Advertising: Informative or manipulative?

Advertising could be argued as a very resourceful information or manipulation in our life. Advertising is related to public relations. “Public relations” to me is a study and practice of communication and the process of interacting with people. Through this, we can share our different ideas, talk about the issue and improve our lives with it. I have always been interested in communication in a creative manner and I’ve found interacting with others quite enjoyable. That’s why I would argue that advertising is in fact, quite informative in our society rather than “manipulative”. 

It is in fact, very easy to criticize advertising. Those people who can’ handle the fast pacing and money lacking individuals blame advertising for creating a “desire” for unnecessary goods. I, on the other hand, disagree. Advertising can’t sell any products, but it simply “help” sell products that people want to buy. It is simply informing the public of the variety of good quality goods available to us. It actually helps benefit the society. Advertising is very persuasive and handy tool. It is everywhere around us; in magazines and newspapers, on radios and televisions, and on any internet sites along with billboards in the highway. They are very easy to get a hold of.

When I was young, advertisement and commercials have got my attention much more than scheduled programs or shows on TV. Especially growing up in Korea, I was surrounded or I could say, bombarded by Korean commercials. They use broad range of strategies in order to capture the attention of the viewers. The catchy words and funny costumes that American TV watchers may be familiar with will be taken to an entirely different level in Korea. Mesmerized would be an understatement of a word to describe the commercials aired in Korea.

Korean commercial producers rewrite the rules of advertising. They link almost every random moment of people’s day with any various products in Korea. A recent commercial that I watched that manages to stuck in my head is for a rice cooking equipment featuring a newborn baby and the stamping of his birth certificate. In Korea, commercials and advertisements are seemingly everywhere. It sometimes appear in every flat surface, there is a poster promoting some kind of a household goods plastered and LCD screens, playing some kind of commercials replaying their advertisement over and over. I wonder now, if it is all those lights from the advertising that brightens the night light in Korea, and if we turn it off for couple of hours every day, we could save some energy. Coming out from every building in downtown central Seoul is papers promoting wide range of goods and services. Unlike some critical Americans, the Koreans find this abundance of advertising harmless and sometimes, even informative. 

Advertising helps spread news of newly invented high-tech products and contributes to society’s awareness of what is “new” out there. It helps define our fast developing world and is a very persuasive and handy tool. Without advertisement, it would be a lot more difficult for some people to get an easy access to something they want or need. Over all, advertising helps us by sharing informative information.