Introduction
Advertisements are created to help the company to sell their product and service. It means the ultimate goal of advertising is selling and increasing the customer base. However, some companies take unnecessary advantage of it and advertise unethically.
When companies are violated, the government takes corrective measures that the advertisement is offensive, irresponsible or unfair. These government bodies provide direction to the company or advertising agency that how the company will execute advertisement. It tells the company how to be ethical, socially responsible while communicating advertisements to its customers.
Advertising is praised but also criticized by critics in their own ways. Advertising has many positive impacts along with its negative pictures. As the President of American Association of Advertising Agencies, John O’ Toole has described advertise is something else. And it is not an entertaining device but entertains everyone. Now let’s go through the economic and social aspects of advertising.
Meaning of social advertising
Advertising represents social life as it updates us daily. It is a part of our life because we breathe ads like air. It sends us the latest information about new products. It is like a friend who guides us to purchase the best product. Advertisement is blamed for manipulating customer to buy things which they do not require.
Social role of Advertising
- Deception in Advertising: The relation between the buyers and sellers is maintained if the buyers are satisfied with what they saw in advertise and what they got after buying that product. If seller shows a false or deceptive image and an exaggerated image of the product in the advertisement, then the relation between the seller and buyers can’t be healthy.
- The Subliminal Advertising: The ads are made in such a way that the consumers don’t even realizes that the ad has made an impact on their minds and this results in buying the product which they don’t even need. But “All ads don’t impress all consumers at all times”, because majority of consumers buy products on basis of the price and needs.
- Effect on Our Value System: The advertisers use puffing tactics, endorsements from celebrities, and play emotionally, which makes ads so powerful that the consumers like helpless preys buy those products just because their favorite actor endorsed that product. This affects in increased the cost of whole society and loss of values of our own selves.
- Offensiveness: Some ads are so offensive that they are not acceptable by the buyers. For example, the ads of denim jeans showed girls wearing very less clothes and making a sex appeal. These kinds of ads are irrelevant to the actual product. But then there are some ads which are educative also and now accepted by people. Earlier ads giving information about birth control pills was considered offensive but now the same ads are considered educative and important.
Positive aspects of social advertising
- Informed society – Advertisements help the society to get informed about various products their uses safe handling of dangerous goods, effective use of the product, price or quality difference between the product etc. but still our society far from information about the products. There are some companies which moreover focus on selling products.
- Health awareness – The advertisements on health drinks, hygiene food, pollution control product and their installation etc. make the people aware of heath and hygiene. It helps society to protect themselves from unnecessary health issues and live healthy and hygiene.
- Prevent form diseases – These are so many diseases in the society some of them spread like fore some of them worked slowly some spread infection among others. Advertising helps to know all about these diseases and make us aware that how we can save us from the disease. The best example of it is COVID 19 that affects millions of people.
- Environmental protection - Environmental protection is the need of time. The attack on nature by cutting more and more tree, letting off industrial waste into the open growing urbanization etc. are bought the environment into a dangerous situation. Advertising makes aware of the need for environment protection. For example – launching a campaign against the use and burning of plastics, save water save the planet, make the world green again.
- Social changes – Social changes that are changing the lifestyle way of thinking like accepting woman as equal, woman empowerment, up gradation of travelling vehicles, new and better technologies for education, keep surrounding clean etc. these all the changes come through advertisement only.
Positive aspects of social advertising
- Informed society – Advertisements help the society to get informed about various products their uses safe handling of dangerous goods, effective use of the product, price or quality difference between the product etc. but still our society far from information about the products. There are some companies which moreover focus on selling products.
- Health awareness – The advertisements on health drinks, hygiene food, pollution control product and their installation etc. make the people aware of heath and hygiene. It helps society to protect themselves from unnecessary health issues and live healthy and hygiene.
- Prevent form diseases – These are so many diseases in the society some of them spread like fore some of them worked slowly some spread infection among others. Advertising helps to know all about these diseases and make us aware that how we can save us from the disease. The best example of it is COVID 19 that affects millions of people.
- Environmental protection - Environmental protection is the need of time. The attack on nature by cutting more and more tree, letting off industrial waste into the open growing urbanization etc. are bought the environment into a dangerous situation. Advertising makes aware of the need for environment protection. For example – launching a campaign against the use and burning of plastics, save water save the planet, make the world green again.
- Social changes – Social changes that are changing the lifestyle way of thinking like accepting woman as equal, woman empowerment, up gradation of travelling vehicles, new and better technologies for education, keep surrounding clean etc. these all the changes come through advertisement only.
Negative aspects of social advertising
- Deceptive Advertising – Advertising wins the confidence of the consumer by showing their ads effectively or unethically. Deceptive advertising indicates that the advertisement is not true there are some misrepresentations, fraudulent presentations of product, misleading interpretations shown in the advertising.
- Harmful Effects – Advertising has a harmful effect on society. Nudity, bad habits, stereotype culture, surrogate advertising etc. affect on society badly many people criticized the advertising that affects social or cultural traditions.
- Advertising to children – Children are shown as cute and happy in advertising. Ads are shown in such a way that children force to their parents to buy the product. Sometimes parents require the product for their children for example a diaper that absorbs the urine. The perfect family with a happy child is used to target the middle class.
- Create Confusion – Advertising creates confusion in the minds of the customer while taking any decision of product. Multiple and repetitive advertising irritates people. If new and new products are launched month by month that is costly. It creates confusion that which product will fit as per the taste which will cost less and provide better quality.
- Forceful Selling – Advertising play with the emotions of the customer. The company exploits the sentiments and desires of the customers. Sometimes they motivate us that this product will boost your body strength mind abilities etc. sometimes advertising emotional attachment with the product. Thus, customer get attracted to the product.
Meaning of Economic Aspects of Advertising
It helps the consumer by providing knowledge about a variety of products and services so the customer chooses the right product. Advertising also played an important role in the development of rural and urban areas. Advertising helps to increase sales that will result in consumption of goods and the flow of money. This process will improve the growth of the economy.
Economic role of Advertising
- Value of Products: advertising helps increase value for the products by showing the positive image of the product which in turn helps convincing customers to buy it. For e.g., mobile phones were first considered as necessity but nowadays the cell phones come with number of features which makes them mode of convenience for consumers.
- Effect on Prices: some products do not advertise much, and they don’t need much of it and even their prices are high but they are still the leaders in market as they have their brand name. e.g., Porsche cars
- Effect on consumer demand and choices: Even if the product is heavily advertised, it does not mean that the demand or say consumption rates will also increase. The product has to be different with better quality, and more variety than others. E.g., Kellogg’s cornflakes have variety of flavors with different ranges for different age groups thus giving consumers different choices to select from.
- Effect on business cycle: It helps collecting more revenues for sellers which they use for betterment of product and services. But there are some bad effects of advertisements on business cycle also. Sometimes, consumer may find the foreign product better than going for the national brand. This will definitely affect the production which may in turn affect the GDP of the country.
Positive aspects of economic advertising
- Increase GDP – Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total of all the goods and services produced in a country over the period of time. However, it is difficult to measure the GDP because there are some unofficial transactions happens in the economy which is not reported to the government. Advertising helps to boost the production of more goods and services that increase GDP.
- Competition in advertising - Competitive advertising is an effort by one or more companies to create a difference between its product and the similar product offered by its competitors. Competition starts where the company has substitute products. Competition creates an environment where every company makes an effort to provide a better-quality product at a low price to its customers.
- Standard of living – The standard of living refers to the level of wealth, comfort, goods and necessities available to an individual, group, nation, or to a certain geographic area. The standard between two geographic area. Advertising helps the economy to achieve wealth levels, comfort, goods and necessities that increase the standard of living of people.
- Consumer Welfare – Consumer welfare refers to the individual benefits received from the consumption of goods and services. The company focuses on consumer welfare by delivering quality goods with a long-life duration of products. Consumer welfare means the welfare of the economy.
Negative aspects of economic advertising
- Advertising focus on consumer – Advertising is more over focus on selling the products and services to target customer. The company wants to sell its product some of them don’t believe to provide quality goods. They sell their products by manipulating the customer.
- Advertising multiplies the needs – The economy is too big there are millions of products available in the market. They all are focus on making you addicted to the product. Some companies produce the different flavor of one product some companies provide a product that gives you comfort zone some launch their product with minor specification.
- Increase product cost – Advertising is not so easy companies have to spend crore of rupees to advertise its product. All the cost of advertising coast is collected from the customer indirectly. Companies distribute their advertising cost over the product and service they are providing to their customers.
- Restricts entry of new units – As we discuss earlier that companies require huge funds to advertise their products. New companies do not have sufficient funds to advertise their products so it creates trouble for them to take their place in the market. Also, existing companies have their brand value and new companies cannot complete with popular brands.
