Advertising - Beneficial?

Advertising works to our benefit in many ways such as providing information in a certain area so as to persuade its customers to buy the company's product. However, the reliability of an advertisement is certainly questionable as companies have to persuade and tell the truth at the same time. Providing false facts in an advertisement may increase the profit of a company in the short-term, but the company's reputation is at stake because people would not trust it anymore after finding out the truth. Hence, most companies usually promote the benefits of their product and hide the negative side effects.

Companies like Vitagen promote their products by informing us the content of the drink so that we would buy the product after we know that it is good for our health. These advertisements tells what substances are good for our body, and work to our benefit by providing us with knowledge. We can use this knowledge to come up with other healthcare products in the future. It does not only provide us with a chance to make a fortune, but also helps us determine whether certain types of food are safe to eat. Hence, advertisements work to our benefit.

Companies such as Coca-cola have no way of providing information because Cola is bad for health. Hence, they can find alternatives. Commonly used techniques are getting famous people to show how refreshed they feel after getting a sip. Although some advertisements may not be promoting products beneficial to our health, they do not provide false facts that may mislead people into thinking that more Cola is good, such as having a slogan like, "A can a day keeps the doctor away". Hence, advertisements poses no harm to us.

For the case of a tabacco company, it is certainly difficult to advertise products because tabacco is bad for a person's health. However, they must remember that since the government discourages people to smoke, it would not be wise to get more people to smoke. They can only compete with other tabacco companies and get more customers. To do so, the company has to prove that its tabacco is better than other types of tabacco by comparison. For example, they can prove that the smoke produced is less harmful to the human body, thus attracting more people to buy their kind of tabacco. This would encourage smokers to smoke tabacco that is less harmful to them, which can minimize the number of deaths caused by diseases such as lung cancer.

In conclusion, companies do not dare to provide false information because their reputation is at stake. They can only try to get more people to buy their product using various means. These methods do not pose any harm to us. Hence, although only some advertisements work to our benefit, other has no negative effects and thus advertisement benefit us on the whole.