advertising is influencing people more and more. is this a positive or a negative trend?

It is a known fact that most of our decisions these days are based on the advertisements we see. I strongly feel, it is more bad that good. It is definitely a negative trend that has dangerous implications

Firstly

, not everything said in an advertising is true. Even though, laws exist to ensure that advertisements are right and ethical, marketers always find a loophole in it.

For example

, a lot of fairness cream ads claim to make you fair but it is scientifically proven that melanin once in your skin, cannot be removed and technically you can't get considerable fairness. A lot of products use these factually incorrect claims to lure users and people fall prey to it, all the time

In addition

, from lying, advertising is a money driven process. Which means, an advertiser with the most money gets the most space and time.

This

makes the competition unfair and consumers are not exposed to the financially weaker products. Another example would be an organization like Amazon can take up an entire page in the newspaper, whereas smaller retailers can't afford it, even if they have better products and offers. To summarise, cash-driven monopolistic approach doesn't let the market stay fair. In conclusion, lack of ethics and fairness are the two major attributes of advertising. Thereby, making the trend of being inspired by those, a negative one.