In recent times, the word ‘Advertising’ has become a much discussed topic. Advertising has both positive and negative social and economic impacts on our society. Viewing advertising as a public good has a positive social impact, while exposing women as a sexual tool has a downside. Regarding economic factors, the financing of the media and the promotion of an active and competitive economy are the main examples.

Various techniques are applied to persuade consumers that they want the product being advertised. These techniques generally pay attention to the benefits that would be provided to consumers rather than focusing on the actual products. For example, a car ad that advertises a vehicle’s mechanical attributes most likely concentrates the euphoria, reputation, and social advancement it can bring to the buyer. This swarm advance is usually sexual or involves the opposite sex to attract consumers with the glamorous fancy car for women and men.

There are several faults that advertising is causing a negative social impact on life. The main unfavorable judgment for advertising is that it induces the public to buy things that are not their real needs. It is claimed that advertising plays on emotions and encourages people to think that shopping and selling out are the activities of life.

According to advertisers, they claim that people are capable enough to decide and no one can force them to buy something they don’t like or think is not a necessity. Advertisers also think that there are positive impacts of advertising on our society and culture. For example, it can be used to raise awareness among the public about which product is OK or which one to say NO to. In other words, advertising also acts as an educator in the sense that it educates people about what is good and what is bad for them and puts a limit on harmful products like smoking and drinking etc.

There are not only social benefits to advertising, but it also has some economic advantages. Without advertising, the media, including newspapers, television, and radio, would never be very strong. Advertising generates revenue for commercial media that would otherwise have to be financed by the actual consumer of these media. So, we can see a large economic infrastructure based on advertising, in which large companies finance and subsidize commercial media through advertisements.

The main negative economic aspect of advertising is that it increases the price of goods and services. The source of this argument is that when organizations subsidize the media with advertising, we, the buyers, subsidize advertising by compensating a very high price for highly advertised goods and services. An easy example of this is that a box of Omo washing powder typically costs around two to three dollars, while the market price of the product would be seven to eight dollars. The fact behind this is that the remaining proportion goes to heavy advertising on TV and print media.

So the impact of advertising on our society is confusing, depending on the functions and implementations of numerous campaigns. Our society and the marketing of products depend a lot on advertising. Businesses have become so dependent on advertising that even its negative impacts can never outweigh the many positive social and economic effects.