show off the product in its best light. After all, the advertiser's job is to make money for the company employing them, not to safeguard the interests of consumers.

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