Impact Of Advertisements On Our Lives

It is well known and relatable to all of us how fiction, may it be a story book or a film or daily soaps viewed on television, affects us. These all are forms of art both crude and good. The word “art” is an abbreviation for “artificial” which means every form of art is mimesis i.e. imitation of the real life, as per asserted by Aristotle. When we watch a heart-rending movie, we tend to take fascination in the protagonist. We try tofind such a kind of person in our lives consciously and sub-consciously i.e. through dreams. This gives a picture of how the an artificial world which exists in our imagination only, can affect us, and curb us as well.

Advertisements too, are creative visions, are possible through art only. They too exercise their power on us in such a way it feels as though we are letting ourselves get affected by it. Advertisements, basically, aim to sell us something or convey an important message and sometimes it does both. Instancing, an adverstisement of bread of a particular company shows how the it should be shared with everyone, even with the one hailing from the lower strata of the society so that the class discrimination gets narrowed. This is the marketing strategy which operates on the psychology of the human kind. The modern beings who don’t live by orthodox beliefs but are sometimes compelled to do so by some greater force, gets the motivation by such kinds of advertisements. The makers of advertisements are actually the keen observers of their surroundings and probably have a good knowledge of psychology than a psychologist himself. Society is after all a constitution of psychological beings. Using it’s psychology to sell a product can be considered a kind of manipulation.

However, all advertisements are not meaningful. Some lack logic and reason whereas some are hyperreal. “Simulacrum” is a term coined by Jean Baudrillard. According to him, art is an exaggeration of reality. There are certain advertisements which bears a grave content, at least, it would have been so, if it happened in real, but advertisement make it look like a cake walk i.e it understates the reality so that the audience’s focus could be drawn towards the product and not towards the situation. A man holding a bottle of coke is shown to be the courageous of all. He manages to escape a band of robbers by consuming the drink. The line between energy and bravery is totally blurred. This might put negative impact on children. There were cases in the past where several children jumped off from their terraces believing such advertisements and fell to their deaths. This why advertisements are claimed to be hyperreal. Hyperreality of such kinds can sometimes be fatal.

While there are advertisements with innovative contents, there are some which still run on orthodox beliefs. Instancing, an advertisement of a dishwasher would always be enacted by a woman. Same is the scenario when it comes to the advertisements of any baby product. A woman’s potentials are severely undermined but are portrayed in such a convincing manner that viewers feed themselves with such a content no matter how analytical the viewer’s mind might be. Advertisements on fairness cream highlight the racism which still is in existence in our society and such advertisements serves as medium to lift it up disregarding the fact that it is serious threat to the society.

Advertisements are important in the marketing field where the product should be put in a particular situation to make the world know about it’s usage. Come to think of it, we become customers to such products only after being convinced by the adverstisements. Being affected by every kind of advertisement can lead to unhealthy consequences. The only solution to this problem is to put the content of the advertisement in to scrutiny which demands to have a strong hold over on our own states of mind so that no external force can exercise power on it. It would help us from being duped as the adage goes “All that glitters are not gold.”