Companies spend millions each year on advertising online, in magazines and billboards.These adverts can encourage people to buy products that they do not really need? What are the positive and negative effects of consumerism?

Extreme advertising by multinational companies are very normal nowadays. Is

this

a good or bad thing? One may ask. Let's examine to what extent

this

is productive and pros and cons of

such

market condition. Advertising was a part of life for centuries. From small shops to large companies all need them to sell their products. In recent years, large corporations with revenues in the millions are spending huge amount in the advertisement. With

such

resources, they create

such

a good campaign that buyers end up spending a lot more and purchasing items they don't need.

For example

, Companies like "Zara" and "H & M" are coming up with new trendy clothes every week. They put very lucrative ads with large discounts.

This

has created a trend called fast fashion, so people buy more clothes for cheap and end up not using almost half of those.

Such

waste of resources has a huge negative impact on the environment.

Additionally

, People are becoming more materialistic with the advancement of consumerism. Social networking sites like Facebook will keep these advertisements in your face. People are being judged on material wealth

instead

of personal qualities. These effects are very powerful, especially in teenagers.

For example

, to feel included teenagers tend to buy the product that their friends have,

this

creates a chain effect in selling products.

However

, if you are a wise consumer

then

consumerism is not a bad thing. Advertisement will keep you informed about advancement in technology and new products which can improve the life.

For example

, I learned about the house cleaning robots from online ad. It is a wonderful product which has saved a lot of time for me. In conclusion, companies will always try to sell their product as much as they can. It has its advantages as well as disadvantages as discussed. It should be the responsibility of us as a consumer to be wise and buy only thing that we need.