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essay

The book, “Made You Look How Adverting Works and Why You Should Know”, states that there are many methods for advertisers to make products popular and attractive. The author, Shari Graydon discusses the information by using pictures and easy read paragraphs. She uses a lot of information about the history of advertising and how advertising works. She also mentions about the advertisers, critics, and professional’s point of view. For example, she includes a table containing a list of arguments, the pros and cons of advertising from advertisers and critics.

The writer also asks questions which are simple and easy to read to make the book more interesting. For example: What are we, Cows? These are just some ways Ms. Graydon teaches the reader about advertising; however, her real goal is to reveal that she does not like advertising. She continuously is giving reasons including: giving wrong information to customers, targeting young children in school, and bringing long term negative effect to customers.

First of all, I strongly agree with the author’s point of view. She states that advertising makes the products unrealistic. The photographers use different angles and special effects to make the product look more beautiful and glamorous. The advertisers want to exaggerate the products because they want to make it attractive so customers will buy them. According to the book, there are several examples of this strategy. For example, using Julia Roberts to sell food on television. When we see Julia Roberts in the ads, she looks very glamorous and sexy. Customers psychologically think they can be the stars. In reality, some people say that Julia’s head was pasted on to another woman’s body. Her body is not “perfect enough” to appear in her movie ads. This type of advertising, “make us look” at the product the stars are using. In the advertisements, we often see food that is very juicy and fresh. In fact, the advertisers hire food stylists to apply makeup to the food. So that the final copy is something completely different than that of the real product. The author is very upset about these techniques. She believes that they will mislead us to buy the wrong products.

Secondly, the advertisers mostly target small children. Then they can persuade their parents to buy the product for them. In fact, advertisers in North America spend more than 2 million dollars each year to try and convince the youths to spend their money. The advertisers use this tactic to capture young customers. Advertisers have a special agreement with schools so that companies can advertise their products in school and in return the schools receives money from advertisers so they can buy textbooks and equipment. While this arrangement benefits the school and company, it negatively affects children. For example: when they see fights in the advertisements, they think fighting is fun. Another example is: the four year old boy who watches an advertisement in which Oreo cookies are going into a toaster and pop up like pastries on TV. The boy wants to repeat the same trick at home. So he puts some Oreos in the toaster and then turns the toaster on like in the commercial but when they get stuck in the toaster the boy decides to use a pair of scissors and metal tongs to rescue the cookies. This type of advertising gives kids the wrong idea. The author believes that children are naïve and do not know how to distinguish between good and bad advertising.

Finally, advertising has many long-term negative effects on children because the parents never consider the impacts of what the advertisements are so they just let their children watch those advertisements. As the children watch these ads repeatedly, they learn bad habits from them. For example: the cigarette companies use different types of symbols such as a sexy girl or a camel to attract new customers. The advertisers want to attract the new customers as young as possible because the opportunity is more limited when they are older. The author believes that the advertisement intentionally tries to hide the long term effects of smoking cigarettes like lung cancer.

In conclusion, the author does not like advertising. Product information is being exaggerated too often and gives people the wrong impressions about the companies products. Additionally, children targeted by advertisers can suffer from many negative consequences, some of which may be long term.

Manga page:
Vincent: Oh was it... ~hmm~
Maid: I almost believed it ~phew~
Exoda: Argh... every time I'm reincarnated, something false is added...

Vincent: Oh well, let's start the job.
Exoda: You want me to do that?

Vincent: There are numerous princesses from the east and west...
Exoda: ...Why would such innocent princesses want to serve a satan...

Vincent: I have an idea on why...

Vincent: Where to?
Exoda: Before I start, my soul needs washing.
Maid: Oh, a bath right?

Maid: Want me to help?
Exoda: It's okay.
Exoda: I want to be alone.