Advertising!!

“Advertising is the art of arresting the human intelligence just long enough to get money from it” (Chuck Blore, www.globalissues.org) Companies usually use the mass media to let a large number of people to know about their product, and they try to turn luxuries into necessities. As Naom Chomsky said “Product is the audience, and the customers are the corporate advertisers.”(www.globalissues.org)

Advertising has a great effect on the Lebanese society. Advertisements now-a-day are used through billboards, TV commercials, even through word of mouth. People usually buy what they see on billboards, TV, magazines…etc because they like what they see and what they hear, even if they are not really sure of the product they would buy it because advertising plays a big role in convincing the people of buying this product. They chose what words and pictures to display very carefully to get to people’s mind, and convince them to buy the product. Have you ever noticed for ex. when you enter a supermarket that unconsciously you chose a certain product because it has been spoken a lot about or because it has billboards all over the street or its commercial comes up on TV every 10 minutes, that’s advertising and that’s what’s happening here in Lebanon.

Advertising has a great influence on people’s lives. Advertising even has an influence on the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. Advertisers advertise the cars we drive by drawing and unrealistic image in peoples head of how good life would be once you buy this certain car. Ads in a magazine are very similar to the Ads on television. In magazines they show a beautiful woman and a handsome man standing next to the car, which implies that the person reading the Ad can be like the beautiful woman or the handsome man in the magazine, and this actually works, people would actually buy this product thinking that if they did, people would look at them the same way they saw the man or the woman in this Ad. “There’s a commercial that implies that a person doesn’t have class unless he drives a Volvo, or according to the Cadillac commercial, a car can not be elegant unless it’s a Cadillac.” (www.123helpme.com)

Advertising also influences the people on those clothes they wear. TV and magazines use thin models wearing different clothes. It lets people think that clothes will look good only if they were made good, and if they have a brand name, If they are Calvin Klein or Armani for ex. , and it makes people hope that the clothes will look good on them as they did on the models.

At last but not least advertising also has a great influence on people’s eating habits. There are a lot of Ads on food such as hamburgers, candies, beer, pizzas, cakes, and so on. Their slogan on these Ads influence people, and in my opinion I don’t think anyone can resist.


In conclusion, the way everyone is living, is influenced by advertising, everything we buy is a result of advertising. People can’t live without advertisements, it’s like they need to see something either on TV, on a magazine, or on a billboard before they buy it.