Name : Tan Xun
Matrik no : 16613
Group : 23

Writing Task 3: Discuss the influence that advertising has had on your life or the lives of your friends.

Advertisements have become a part of our everyday lives. We are often exposed to all kinds of advertisements, whether through the electronic media, newspaper, magazines, brochures as well as the simple flyers that are being thrown into our postboxes. Advertisements not only have the power to influence us into buying a product but they can also affect our self-image and sense of our identity.

                Advertising usually preys on consumers’ vanity, especially teenagers, as human beings like to be admired and be accepted by others, whether socially, physically, intellectually or professionally. Teenagers usually desire prestige and status, so we think can we can simply achieve such desires by using a product of a renowned brand like Versace, Calvin Klein, Nike, Adidas, Camel Active and others. So, advertisements have the power to influence our thoughts and emotions and to lure us into buying a product or a service, which we may have no need for. As a result, advertisements are successful because we are usually gullible and vulnerable to the sales gimmicks and strategies used by the marketers. We succumb easily to irresistible offers like “Buy one, free one” or “Free gifts” or “Cheap Sales”. Consequently, we will end up purchasing a product or a service which is actually not necessary.

                In other words, advertisements can portray to us an unrealistic world. Incorrect or false information in an advertisement will affect the cognitive developments of teenagers. Teenagers, with their idealistic mentality, will think that they must always look like the models in the advertisements. Thus, this may cause some young girls to go on excessive diet, which can be life-threatening. While some of the youngsters may even using dangerous slimming products to be able to get a curvy figure as their ‘goddesses’ that appear on the screens of those advertisements.

                There may be also no difference to the boys. They will want to look ‘macho’ (manly) as the male models who are being portrayed in the advertisements. As a result, this may cause many of the young males to end up spending extra on unneeded things as they wish to be attracted to girls as shown by the male models in the advertisements. Therefore, they may even have the wrong impression that all they need is to earn a lot of money and be able to afford expensive products, and then girls will fall for them. Such thinking actually goes against all social values that parents and schools have tried to instill.

                In short, advertisements are a powerful media in our modern lifestyle. It can dictate some parts of our living styles which we cannot deny, as we are always surrounded and bombarded by them. Therefore, we need to face advertisements with a sane and sound mind so that we will not be totally controlled by them.