Advertisements of the 21st Century

Essay by klh25High School, 11th gradeA-, March 2014

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Humphries 1

Kelsey Humphries

Andrea Miller

English 111

March 10, 2014

Advertisement of the Twenty First Century

You see them everywhere you go, in the car, in the mall, in newspapers, in magazines, in yearbooks, and on TV. What is this we see everywhere? Advertisements, which are "a paid announcement, as of goods for sale." Advertisements help promote items, stores, etc. People or businesses purchase ads in hope of gaining more popularity over what is being promoted on the ad. Most of the time we just ignore the fact that we see anywhere from three thousand to twenty thousand ads a day. Our brains usually tune them out, but do they really?

Research done reveled just what advertisements do to our brain. Usually in advertisements there is a product trying to be promoted. It is being compared to other products and it only shows the "good" things the product being promoted does.

For example a lipstick advertisement might say, all day wear, rich pigmentations, or moisturizing technology. Seeing the advertisement say all these "good" things about this lipstick helps your brain decide what lipstick you want to buy. When a product is being compared to another product, the advertisement will highlight the promoted product in a positive way, while it highlights the product being compared in a negative way.

Let's say for example you go to a store one day in hope of buying toothpaste. In the previous week you have seen around ten advertisements for toothpaste A and you have then seen around five advertisements for toothpaste B. You go look at the many different types of toothpaste. The two types of toothpaste you have seen advertise the most really stand out to you, the two your brain is most familiar with. You know toothpaste A freshens breath, and helps prevent cavities, while toothpaste B whitens teeth, and helps rebuild enamel. The better bran to choose would be toothpaste B, but you choose toothpaste A. Why does your brain do this?

When your brain sees a lot of the same advertisement it starts to get familiar with the product. Therefore when you go into a store to buy a product you need you choose the one you know the most about. Just like you would do before you bought a car or house you do research. Advertisements are a small way of companies making you think you have done "research" about a certain product. So when you go to a store you buy a product you choose the product that you have done the most "research" or seen the most ads on because you were most comfortable with that certain product. Even though everything thing in the advertisements may not be completely true your brain does not know what is a lie and what is not a lie. You put your trust in the companies to tell you the truth about a product, and you trust that the product works.

Companies use advertisements to increase its sales, promote products, promote services, show changes in old products, and introduce a new service or new product. New companies advertise to let others gain knowledge about the new upcoming business. Letting the public see advertisements helps them stay up to date with what is going on with a company. Companies using advertisements has become very important in todays world. The budgets for advertisements are pretty vast, considering they cost a lot. The reason companies are willing to spend so much on advertising are, it increases the sales of services and products, starting and continuing to have an image, advertising a change in a product, and to introduce a new product.

There are many types of advertising as listed in the first paragraph. Here are some more and their reasons and audiences: Newspaper/magazine ads are printed. These are placed in a certain newspaper/magazine based on the usual audience of the newspaper/magazine. These sizes can vary, depending on the size the price will vary also. Billboards are the most common type of advertisement. They are usually seen beside major roads and interstates. Radio advertising is one of the oldest types of advertising. These are around thirty seconds long. The prices for these types of ads can vary depending on the length of the ad and time of the day it is played. Television advertisements are the most expensive because they are seen the most people.

Seeing advertisements can change your opinion on products. They can make you like one product over another. They can also persuade you to purchase a product. Having so many advertisements can be overwhelming at times. But in todays society they help businesses grow and develop. We should be thankful we have advertisements to help us stay knowledgeable about business and products.

Works Cited

"Advertisement." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2014.