Social Criticism Of Advertising

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Social Criticism Of Advertising 
Advertising is often criticized as a wasteful activity and an unnecessary evil. Its critics 
offer the following arguments to prove their contention:
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Multiplies the needs.
Advertising multiplies the needs of the people by inducing 
them to buy even those things which are not required by them. Since an 
advertisement is continuously repeated, it creates a desire in the mind of the 
public to buy the advertised product.
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Makes the product more costly.
The amount of money spent by an advertiser on 
his product’s advertisement is added to the distribution cost of the product. Thus, 
the customers have to pay more for the product advertised.
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Increase in demand at the cost of another manufacturer
. Advertising does not 
always increase the demand of the product. When the demand is inelastic, 
advertising shifts demand from one producer to another. That means a large 
amount of money spent on advertising by the manufacturers goes waste.
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Creates brand monopoly.
Advertising may lead to monopoly of a brand. It is 
argued that big manufacturers who can afford large amount of money on 
advertising can create brand monopoly and eliminate the small producers.
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Every advertisement is not creative.
A large number of advertisements either 
escape the attention of the people or are ignored by them. This leads to waste of 
money spent on advertisement.
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Undermines moral values.
Sometimes, advertising undermines ethical and 
aesthetic values. It may make the people start bothering for appearance and 
design of the product rather than the physical utility. Some advertisers also use 
indecent language and photographs to advertise their products which is highly 
objectionable from the society’s point of view.
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