Bussines

Across the globe ads are everywhere. On the bus, billboards, magazines, TV, and just about everywhere you look. According to marketing consultants Stan Rapp and Tom Collins, on a typical day, an average American sees over 5,000 advertisements a day. (Gay, 1992). When discussing whether by nature or created by human beings, advertising is manipulative and unethical, it seems very hard to determine if there is a yes or no answer that is a clear agreement. On one hand a company has the right to attempt to make money in their business. That's how our capitalist system works in the United States, but on the other hand, how far can we allow companies to persuade consumers into buying their goods, even if unethical practices to the consumer is involved. Is the responsibility up the consumer or the advertisers to be informed on what reality is and what's just some hype? Do advertisers have an obligation to inform as well as a right to influence? There are many questions and many different views to examine that arise when passing judgment about advertising.

"We live in an economy which is dependent upon the psychological needs and wants of the consumer"(Sandage 1951). In an attempt to influence and persuade the consumer, advertising addresses the psychological needs and wants of the consumer. The current economy of the United States demands that advertising be present, without it many magazines and television programs would have to be funded from individuals, which would pass the costs on to the consumer. The concept of advertising is what keeps this country and many others going. Companies must sell their products and to do so effectively, you must advertise. I believe that it's rather absurd to think as advertising as unethical when a company claims their product is the best on the market. Of course a company is going to proclaim they're better or tastier than the competitors because they want the sales to stay in business. Being the best is very subjective and applies to personals taste rather than factual claims. The consumer must make the decsion on whether or not to be informed when making a purchase or satisfied after the purchase. Unethical advertising can be applied to companies who make false claims about the product at hand, use trickery with use of images, untrue promises of a desired goal, and