Stopping Advertising to Save Money Is Like Stopping a Watch to Save Time

Stopping Advertising to Save Money is Like Stopping Your Watch to Save Time.
March 2010
Final draft
When American culture evolves, advertising does too. Advertisements all serve one purpose; to persuade us to get something we don’t already have. From adhesive bandages to swimming pools, our media is alive with advertisements. Anywhere we go we are consumed by flashing signs and bright lights all conveying the same message- buy me. Some adds are good, some bad, some convincing, some not so much. Not only are adds always around us, but they are always changing too. Each time a new version of a video game comes out there is a new advertising campaign. Every time a new media is introduced to us we find a way to weave advertisements into it. Why are advertisements such a big part of our life and what we consume? How did it take over so many medias? In the nineteen-twenties, advertising was revolutionized because of the dramatic increase of products, the introduction of new medias, and the shift from product central advertisements, to advertisements focusing on the consumer.
Advertisements prior the roaring twenties focused on convincing the potential consumer how great the product was; the twenties introduced a new way of advertising in which advertising focused on the consumers needs rather then the product. Advertising companies would show a happy family using their product, which furthermore was meant to show the potential consumer what their family could look like if they used the product (Mieru34). Other techniques were used to show the costumer what it would be like to have the product. It became less about how nice the product was and more about how much nicer your life would be if you had it (Mieru 35). As Mieru explains, “Advertisers knew that their product was going to brighten up your life! (40)” Advertisers began to take advantage of consumer’s goals and feelings in order to promote their product.

Advertising in the nineteen twenties began...