Advertisements

Just imagine that innocent commercial of the suave businessman, swiping his “PLATINUM” credit card at the nightclub, followed by a giggling bevy of finely-dressed ladies before speeding of with his red-hot Lamborghini. The power of advertisements stirs up our desires more than we would want to and sooner or later, that credit card ends up in our hands…

I disagree with the author to a certain extent. Competition forces homo-sapiens to adapt, and advertisements are very much the same. In the past, advertisements were mainly employed to direct a certain message to its viewers, yet now, many “quality” advertisements convinces the mass population that their luxuries are essentials. This evolution of advertisements has been embraced by many companies these days, making advertisements the most potent con-man the world has faced.

Many advertisements completely disregard the importance of honesty and integrity. The primary system advertisements are based on revolve around this process: attract, sweet-talk and engulf. These steps cover up the cons, promoting the pros and often, exaggerate them. Insidious in nature, they excel best in the aspects of trickery, which is pretty much the polar opposite of honesty. The products always look so appealing, so immaculate… and so perfect. Attracting the masses, the first step, has been fulfilled. Next, we would descend into a “world of one-sidedness”. The product introduces one advantage after another, appealing to our irrationality and toys with our ability to weigh the pros and cons in order to reach a logical decision. We are completely fooled and eventually, the products seemingly perfect picture is reinforced into our minds, giving birth to the sudden crave for one, and with this crave, we have essentially fallen into the trap laid out by advertisements. Like the pitcher plant or the anglerfish, we are the ignorant prey which gets deceived. How honest can advertisements be?

Despite all these, can we just say that we want to get rid of these advertisements? No, to some companies, advertisements are of upmost importance; they are essentials. Like bread and butter, the two are inseparable for eventual success. Advertisements are like double-edged swords, they help the company earn some revenue, at the cost of its honesty. Yet, there are still some advertisements that have the ultimate aim of educating the public, increasing their awareness of a certain product. Despite this, there is only an iota amount of advertisements that are of the latter, making advertisements tools devoid of any honesty and integrity.

If I were to be a Creative Designer of an advertising agency, tasked to design an advertisement for a tobacco company, how much would I compromise on honesty and integrity? From the moral viewpoint, I believe that I would not compromise on honesty and integrity. Despite the contradiction between the advertisement and the intended high consumer rate, I believe that if the puff is really needed, the addict would not hesitate even if faced with the dire consequences. By stating the implications of tobacco, we are simply educating the public of the potential effects it would have on your body. Even from the economical stance, embracing the logical ideals of honesty and integrity would be a good idea. Allow us to compare with a company who compromises on honesty. Definitely, the latter company would receive better consumer growth. However, eventually, consumers (being the typical human beings we are) would complain, file a law suit and so on so forth, whilst the former company who stuck to integrity would not receive high consumer rates, yet it would enjoy a stable consumer rate. Better still, it would probably not have to face the perpetual despair like the latter company. Undisputedly, the former company would do well in the long run. Hence, my not compromising on honesty and integrity would actually be doing a favour to the company.