Basically, advertising is the voice of the market in a particular country, the voice of its' business and therefore the mirror of its' current life. From catalogs or advertisement boarding in the street till films in the television people see how they can live and correct their life in that direction. Add here the main idea of playing mostly emotions instead of 'technical characteristics' of a product and we'll see how strong advertising affects people's life values and desires.
We can also point some functions of advertising that will help us to understand what influence it has and what exactly it reflects.
By informing us about a new product or a new service advertising assists its' popularization, not only like "know more - buy more", here we can define two sides at the same time: increasing and demand, and supply. "Buy more - than produce more".
A kind of educational thing as well, sometimes leading to a comical situation, so now all the Russian men know that women shouldn't wear white and tight clothes on their 'critical days'.
An 1890s advertisement showing model Hilda Clark i...
"Get fat on Lorings Fat-ten-u and corpula foods"; ...
AdvertisingLet us now come back to the economics. A good ad not only helps to promote a product, but to sell it and this way the ad saves the business. Every time stimulating consumers' interest enough to be ended with a purchase, advertising helps to keep the producing company on the top and consequently saves its' working places.
As a result the more ads we see on TV or on the streets or wherever else, we realize that our market is improving and the level of life is rising in general.
Showing some kinds of lifestyle and making us wish more and more, advertising creates some images in our minds, some standards which not necessary reflect our present needs but gradually correct...