Question: Do advertisements contribue to unhappiness and dissatisfaction?
My prompt:
Advertising is meant to showcase one’s product for those that are still undecided, or to reach out to those that may benefit from the product. Unfortunately, greed entrepreneurs take advantage of advertising to inject rhetoric to misrepresent their products. Consequently, the people who buy the products will be naturally dissatisfied. Observing rhetoric, human psychology and my experiences explains this dissatisfaction.
Advertising is not a not a new concept at all; in fact, it was originated thousands of years ago in the form of Greek sophistry. These sophists, or early rhetoricians, were Greek men who excelled at rhetoric, and were infamous for persuading the will of their audience to do something, such as buying a product. These sophists were the pioneers of methods, such as the “snob appeal”, a fallacy that associates one’s products with opulence or exclusivity. Sophists were not just capable of misrepresenting their product, but were able to inject subliminal messages that made their product more appealing. Modern advertisement adopt many methods from these Sophists.
Human psychology also explains our dissatsifaction with false advertisements, which the Sophists took advantage of. The foot-in-the-door phenomenon is one’s tendency to comply with larger requests once on had already complied with smaller ones. For example, if I were to comply to buy wheels for a car, the car owner would have a higher chance of convincing me to buy a car. Advertisers skillfully take advantage of this human tendency, and it leaves many people who bought a product dissatisfied.
The prevalence of the iPhone is the quintessence of our dissatisfaction with advertisement. Our constant need to get the “latest” technology overshadows our very conscientiousness. As a result, we tend to buy a product, like the iPhone, impulsively. Many times I have heard my snobby friends compare and complain about how inferior or superior their phones are. This is as a result of consumer advertising; their representation of their products as the “latest and greatest”, although a shrewd business decision, is a trap for consumers.
Observing rhetoric, human psychology, and my experiences, indeed suggests that advertising, used to falsify one’s products, is the bane of consumer dissatisfaction.
Will grade your essay back, or something… thanks!
