Today the high sale of popular consumer goods reflects the power of advertising and not the real need of the society in which they are sold. To what extent do you agree or disagree

The sixties saw the rise of Madison Avenue, a narrow lane in downtown New York that quickly rose to become the ' mecca of advertising'. Since

then

the rise of advertising has been fast and rapid, and we now see astronomical

sales

of popular consumer goods. In my opinion,

this

only highlights the impact of good advertising rather than the actual need of the

consumers

for these goods. In

this

essay

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I shall discuss the reasons for my strong opinions on the power of advertising and how it deceives

consumers

. Social media today is a very powerful tool.

People

of all generations, ranging from young teenagers to old pensioners are addicted to their phones. Recent studies from the University of Heinz have shown that 70% of all adults between the age of 18-35 spend more than 8 hours browsing through social media applications on their mobiles. It is no surprise

then

that advertisers are making full use of

this

'phone addiction' to promote their

products

.

This

is often done with the help of influencers and celebrities, who are paid to market certain lifestyle items to their followers.

However

many of these

products

are high priced and of limited utility. A recent post by popular footballer Ronaldinho featuring Stanley glass bottles, saw the

sales

of the product rise to over 200% within 15 minutes. The bottle has since become an internet sensation with

people

even robbing stores to get their hands on the bottle. In my opinion,

this

frenzy over a regular item like a glass bottle highlights how much advertisers use social media to influence

sales

and

this

often has no relation to the actual need of the

people

for that item.

On the other hand

, some may argue that advertising

also

helps promote various small industries by making

consumers

aware of the variety of

products

in the market. But as advertising is a paid service small business owners often lose out to the bigger corporations which can pay more and have a higher reach of their

products

compared to low-scale companies.

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published in 2012 in the New York Times showed that every 10 dollar extra spent on advertising results in a 20% hike in

sales

for that particular product. In conclusion, I believe that higher

sales

of popular goods only reflect the stronghold that the advertisers have on the

consumers

.

Due to

advertising more and more

people

are now spending money buying

products

that they do not necessarily need.