The Impact of False Advertising in Contemporary Culture

999 Words4 Pages
Advertisements are everywhere in American society and are themselves a new medium that have the ability to alter the truth and halt the natural process of human discovery. Consumerism has created a world saturated with media that advertisers have exploited to their advantage. Advertisers have embedded ads into the public sphere in order to most effectively engage consumers. As technology has advanced and the population has expanded, advertisements have become more provocative and pervasive and have shaped an idealized, false reality. As a result, ads have desensitized American culture and established values, judgments, and opinions that were established formerly have disintegrated. In American society, advertisements fabricate reality, reveal a false presentation of values and beliefs, and diminish one’s process of personal discovery, thus generating a superficial society that challenges human progress. Advertisements are woven into the context of a consumer’s experience and often portray a conflicting message than what the ad is attempting to sell. Cigarette advertisements are especially glamorized and controversial. The cigarette brand American Spirit recently published an ad that falsely represents its product. This ad attempts to establish an “eco-friendly” ambiance in order to attract a larger variety of buyers. American Spirit claims that its cigarettes are only made from “premium quality whole leaf natural tobacco.” Although this assertion may be true, smoking cigarettes has severe health consequences, including lung cancer, that this ad does not make clear to the consumer. A Surgeon General’s Warning is visible on the back of the print ad, however, it is understated graphically in comparison to the image of the cigarette box. The ad uses deceptive graphics to portray the cigarettes as descending from a rain cloud in the sky. This is an attempt
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