Advertising is the most visible activity of business. What a company may have been doing privately for many years suddenly becomes public the moment it starts to advertise. By publicly inviting people to try their products, companies invite public criticism and attack if their products do not live up to the promised benefits. Defenders of advertising say it is therefore safer to buy advertised than unadvertised products. By putting their names behind the goods, the makers of advertised articles stick their necks out and will try harder to fulfill their promises.

　　Because advertising is so public, it is widely criticized, not only for the role it plays in selling products but also for the way it influences our society. As a selling tool, advertising is attacked for its excesses. Some critics charge that, at its worst, advertising is downright untruthful and, at best, it presents only positive information about products. Others charge that advertising manipulates people psychologically to buy things they can’t afford by promising improved social status or other unrealistic expectations. Still others attack advertising for being offensive or in bad taste. Many argue that there is just too much advertising and that this overwhelming quantity is one reason it has such an impact on our society.

　　As a social influence, advertising is often charged, on the one hand, with contributing to crime and violence and, on the other hand, with making people conform. Critics attack advertising for perpetuating stereotypes of people, for making people want things they don’t need and can’t afford, and for creating insecurity in order to sell goods. Advertising, they say, debases our languages, takes unfair advantage of our children, makes us too materialistic, and encourages wastefulness. Finally, by influencing the media, critics charge, advertising interferes with freedom of the press.

　　To adequately detail all the pros and cons of the charges against advertising would require volumes. However, it is important for us to understand the essence of these attacks and the impact they have on advertising as it is performed today and tomorrow. Let’s therefore examine some of the more common criticisms as they are usually expressed.

　　Advertising Makes Us Too Materialistic
　　Critics claim that advertising adversely affects our value system because it suggests that the means to a happier life is the acquisition of more things instead of spiritual or intellectual enlightenment. Advertising, they say, encourages people to buy more automobiles, more clothing, and more appliances than they need, all with the promise of greater social acceptance. For example, they point to the fact that millions of Americans own 20 or more pairs of shoes, several TV sets, and often more than one vehicle.

　　Advertising Manipulates People Psychologically to Buy Things they Don’t Need
　　Advertising is often criticized for its power to make people do irrational things. The following are some suggestions based on variations of this criticism:
　　1. Advertising should be informative but not persuasive.
　　2. Advertising should report only factual, functional information.
　　3. Advertising shouldn’t play on people’s desires, emotions, fears, or anxieties.
　　4. Advertising should deal only with people’s functional needs for products, not their psychological needs for status, appeal, security, or health.

　　Advertising Is Excessive
　　One of the most common complaints about advertising is simply that there is too much of it. Advertisements reach us in cars, elevators, parking lots, hotel lobbies, subways, and in our homes on radio and television, in newspapers, and through the mail. According to most experts, the average American is exposed to over 500 commercial messages a day. Some give even higher figures. According to the advertising critics, we are awash in a sea of commercials that make life less pleasant than it might otherwise be.

　　Advertising Is Deceptive
　　Perhaps the greatest attack on advertising has been and continues to be against the deceptive practices of some advertisers. Critics define deceptiveness not only as false and misleading statements but also as any false impression conveyed, whether intentional or unintentional. Advertising must have the confidence of consumers if it is to be effective. Continued deception is self-defeating because, in time, it causes consumers to turn against a product.

　　Advertising puts the advertiser on record for all who care to look. Because of greater scrutiny by consumers and the government, it is in the advertisers’ own interest to avoid trouble by being honest. The company that wants to stay in business over the long term knows it can do so only with a reputation for honest dealing.

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