Advertising can also aid many charities in receiving the pledges of money and assistance that they need to achieve their aims. Charities rely on pledges from members of the public. Without these pledges charities would not get any money to send as aid to the people who need it around the world. The way many charities get the money to support the needy is through advertising. Advertisements in newspapers, on television and in magazines show harrowing pictures of why the charity needs aid. Pictures of staving children, desolate landscape, and many more are rife in our media. The Oxfam adverts which show emaciated, weak children in Africa is just one example of charity advertising. This is a plea for aid, for money to help these people through their crisis.
Advertising creates jobs. It is thought to be a very good job to have and is much sought after. Without advertising, people such as graphic designers and advertising companies would have to look elsewhere for work. Advertising companies would go bankrupt and all the employees of those companies would be made redundant. This would add to our unemployment figures which would decrease morale. More people than ever would be looking for jobs.
Advertising can lower the cost of newspapers, magazines and free websites. Companies pay newspapers and magazines to carry their advertisements of their businesses. This money can cover some costs in the newspaper so that the newspaper can be sold for less to the customer. Often, when you visit free websites, you are convinced to click on advertisements so that the webpage stays free. If nobody does then the website can close down, because, by clicking on the advert sometimes the owner of the website can get a small amount of money, this often goes towards keeping the website open.
To argue against the point that it keeps magazines and newspapers cheaper, many people would rather pay more money than come across advertisements every few pages. This can get annoying and very repetitive, with many companies promoting their products and services more than once in each magazine or in more than one magazine.
Advertisements can add an element of humour to our televisions. Many advertisements are made to be comical as is catches peoples attention and people will remember it. Many catchphrases have come from television advertising, and some have been with us for many years and are widely quoted.
Advertisements can educate us, by promoting different cultures and styles. Advertisements are widely watched, and educate us between programs, some without us realising that we are learning something me may not otherwise learn.
Customers can get better deals after looking at advertisements. For example they may see that one shop is selling, in its sale, a chair for one-hundred pounds and another shop is selling it for thirty pounds less. Therefore you, as the customer would know that the second shop is better value for money. Without advertising customers would spend more money; they would go to the most conveniently placed shop, which may not be the one which is best value for money, they would not be informed of the place where the best value for money product/ service is.
Businesses do well out of advertising. If a business has a product or service which is of better value than that of other companies then they should advertise it. If they did, customers would think that the business was the best value for money, even if only the advertised product was of better value. This may be good for businesses but bad for customers. There are different advantages for both businesses and customers.
Whilst there are many arguments in favour of advertising, some advertising may promote harmful substances I.E alcohol, which may glorify the product to young, impressionable people who may get the idea that alcohol will make their lives better, this encourages alcoholism and will go on to cause problems for these people in later life. This could be a problem to our society, but I feel the messages against the usage of such dangerous products in advertisements, weigh out the counter argument of promotion of harmful substances.
If there was no advertising many people would not know the dangers of smoking, fireworks, cot death, and many other dangers to society. People would not be as aware of racial discrimination, third world poverty, cancer, disabilities and other world issues. This is where discrimination starts. Ignorance is the biggest cause of discrimination. People would also not hear about these issues and many others, and therefore would not know that donations are required for the charities that care for the people who these charities are there to help. Without advertisement, people in the third world would have little aid, which may lead to more problems, and more deaths would be inevitable. Many people would be unemployed. This is why I am in favour of advertising.