Advertising and the Medias Influence on Society

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Advertising and the medias influence on society Advertising is something in today’s society that you cannot escape from, the reach of the media is everywhere. And whether we like it or not we will always be influenced by what we see. According to an article in the New York Times “Yankelovich, a market research firm estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today” (Louise Story 15/1/07) 5000 pieces of advertising in a single day; a number far beyond what many of us could even imagine seeing let alone remembering. But it is true, every day we see numerous ads about anything from how green tea will help us lose weight to how drinking Tui beer will get you girls. We cannot escape the reach of advertising especially in today’s world with technology providing advertisers a whole new realm from pushing their product. Many us would like to believe that advertising doesn’t affect us, that we are our own people and that the power of advertising has no impact on the way we perceive ourselves, or the way we see what we’re buying. But in reality whether consciously or subconsciously we are significantly impacted by advertising, the way we look at things differs when paired with advertising. Advertising doesn’t outwardly seem to be something that significantly influences the health and wellbeing of people in society; but there are several ways in which the advertising that we see every day is impacting on some key health problems in society. Body image and eating disorders in both men and women is one area that advertising has a significant influence on. Body image and the subsequent mental and physical issues that come hand in hand are a significant problem in society especially amongst women of all ages. According to research ‘even 30 minutes worth of television programming and advertising can

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