Moreover, the nudity and unambiguous slogans even lower those standards – it’s a classic vicious circle. We can see half-naked women on billboards in front of schools and churches. Advertisers use colloquial and vulgar words, which are then embraced by children as normal. As a result, what we hear in public are sentences in which half of words used can be classified as obscene.
However we can also see that some features of advertising have been improved. The institutions like Advertising Standards Authority have introduced advertising codes that help us fight offensive materials we see in different types of advertisement. The advertising industry is also becoming more self-aware and tries to regulate itself.
Sadly, it fails to recognize that still, some ads may be offensive, and hurt beliefs of different ethnic or religious groups. One example of such repugnant advertising campaigns may be campaign of United Colors of Benetton clothing company where nun was kissing a priest. But here another question approaches our mind: maybe they did not react, because there were no protests or reports against such practices? I personally think that the problem lies somewhere between – it’s caused both – by people who create such appalling ads and viewers of it (lack of reaction from them).
Unfortunately scientific research on reactions and behavior of people, especially children is strongly affected by what they see in media – not only, but mainly advertisement is alarming. Dr S. Kirwil from SWPS in Warsaw stated that advertisement affects and shapes both physical and psychical development of youngsters. When they see explicit materials during their childhood, their emotional perception may be warped, what may lead to hazardous behavior such as rapes and problems with relations with other society members.
Children also often fail to recognize and distinguish between fact and fiction. They give credence to everything they see in television. One of the reasons I decided to write this article is actually behavior of my 6-year-old daughter after seeing one of the ads of glue, in which person cut off her finger and attached it again with this glue. I stopped her with a knife in her hand trying to check if the glue works the same way (when she saw it in a drawer in our house). This experience made me think about impact of advertisement on children’s thoughts. My daughter also asked me several times about Durex advertisement with a slogan “Press to play!”, what was hard to explain as she is that young – it also sheds light on another problem – advertisement are more and more often intrusion in sexuality of children.
All those problems make me think, but not understand, why advertisers use such cheap techniques in order to make people buy their products. The only advertisement that affects what I do or buy is an intelligent one. Nowadays, people who work in advertising companies seem to have lost an ability to invent anything using even little intelligence, and instead of it they produce straightforward slogans which are neither persuading nor funny.
The only way to face what is present in media and what offends us is to fight with it. If we want to improve standards of modern advertising we have to voice our complaints and disappointment, otherwise even authorities like ASA or CAP won’t even have occasion to help us. Higher standards in advertising may even result in higher standards of communication between people and lead to improvement of environment in which our children grow in. It’s vital, as media shape their minds and characters in that big way. It’s a last call to react, because advertising companies’ and lobbies’ power is getting bigger and in a minute we will be “too small” to face them and fight with those abnormal and explicit advertising practices.