advertisement is bad essay

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Advertising Makes Us Unhappy

• Nicole Torres

The more a country spends on ads, the less satisfied its citizens are.

The University of Warwick’s Andrew Oswald and his team compared survey data on the life satisfaction of more than 900,000 citizens of 27 European countries from 1980 to 2011 with data on annual advertising spending in those nations over the same period. The researchers found an inverse connection between the two. The higher a country’s ad spend was in one year, the less satisfied its citizens were a year or two later. Their conclusion: Advertising makes us unhappy.

• Nicole Torres is a former senior editor at Harvard Business Review.

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Is Advertising Harmful To Society?

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Paul Suggett has over 20 years of experience as a copywriter and creative director in advertising.

• DeMontfort University

Some studies would lead us to believe that we are constantly bombarded with advertising messages . It's everywhere. On our phones, laptops, tablets, in restrooms, on buses, trains...you name it, there's probably an ad on it. 

In fact, some estimates have posited that we see 20,000 marketing and advertising messages every single day. That, clearly, is nonsense. Considering we sleep for a minimum of six hours, that leaves 18 hours, or 64,800 seconds in which to cram 20,000 ad messages. Basically, one ad every 3 seconds. You are not seeing an ad every 3 minutes, let alone 3 seconds. 

Yes, we see a lot of ad messages a day - subconsciously. But those, that we actually notice and pay attention to, are few and far between. We most likely see a few hundred messages at most and pay attention to no more than 1 percent of them.

Still, that leaves at least a few ads per day that get into our heads. And the question is…is that harmful in some way?

The Argument Against Advertising

Those who say YES, advertising is harmful, have many justifiable concerns. Here are some of the biggest examples: 

• Unrealistic Body Image Expectations Our self-image is definitely being affected. Most men in ads are chiseled hunks with ripped abs and perfect hair and teeth. For women, it's even worse. The standards of beauty set in advertising are beyond ridiculous, and even when advertisers try and empathize, they still come out with ads that heavily favor good-looking women. Dove has done a good job of trying to embrace real women with its "campaign for real beauty," but even then the ads sometimes stumble.
• Creating an Unnecessary Need Most ads out there push products that very few people actually need. Think about it. Any product or service that people actually need to survive and thrive does not need an ad campaign; consumers are actually seeking them out. It's why you rarely, if ever, see ads for gasoline or utilities. But when it comes to the "stuff" that we fill our lives with, advertising can implant deep-seated longing for those products. "You need that new car." "Your life would be so much better with this diamond ring." "How could you possibly live without an iPhone?" From new cars to music players and the latest candies and junk foods, advertising can literally make people crave something they didn’t even know they wanted a few seconds earlier.​
• Targeting Younger Consumers Using Sex and Violence Advertising blatantly uses sex and violence to make products appear cooler to the youth audience. And advertising, especially political advertising, can sway the course of a nation through deception and misinformation.
• Cluttering Our Lives With Endless Messaging Advertising is both pervasive AND invasive. It's everywhere. Outdoor campaigns bombard our eyes with bright selling messages. Pop-up ads ruin any kind of website experience, often slowing the site down to feed you with ads you don't want to see, and making it hard to close them. Ads are on radio, TV, and even in the products we purchase (the cheaper Kindle Fire comes with ads built-in to the device). It's hardly surprising that people are paying significant monthly subscription fees so that they can avoid ads on YouTube, Hulu, and radio.

The Argument For Advertising

Just like most professions, advertising is a double-edged sword. Yes, it can be harmful. But it can also be extremely beneficial to society.

• Spreading Awareness of Public Health Concerns Advertising is an incredibly effective and powerful way to spread the word about important issues and products, such as AIDS awareness, diabetes monitors, tobacco and alcohol risks, and other health-related concerns. If it weren't for mass market multi-media campaigns informing us about public health and safety concerns, the world would be a much more dangerous place.
• Funding Free Content Just think for a second about all of the incredible things you have in your life that you don't pay for. All those TV ads that interrupt your favorite network and basic cable shows might be annoying, but guess what...without them, there wouldn't be any shows to watch. Most of the internet is free because of online advertising. If you took away advertising, you'd suddenly find yourself without a lot of the entertainment you take for granted.
• Helping Businesses Grow and Hire More People How would small businesses ever hope to succeed without advertising? They need to find a way to spread the word about the products and services they provide, many of them essential to our way of life. And how would big businesses spread the word about innovative new products, or improvements to existing ones? Without advertising, would you know how to choose between the phones you use, the cars you drive, and the TVs you watch? Would you even know what choices you had or what existed?
• Keeping Prices Competitive Advertising also brings prices down for consumers. When a business like T-Mobile nationally advertises a plan like two unlimited 4G lines for $100, the others all sit up and take notice...and drop their prices.

In summation, it's worth noting that advertising has both positive and negative aspects to it, but without it, society would probably be worse for wear. What's more, advertising is not the only outlet for glorifying attractive men and women, and sex and violence are prevalent in many aspects of society, including movies, TV series, video games and even homemade YouTube videos.

So, back to the original question. Is advertising harmful to society? The simple answer doesn’t exist. But the more complicated one seems to be that the benefits outweigh the negatives. For now. 

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Essay On Advertisement

500 words essay on advertisement.

We all are living in the age of advertisements. When you step out, just take a quick look around and you will lay eyes upon at least one advertisement in whichever form. In today’s modern world of trade and business, advertisement plays an essential role. All traders, big and small, make use of it to advertise their goods and services. Through essay on advertisement, we will go through the advantages and ways of advertisements.

The Various Ways Of Advertisement

Advertisements help people become aware of any product or service through the use of commercial methods. This kind of publicity helps to endorse a specific interest of a person for product sale.

As the world is becoming more competitive now, everyone wants to be ahead in the competition. Thus, the advertisement also comes under the same category. Advertising is done in a lot of ways.

There is an employment column which lists down job vacancies that is beneficial for unemployed candidates. Similarly, matrimonial advertisement help people find a bride or groom for marriageable prospects.

Further, advertising also happens to find lost people, shops, plots, good and more. Through this, people get to know about a nearby shop is on sale or the availability of a new tutor or coaching centre.

Nowadays, advertisements have evolved from newspapers to the internet. Earlier there were advertisements in movie theatres, magazines, building walls. But now, we have the television and internet which advertises goods and services.

As a large section of society spends a lot of time on the internet, people are targeting their ads towards it. A single ad posting on the internet reaches to millions of people within a matter of few seconds. Thus, advertising in any form is effective.

Benefits of Advertisements

As advertisements are everywhere, for some magazines and newspapers, it is their main source of income generation. It not only benefit the producer but also the consumer. It is because producers get sales and consumer gets the right product.

Moreover, the models who act in the advertisements also earn a handsome amount of money . When we look at technology, we learn that advertising is critical for establishing contact between seller and buyer.

This medium helps the customers to learn about the existence and use of such goods which are ready to avail in the market. Moreover, advertisement manages to reach the nooks and corners of the world to target their potential customers.

Therefore, it benefits a lot of people. Through advertising, people also become aware of the price difference and quality in the market. This allows them to make good choices and not fall to scams.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Essay On Advertisement

All in all, advertisements are very useful but they can also be damaging. Thus, it is upon us to use them with sense and ensure they are entertaining and educative. None of us can escape advertisements as we are already at this age. But, what we can do is use our intelligence for weeding out the bad ones and benefitting from the right ones.

FAQ on Essay On Advertisement

Question 1: What is the importance of advertisement in our life?

Answer 1: Advertising is the best way to communicate with customers. It helps informs the customers about the brands available in the market and the variety of products which can be useful to them.

Question 2: What are the advantages of advertising?

Answer 2: The advantages of advertising are that firstly, it introduces a new product in the market. Thus, it helps in expanding the market. As a result, sales also increase. Consumers become aware of and receive better quality products.

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Free Advertising Essay Examples & Topics

The advertising industry plays a critical role in modern society. We can see ads everywhere. They make us create opinions about all that we see, from food to politics. It is also the main source of income for most of the media, from newspapers to Facebook.

What can you write in an essay on advertisement?

In essence, your task is to compose an advertisement review. You have to analyze an ad or a few and explain how it promotes the product. Who does it appeal to? Tell about its aim and target audience. Then describe the main points and how it impacts people, providing your opinion. Write about the influence of advertising and your own impression.

To make it easier for you to decide on a topic for your advertising essay, our team has created a list of ideas for you. We also analyzed the structure of this type of academic paper and prepared some advertising essay examples.

Advertisement Essay Structure

When you’re writing a standard academic piece, your essay on advertising should be five paragraphs long. In the table below, we will analyze what you should describe and how to do so in detail.

• Introduction: Describe the product and provide some background information about it. You should state what exactly you will analyze. Include your personal opinion in this part. Explain why the company needs a commercial for the product. Summarize the content of the ad.
• Thesis Statement: Mention the main descriptive points that will appear in the body of your essay. There is no need to introduce your personal opinion in the thesis . Focus only on the vital aspects. Don’t write more than two sentences — preferably stick to one.
• Body Paragraphs: Here, you should describe the target audience of the commercial in any essay on ads. Besides, in the paragraphs, write about the concept of the brand and advertised product. Provide a visual analysis of the ad: colors, lighting, actors, and props and their meaning. Then switch your focus to the pros and cons of the ad.
• Conclusion: Try to keep it short and logical, covering the most significant points. Summarize the information about the targeted audience, the aim of the ad, and if they achieved it.

The structure above can serve as an outline for your argumentative essay on any chosen topic. But that’s not all. To write a successful essay, you need to take a few steps before writing:

• Select a topic . Try to remember some ads that you have recently seen. Think of your reaction to them and choose the one that strikes you the most. You can also use one of the topics from this article instead.
• Carry out research . Make a semiotic analysis of the ad. Search for the psychological techniques, values, and tricks used in the ad. Also, focus on the purpose of the advertisement.
• Determine the audience. Your essay should be interesting to your readers. Make sure you highlight the aspects that are valuable for them. Avoid mentioning unsuitable details or using a wrong writing tone.

Don’t hurry.

Spend some time planning your essay and create an outline. Try to understand what the creator of the commercial is aiming to say. Think of the advertisement is successful or not and make your analysis simple and involving. Of course, highlight the positive and the negative aspects of the ad.

13 Advertising Essay Topics

As we mentioned above, choosing the right advertisement essay topic is a vital part of the job. In this section, we will provide a few ideas, among which you can find a suitable one for your assignment.

Try one of the following advertising topics:

• Should alcohol advertisements be banned entirely?
• Nike feminist commercials and their significance to women.
• How Coca-Cola commercials became a symbol of Christmas.
• The advantages and disadvantages of Internet ads.
• What is wrong with shampoo ads?
• Advertising strategies on social media.
• The adverse effects of violence in the media.
• How does advertising affect children?
• The ethical side of the advertising industry.
• Marketing strategies in the political advertisement.
• How does advertising affect the economy?
• What are the main media and advertisement techniques of Netflix?
• Unethical aspects of using women objectification in ads.
• Hybrid marketing model as a way of reducing costs for a company.

Thank you for reading this article! You can also find some useful advertising essay examples below. They will help you to see how to use all these tips.

435 Best Essay Examples on Advertising

Facebook should be banned essay (privacy invasion, social effects, etc.), facebook essay, facebook should be banned.

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A Rhetorical Analysis: “Chevy Commercial 2014”

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Successful Advertising in Fashion

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Can Advertising to Children be Ethical?

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Morgan Spurlock’s “POM Wonderful: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”

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“We Believe: The Best Men Can Be” Advertisement

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Survey Carried Out at Tim Hortons

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Teen Fashion Advertisement

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“Moms Demand Action” Print Advertisement

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L’Oréal and Lab Series Advertisements Analysis

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Television (TV) Ad Execution Styles

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Cadbury “Dairy Milk” Superbowl Commercial

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The Camel Brand: Tobacco Advertising

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Ads promoting l’oreal’s men and women moisturizer.

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Barbie Product Advertisement: Rhetorical Analysis

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Advertisement «Refresh on the Coca-Cola Side of Life»

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Rhetorical Analysis

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The Crisis Communication in the Toyota Motors

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Analysis of the starbucks uk advertising.

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Click Fraud: The Dark Side of Online Advertising

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Analysis of the Cadbury Chocolate Commercial

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Advertising’s toxic effect on eating and body image

March 18, 2015 — People often claim to ignore advertisements, but the messages are getting through on a subconscious level, pioneering author and ad critic Jean Kilbourne told an audience at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health on March 3, 2015. Kilbourne, best known for her groundbreaking documentary on images of women in the media, Killing Us Softly , went on to deconstruct the subconscious messages in food and body image-related advertisements and to describe how they create a “toxic cultural environment” that harms our relationship with what we eat.

The event was sponsored by the STRIPED program  (Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders), which is based at Harvard Chan and Boston Children’s Hospital, and co-sponsored by the School’s Health Communication Concentration and Department of Nutrition . Kilbourne praised the work of STRIPED in her talk, calling it “a terrific program that is making a difference.”

The average American encounters 3,000 advertisements every day, and spends a total of two years watching TV commercials in their lifetime, Kilbourne said. At the center of many of these ads is an image of idealized female beauty. Models are tall, slim, and light skinned, and digitally altered to ever-more unrealistic proportions.

“Women and girls compare themselves to these images every day,” Kilbourne said. “And failure to live up to them is inevitable because they are based on a flawlessness that doesn’t exist.” The American ideal of beauty has become so pervasive that 50% of three- to six-year-old girls worry about their weight. And on the island of Fiji, the arrival of television heralded a boom in dieting among women and girls who before then hadn’t realized that there was something wrong with them.

While advertising creates a disconnection between women — and men, to a lesser extent—and their bodies, it also offers food as a comforter and a proxy for human relationships, Kilbourne said. She showed images of ads offering chocolate as a substitute for a lover, and cookies presented as a way to get love from your children.

Alongside the chocolate ads are others that shame women for having an appetite for food, such as one that showed a pair of cinnamon buns hanging off a slim model’s hips. These images normalize disordered behaviors around food such as bingeing and guilt. “The bulimic is the ideal consumer,” said Kilbourne.

Kilbourne called for a transformation in the way we think about food. “The solution to obesity isn’t to make girls hate themselves,” she said. Instead of focusing on weight or BMI, they should be helped to turn their focus on being healthy and having energy. “If we learn to eat healthy , natural, preferably local food with pleasure, and if we exercise with pleasure, our bodies will get to the weight and shape and size that they were genetically meant to be.”

But real change won’t happen child by child , Kilbourne said. Public health practitioners need to focus prevention efforts on the environmental level. She called for warning labels and taxes on diet products, greater transparency in the use of Photoshop in advertising and fashion spreads, and media literacy education in schools, among other measures.

— Amy Roeder

Photo: Emily Cuccarese

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Eating And Health

• Food For Thought
• For Foodies

Scientists Are Building A Case For How Food Ads Make Us Overeat

Eliza Barclay

Exposure to visual food cues like food ads can influence eating behavior and contribute to weight gain, a study published in the journal Obesity Reviews found. Nick Amoscato/Flickr hide caption

Exposure to visual food cues like food ads can influence eating behavior and contribute to weight gain, a study published in the journal Obesity Reviews found.

Editor's note at 10:51 a.m. ET, Feb. 1: The original version of this post lacked a perspective from the food industry. That post also may have given the impression that NPR has a position on whether food ads should or should not be banned. A new version appears below and the original version follows.

Why is it that we haven't seen ads for cigarettes on television since the Nixon administration ?

Because after nearly a decade of restrictions on smoking ads, in 1969 Congress passed legislation banning the ads on television and radio. President Nixon signed the bill into law and it took effect in September 1970.

Promises, Promises: Is Big Food Marketing Less Junk To Kids On TV?

By that same logic that ads can harm health, public health advocates say food ads should be tightly regulated. They say food companies use them to entreat us to indulge in fattening products and they link our obesity epidemic to unhealthy foods we see on TV.

Soda Companies Step Up Their Marketing To Black And Latino Kids

But the burden of proof when it comes to obesity is higher, partly because eating is a lot more complicated than smoking. And so far the public health community's battle against food ads has been mostly a losing one.

Two new meta-analyses may help policymakers decide what role food ads play in our obesity epidemic. While different in size and scope, both papers show how food advertising influences eating behavior — and can have a major impact on eating and eventual weight gain.

One of the studies is by Hedy Kober , who runs the Clinical & Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Yale University. Kober and graduate student Rebecca Boswell decided to review the evidence on the effect of exposure to food cues — both real food and visual cues like ads — and craving on both eating behavior and weight gain. They looked at 45 published reports involving about 3,300 participants.

"We found very, very strong relationships between reactivity and cues and weight and eating," Kober tells us. And she says the results , published online in the journal Obesity Reviews, s hould inspire us to crack down on how food companies advertise to us.

"Why do we still allow food advertising when children can sit in front of TV cartoons, and in between they get exposed to burgers, fries, chocolate — things we know are nutritionally not the best?" she says. "[Those ads] lead them to ask [for] and want to eat those foods, and that's something we need to think about really seriously."

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Warning Labels Might Help Parents Buy Fewer Sugary Drinks, Study Finds

The second meta-analysis appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and is a bit narrower in scope: It looked only at studies on how exposure to unhealthy food advertising affects food consumption.

While Kober's meta-analysis found no difference in how visual cues affected eating in adults and children, the second paper did. Ads for junk food significantly increased food consumption in children, but not adults, the researchers found in their analysis of 22 different studies.

"We have also shown that the effects are not confined to TV advertising; online marketing by food and beverage brands is now well established and has a similar impact," study leader Emma Boyland said in a statement. She's a lecturer in psychological sciences at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Psychology, Health & Society.

The takeaway? The researchers believe more strategies and policy options to reduce children 's exposure to food advertising are needed — not just in the U.S., but everywhere.

Policy experts in the U.S. says they're not particularly optimistic about the prospects of legislation restricting food advertising to children here.

"I really don't have a lot of hope for regulating food ads," says Robert Paarlberg , a global food and agricultural policy scholar affiliated with the Harvard Kennedy School and Wellesley College. "They're considered to be commercial protected speech, and the Supreme Court would have to weigh in to overthrow that."

As Paarlberg writes in his 2015 book, The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism , the Obama administration had proposed voluntary guidelines for the industry on food advertising. But the White House dropped that proposal in 2012, after Congress passed a bill requiring a cost-benefit analysis of the guidelines and whether it would lead to job losses in the food and beverage sectors.

The industry does have a voluntary Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative , designed to help companies shift advertising to children under 12 to healthier options. According to the CFBAI's progress report published in December 2015, all 18 participating companies, including Coca-Cola, Burger King and Mars, have adopted nutrition criteria to decide what foods should be advertised to children under 12. And in 2014, more than 50 foods were added to CFBAI's Product List because they met that criteria. (Additional foods were added in 2015, as well.)

But as Dale Kunkel , a professor emeritus of communications at the University of Arizona, told my colleague Allison Aubrey last year, these efforts to cut back on marketing unhealthy foods to children "have barely moved the needle in terms of shifting food advertising to children to genuinely healthy products."

American kids see , on average, three to five ads for fast food per day. And about 50 percent of all ads directed at children are for food.

Food companies spend less than one half of 1 percent of their marketing dollars to promote fruits and vegetables, according to a 2012 report from the Federal Trade Commission. Instead, they peddle mainly fast-food restaurant items, sugary beverages and cereal.

ORIGINAL POST:

Because public health officials said the ads caused people to smoke more and raised their risk of getting cancer. And because Nixon stood up to the tobacco industry to sign legislation banning the ads to protect people from that temptation.

By that same logic, public health advocates argue, food ads should also be tightly regulated: Food companies use them to entreat us to indulge in their products. And we have an obesity epidemic linked to those unhealthy foods we see on TV.

Two new meta-analyses may help put the nail in the coffin of doubt about whether food ads are bad for our health and partly to blame for our obesity epidemic. While different in size and scope, both papers show how food advertising influences eating behavior — and can have a major impact on eating and eventual weight gain.

The takeaway? We need more strategies and policy options to reduce children 's exposure to food advertising — not just in the U.S., but everywhere.

The industry does have a voluntary Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative .

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Advertisement Analysis – How to Write & Ad Analysis Essay Examples

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In this day and age, advertising is everywhere, from billboards and TV commercials to social media feeds and mobile apps. It’s an essential tool many companies use to draw customers’ attention and showcase their products and services. However, creating a compelling and distinctive advertisement is more challenging than it seems, and professionals often rely on ad analysis to achieve this goal. Advertisement analysis is a form of research that examines advertisements’ effectiveness and impact on society. Below, we will discuss how advertisement analysis can help businesses develop successful ad campaigns while ensuring their ads are ethical and socially responsible.

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Ad analysis is a type of research that experts use to develop compelling and eye-catching advertisements . It addresses each step of the ad’s creation process. Such an approach has become increasingly common because it shows marketing techniques’ impact on human consciousness. Experts evaluate the effectiveness of an ad using qualitative and quantitative methods , which help them create better advertisements. Language, imagery, and music used in a successful marketing campaign are just a few examples of what makes up effective ad messaging.

How to analyze the advertisement? While every company and its marketing team may have their own approach to ad analysis, the framework usually includes these 5 major steps:

Gather information. Before starting a project, looking up information about the product is vital. Make a SWOT analysis of the company for which you are conducting an ad analysis. This method will help you identify potential market opportunities and internal weaknesses.

Find target-audience preferences. To choose the perfect media tools for your marketing campaign, you must know your ad’s target audience . Knowing your audience will also assist you in learning how to convince the customers to get interested and purchase the product you are advertising.

Start questioning. You have to create a list of detailed inquiries regarding the advertisement. These questions will aid in finding information about the message or context of the ad . Also, it will help you understand which areas require more research and improvement.

Examine the strategic and tactical components. During this step, you first need to identify the objective. Make sure the message is conveyed clearly so the advertisement can serve its intended purpose. Then, you need to identify the target message. It’ll help to create a brief messaging framework.

Onlook the results. You have to watch whether your advertisement analysis works or not. Analyze how many new customers you receive after publication and your product’s popularity level. That way, you will both improve your research and gain experience for your next project.

Here you can find 2 incredible examples of advertisement analysis essays! The primary focus of each report is to examine how the created advertisement will affect potential customers.

Essay sample #1 – Pepsi advertisement

Target Audience: Pepsi targets consumers in their teens, early 20s, and early middle age. Pepsi print is of bright color , and that instantly attracts customers’ attention. In the commercial, many young people with happy smiles enjoy life, skating on the board and drinking Pepsi.

Implicit messages: The appearance of joyful teens in the Pepsi ad makes you want to buy this drink. The advertisement suggests that after consuming the product, you’ll feel like you’re living your best life.

Essay sample #2 – YSL perfume advertisement

Target Audience: YSL perfume advertisement targets women of early middle age. In the ad, the women are confident, independent, and successful. The advertisement connects the sensation of freedom and high status in society to the perfume itself.

Implicit messages: The advertisement appeals to those who want to make their own rules. YSL customers are women, so the company creates an image of powerful yet feminine females. The commercial suggests that after buying the perfume, you will embrace freedom and will be able to set old bridges on fire.

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BusinessEssay. (2023, March 25). Advertisement Analysis – How to Write & Ad Analysis Essay Examples. https://business-essay.com/analyses/advertisement-analysis-research-paper-examples/

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• Business Analysis
• Process Analysis
• Market Analysis
• Problem Analysis
• Human Resource Management Analysis
• Macroeconomic Analysis
• Cost Volume Profit Analysis
• Marketing Communications Analysis
• Resource-Based View Analysis
• Regression Analysis

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16 Drafting Your Ad Analysis

Dr. Karen Palmer

Now that you have a solid outline, it’s time to start writing your ad analysis paper! Here we will work through fleshing out each part of your outline–turning your outline into a full draft.

Introduction

The first part of your paper is your introduction. You may remember from the Writing Formula chapter that an introduction consists of three main parts: the hook, the introduction to the topic, and the thesis. Let’s begin with the hook. A hook does two jobs–it connects the topic of your paper to your readers, and it attempts to capture their attention.

This video highlights some of the most common techniques for writing a good hook:

Now that you have a general idea of what a hook does, let’s focus in on the kind of hook that would be most useful for your ad analysis essay. Let’s say you are doing an analysis on that milk ad we discussed earlier in the text.

Strategy 1: Connect to the topic of the ad: milk. You could say something like, “Do you drink milk?” But…would that really draw in readers? Surely, there is a better way to grab the attention of our audience.

Strategy 2: Connect to the broader topic of advertising. Here you might say something like, “Advertisers are always trying to get our attention.” Sure, this is a broad opening to the paper, but is it really going to make anyone interested in the topic?

A good idea is to brainstorm some current events or topics that link to your ad. A brainstorming list for this milk ad could include lactose intolerance, the concept of looking at TV sitcom characters as role models, the changing role of mothers, and even the pressure placed on moms (and women in general)  to be perfect. Choose something that appeals to you and that illustrates a theme that runs through the ad. When brainstorming with my classes, we often land on the idea of perfection with this particular milk ad. It makes a compelling frame for the paper.

Introducing the topic is just that–letting readers know what the paper will be about. ie An ad for ________ located in _________ magazine illustrates this concept. Note that you need to include the specific product advertised in the ad, the name of the magazine in which the ad is located, and include a connection/transition to your hook.

Finally, the last sentence of your introduction is your thesis. Here you make your argument. While you already wrote a thesis for your outline, you want to double check that the thesis connects in some way to your hook. Our example thesis is: “The advertisers successfully persuade the consumer that milk will make them a great mom by using nostalgia, milk branding, and the image of ideal motherhood.” We might make a slight adjustment here to make the connection a bit more explicit: “The advertisers play on the desire of moms to fulfill an image of perfection by using nostalgia, milk branding, and the image of ideal motherhood.”

In the ad analysis, our background consists of two different sections: the description and the discussion of context.

Description

Remember that your audience cannot see the ad you are discussing. If you were in a room presenting to your audience, you might project an image of the ad up on a screen. Since we can’t do that in an essay, we need to describe the ad for our readers. Essentially, you want your readers to be able to draw a basic picture of your ad–or at least visualize it accurately in their minds.

This video from James Rath discussing how people with visual impairments see images on social media gives an important life reason for learning how to write solid image descriptions:

Here are some good tips for writing a description of an image:

1. Start by giving readers a one sentence overview of the ad. For our milk ad, that might be, “In this ad, three mothers from iconic sitcoms sit side by side in a beauty parlor under old-fashioned hair dryers.”

2. Determine in advance how you want readers to see the image–do you want them to look at the image left to right? Foreground to background? Clockwise? Bottom line here–don’t make readers minds jump around from place to place as they try to visualize the image.

3. Choose the key elements. You don’t have to describe every single thing in this paragraph. Tell readers who the three moms are and what show they are from. Give enough basic details so that readers know the setting is old-fashioned. Remember, you’ll be able to bring forward more detail as you analyze the ad in the body of your paper. Readers don’t need to know what color a person’s eyes are unless it’s a key part of the ad.

4. Don’t forget the text! While you should not write every word in the ad in your description, especially if there are lengthy paragraphs, you should include a brief overview of the text. ie placement, basic overview Again, you’ll be able to give specific quotes that are relevant to your analysis in the body of your paper.

5. Write in present tense!

The context of an ad really focuses on the audience of the ad. Remember that advertisers very carefully consider the audience for their product and create their advertisements to best reach that target audience. Let’s look at this from the perspective of a company looking to place an ad:

So, if an advertiser goes to this much trouble to determine the demographics of their target audience, it’s obviously important! The ad (unless perhaps it was published by an inexperienced advertiser) is not “for everyone.” An ad in Newsweek , no matter how childlike it appears, was not created for children. It was created for the audience who will purchase and read this magazine. When we do an ad analysis, we want to share similar information with our readers. What magazine is the ad placed in? What is the general focus of that publication? What kinds of articles appear in the publication? What general types of ads appear? In short, who is the audience? Of course, you can look at a magazine and get some of this information. You can also do a quick online search for the demographics of the magazine or for their media kit, which is what advertisers look at prior to purchasing advertising space to ensure the magazine is a good fit for their ad.

Now that you have the background out of the way and your audiences thoroughly understand the topic, it’s time to begin your analysis. Your thesis should have given at least three advertising strategies used in the ad. Your paper should include a paragraph for each one of those strategies.

Topic Sentence

The topic sentence should echo the wording of the thesis and clearly introduce the topic. For example, “One way the advertisers use the concept of the perfect mother to convince readers to purchase milk is by using iconic mothers from television shows.” For your next paragraph, you’d want to be sure to include a transition. For example, “Another way” or “In addition to” are both phrases that can be used to show that you are building onto your previous paragraph.

In this part of the paragraph, you want to give specific examples from the ad to support your point.

First, you should introduce the example. “The three moms from iconic tv shows are the focus of this ad.”

Next, you should give specific examples from the ad–this could be pointing out particular details about the images in the ad or quoting from the text–or both! For example, for the milk ad, you might give the specific names of the characters and the shows they are from. You might point out that every detail of their outfits are perfect. That they are wearing makeup and jewelry. That they have their wedding rings prominently focused in the image. You might also quote text, like the line from the ad that says, “Another all-time great mom line.”

Finally, wrap up your examples with a clear explanation of how the example proves your point. For example, you might say that, especially in modern times, it is very difficult for mothers to live up to the standard of perfection set by these three television moms. You might explain how causing readers to feel “less than” sets the stage for them to accept the premise that giving their children milk will make them more like these TV moms.

The wrap up for your paragraph is similar to the wrap up for the evidence provided. Here you want to reiterate your thesis in a simple sentence. For example, you might say, “Using the images of these iconic moms convinces moms that, in order to be a good mom, they must buy milk for their children.”

The conclusion of your paper is essentially a mirror image of your introduction. Think of your paper as an Oreo cookie. The introduction and the conclusion are the cookies that surround the best part–the body of the paper. Like the cookie outsides of the Oreo, the introduction and conclusion should be mirror images of each other.

1. Start with re-stating the thesis.

2. Reiterate the topic.

3. Return to your hook and elaborate.

Unlike an Oreo, the conclusion should not simply copy your introduction word for word in a different order. Try to restate your sentences in a different way. Elaborate on your hook so that you leave readers with something to think about!

 Content written by Dr. Karen Palmer and is licensed CC BY NC.

The Worry Free Writer Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Karen Palmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Negative Effects of Advertising on Society

• October 14, 2020

Adverts are everywhere. No one can really avoid them in the modern world. While there are some positives, and we’ll get to that, I want to highlight the negative effects that advertising has on society.

It is what is driving consumerism and what is making people update their phones every year even though they don’t need to. Advertisers are master manipulators. They play with your mind and take advantage of your vulnerability to make money. They can convince nearly anyone.

The scary part is that they are all around us and we sometimes don’t even realize. On our televisions, YouTube videos, websites, Spotify, billboards, at train stations… I could go on and on but I’m not going to bore you.

Without realizing they have managed to brainwash the world. And as all brainwashed people are, we don’t realize we have been brainwashed. We just think everything is normal. We have become completely oblivious to the effects that advertising has on us.

9 Negatives Effects of Advertising

1. promotes consumerism.

We are always told to buy new clothes, that girls need to wear makeup if they want to be pretty and that you can’t be ‘cool’ without having the latest iPhone. Adverts have taught us these habits and many more because it keeps us buying more and keeps companies rich.

There are so many things that we think are normal but if you take the time and really think about them, they don’t really make any sense. They are changing the way we think.

The majority of advertisements promote the fact that buying more stuff will make you happier. But this consumerist lifestyle is what is actually ruining your life.

2. Encourages you to spend money for no reason

Many companies convince you to think that you need their useless product even though the reality is, it wouldn’t make any significant difference in your life.

Think about it this way. For so many years you were able to live without their product. So why waste your money, which you worked hard to earn, on something that you could live without. It might make your life a tiny bit easier, but is it really worth it? Some even go into debt because of this.

People think that buying all this to make themselves happier but at the end of the day they are just doing the opposite. The old saying ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ is true in this case.

3. Buying more stuff is bad for the planet

Consumerism is also causing massive environmental destruction. To make all this stuff (that people do not even need), trees need to be cut down and metals need to be mined. Not only do these deplete our natural resources but these processes release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and ecosystems get destroyed. Now that’s a pretty big price for the earth to pay for something that will not make us any happier.

So, think twice before buying something.

Related: Can Minimalism Help the Environment?

4. Affects children

Companies have started advertising directly to children to bypass the skeptical parents. On television, there are too many toy commercials to count in between TV shows that children watch every day. As they grow a bit older companies also start promoting soft drinks and alcohol to them.

They are trying to get them addicted to these substances as well as the ideology of ‘buying more will make you happy’ as soon as possible so they can make more money.

5. Promotes harmful substances

The promotion of alcohol and smoking is making more people addicted to them. They are extremely bad for our health, yet they make them seem amazing. Teenagers, for instance, think that drinking and smoking will get them more friends and make them more popular. That’s what society is telling them and after so many years, they believe that too.

6. Use of stereotypes

Most times, they enforce stereotypes in the hopes to make more people relate. For example, most beauty products are marketed towards women because they know women use these products more. But these stereotypes are stopping society from moving forward.

They are telling us what we need to do to fit in. Men need to buy these in order to make them more ‘manly’ while women need to buy those items in order to be ‘pretty’ and be liked by men. Many adverts promote gender stereotypes which is something that society is trying hard to get rid of.

But if you grow up seeing these everywhere and it’s the only thing you know, that’s how you will be when you’re older. Before, we could limit our exposure to them, but since everything has become digital and even children are in possession of phones, there’s truly no escaping.

Not to mention how they can even be offensive to some people who have decided to go against these social norms.

7. Makes you feel bad

What adverts often try to do, is make you feel bad about yourself by lowering your self-esteem in order to persuade you to buy that specific product which claims it will make you happier and a better person.

The most common way they do this is by making you feel bad about your body image or how you look in general. They make you think taking pills or wearing makeup is the only way to make yourself look ‘pretty’.

This is a toxic mentality. No one should make people feel bad and take advantage of their insecurities and vulnerability.

8. Clutters our minds

This is not one of the obvious effects of advertising but it’s certainly an important one.

Everywhere we look we hear or see adverts. This is constant unnecessary information that our brains must process. Individuals are trying to simplify their lives in this hectic modern world, but adverts are making it 100 times harder for them to declutter their lives.

9. Misleading

More often than not, companies make products look amazing in advertisements but do not perform nearly as well in real life. This is done to benefit the company since more people will buy their products. The only thing concerning them is increasing their sales. They couldn’t care less about the fact that they are robbing you of your money.

Any Positives?

Now that you know the negative effects of advertising on society, let’s see if there is anything good about them.

While there are a few positive outcomes from advertisements, the list is short. The most obvious positive is that they inform us. Either of new products or inform us about social and environmental issues. They can keep us up to date (although this is not always a good thing).

However, the biggest upside is that they can keep things free and allow people to make money. I’m not talking about the companies that created the adverts. I mean the ones who are showing the adverts. People get paid to do this. It’s the biggest source of money for TV shows, websites, blogs, and other kinds of media. All these can stay free for the user as long as they show adverts.

This is why they are everywhere.

Final Thoughts

Adverts empty your bank accounts for something that will not make you happy. When it comes down to it, it’s all about money. While they allow creators and businesses to make money, in my opinion, the amount of adverts that we are constantly bombarded with, is not good for ourselves, our mental health, or the environment.

Adverts are unescapable. It’s impossible to avoid them unless you go live in a forest. But you can try your best to ignore them and not pay any attention to them. Don’t believe everything that you are told. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Sofia Hadjiosif

I've always cared about the planet but never knew how I could use my skills to create an impact. But that's when I decided to start Terra Movement. To get other creatives involved in the climate movement and inspire more people to help the planet and its people.

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Incredible points. Great arguments. Keep up the great work.

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Advertisements Do More Harm Than Good

Is having widespread advertising good for a society?

All the Yes points:

The levels of advertising are just too much these days. you cannot walk down the street, ride on a …, advertising leads to many people being overwhelmed by the endless need to decide between competing d…, people cannot just choose to ignore advertising, because advertisers use many underhand methods to g…, many adverts do more than just advertising products. some try to make people feel inferior if they …, advertising gives the impression, especially to children, that they can and should have everything t…, advertisers don’t have the good of society in mind when they do their work – they only care about ma…, advertising gives an unfair advantage to big businesses. small companies might have much better pro…, all the no points:, yes because….

The levels of advertising are just too much these days. You cannot walk down the street, ride on a bus, watch television or read your email without seeing advertisements. People shouldn’t have to have their lives attacked by a huge quantity of information they might not want.

No because…

No-one is forced to put advertising on their property – for many companies it is an important part of their income. Football teams would have much less money if they were not sponsored. And no-one is forced to look at advertising – you can turn the TV off between shows, or just flick past adverts in newspapers. If you don’t want to see the adverts, then just ignore them.

Advertising leads to many people being overwhelmed by the endless need to decide between competing demands on their attention – this is known as the tyranny of choice or choice overload. Recent research suggests that people are on average less happy than they were 30 years ago – despite being better off and having much more choice of things to spend their money on. The claims of adverts crowd in on people, raising expectations about a product and leading to inevitable disappointment after it is bought. Shoppers feel that a poor purchase is their fault for not choosing more wisely, and regret not choosing something else instead. Some people are so overwhelmed that they cannot choose at all.

Advertising has a positive role to play in modern society, helping us choose between competing goods. Many adverts are drawing our attention to products with new features, for example more powerful computers, telephones which are also cameras and music players, or foods with added vitamins. Other adverts try to compete on price, helping us seek out the cheapest or best value products. In most cases advertising does not make us go shopping – we would be planning to buy food, clothes, gifts and entertainment anyway. What advertising does is to help us make better decisions about how to spend our money, by giving us more information about the choices available.

People cannot just choose to ignore advertising, because advertisers use many underhand methods to get their message across. Posters have attention grabbing words, or provocative pictures. Some adverts today are even being hidden in what seem like pieces or art or public information so people don’t realise they are being marketed to. By targeting people’s unconscious thoughts adverts are a form of brainwashing that take away people’s freedoms to make choices.

Adverts which use very sly methods like subliminal images (images which are shown so quickly the viewer doesn’t consciously realise they saw them) are already banned. The other forms of advertising are just companies being creative. There is no difference from supermarkets being painted bright colours to make their food seem more appetising or even people wearing make-up to improve their image. People make unconscious judgements all the time, and we frequently try to influence these choices by the way we present ourselves. This isn’t brainwashing, so neither is advertising.

Many adverts do more than just advertising products. Some try to make people feel inferior if they don’t have the product, or if they have something which the product would change. Perceptions of beauty and fashion in particular have been terribly distorted. Many young people have low-self esteem, and lead unhealthy lifestyles because they feel they should be thinner and more attractive like the models they see in adverts. This leads to serious problems like eating-disorders and self-harm.

The media and celebrity magazines do much more harm, by mocking unattractive or overweight people, and glorifying models who are often dangerously thin. Adverts never criticise people – that would be terrible for the companies behind them. Their aim is to understand and provide what people want, and so their adverts only ever reflect what people think. If people’s perceptions are wrong, then it not the advertisers’ job to put them right, but politicians, the media and schools.

Advertising gives the impression, especially to children, that they can and should have everything they want. This makes people too interested in material things. People are becoming more selfish and obsessed with their possessions, and losing their values of patience, hard work, moderation and the importance of non-material things like family and friends. This harms their relationships and their personal development, which has serious effects for society as a whole.

Our society is build around the idea that companies produce things that people want, and this is what makes us prosperous. If consumers suddenly stopped wanting to buy so many products then what happens to the people whose job it is to make them? The economy will suffer terribly. Of course some people take materialism too far, but most people buy just what they need and then a little extra when they treat themselves. This is a much better situation than one in which people can only afford to buy the things they need – that would be a step backwards.

Advertisers don’t have the good of society in mind when they do their work – they only care about making profit. This means that they regularly advertise unhealthy or harmful things. Fast food adverts are a large part of the reason so many children are obese. The adverts just try to make children eat as much food as possible without any concern for the health costs.

Adverts which promote seriously unhealthy things are becoming very rare. Cigarette advertising is all but extinct, and alcohol adverts are being more restricted. With adverts such as fast food we see as well that companies are changing their message to promote healthier options. This is because it is bad for businesses to be viewed as harming children. Public pressure and successful regulation will always bring any advertising problems back under control.

Advertising gives an unfair advantage to big businesses. Small companies might have much better products, but they cannot afford to advertise them as well and so people don’t find out about them. This restricts the quality of products for consumers, and places a huge roadblock to the success of small businesses.

If there wasn’t advertising then small businesses would have no chance at all to make their product well known. Adverts can actually level the playing field – if you have a good new product, and market it in a clever way then it doesn’t matter how small your company is, you can still make consumers interested. The more you restrict the freedom of information, the more this helps the large companies who everyone already knows about.

Advertisements Good Or Bad?

From ads on websites to ads on massive signs, advertisements are everywhere. You might not even realise you have just seen or heard an ad because nowadays they are ubiquitous . Almost all companies use advertisements to promote their business and most websites make money by posting ads. Ads are not only ubiquitous but also come in various forms. But are advertisements good or bad? In my opinion advertisements have advantages and disadvantages.

On one hand, advertisements have a positive role to play in modern society, helping us choose between competing goods . Many adverts are drawing our attention to products with new features, for example more powerful computers, telephones which are also cameras and music players, or foods with added vitamins. Other adverts try to compete on price, helping us seek out the cheapest or best value products . Advertisements also benefit the company that made the ad by promoting products or services they sell.

On the other hand, advertisements have demerits. Advertisements might tempt or persuade consumers to buy things they actually do not need or want, which in turn result in a massive waste of resources and money. Advertisements swarm you with choices which could lead to decision-making difficulty. Some serious cases of decision-making difficulties even have trouble deciding whether to eat or not!

In conclusion, advertisements have not only advantages but also disadvantages. Advertisements help us choose between goods and benefit everyone. Advertisements also let us know the newest technology but might temp customers to buy things they do not need or want. Advertisements swarm you with decisions which can cause lifelong decision-making difficulties. For the reasons above I think advertisements have both pros and cons.

This is not a serious argument. Without advertising, the human race would almost certainly have gone extinct long ago. Advertising is the means by which we share the work we have done or can do with each other. We advertise ourselves to employers when we share a resume. We advertise a restaurant by placing “Joe’s Eatery” sign next to it to grab attention and let people know it’s a restaurant. We advertise milk by labeling it milk. All of these things are forms of advertising. Advertising is communicating with others to let them know what we have to offer.

As a society, we have grown tremendously by dividing labor. Each individual no longer has to grow her own food, make her own clothes, or build her own home. We’ve managed to progress because we found ways for 7 billion people to specialize in tasks and then let other people know what they can do. We progressed because of advertising. And as a result, not only have we divided up the tasks we used to each do individually to survive, but we’ve become so efficient that we can now do many, many more tasks that we never dreamed of before. One person can grow food for many, opening up the potential for others to do different kinds of tasks, like creating iPhones.

As people begin to reach wider audiences with their offerings and increase their profits, their ability to employ additional help grows. Bringing people together to work towards common goals enables accomplishments that just aren’t possible working alone. Breakthroughs in medicine, technology, transportation, manufacturing – everything that makes life what it is today depended entirely on advancements that came from people working together as teams to accomplish greater things. All of this was only possible because people increased their ability to share the fruits of their labor.

Advertising is a wonderful thing. It annoys us at times, but never believe for a second that it doesn’t make the world infinitely better.

Utter nonsense.

Advertising is about companies paying to make unrealistic claims and to intrude with differing degrees of intensity into people’s consciousness without their permission.

It should be a basic human right to refuse that intrusion at any time.

The best thing you can ever do is what I do: go in for deliberate purchasing of rival products and services to those you see advertised. If everyone behaved like me the economic structure of the world would be significantly different: – products and services would be less expensive – more art would adorn buildings and public spaces – it would be up to communities to decide how much or little they wanted, and to decide how to handle art which was concealed advertising – fewer online services would be viable – more “Trusted Reviews” type sites would spring up online, with increasingly serious ways of ensuring posts and posters were genuine, etc., rigorous scientific comparative analysis of products and services, etc.

Of course I get a long of things for free at the moment by ruthless use of Adblock Ultimate, etc., and at the same time systematically buying rival products to those of the companies who are paying for these services I use.

I don’t see the problem with ads. Most arguments levied against it are pure conjecture, with no factual basis. You can mostly boil it down to people thinking they are entitled to certain luxuries such as companies not being able to market at them, and they are actually entitled to this, the real issue being they are not using the options at their disposal. It is not a companies obligation to control what marketing they use to appeal to the public. It is the public’s choice to control what they intake and consume. In conclusion, people are placing false moral responsibilities in the hands of companies, which in a capitalist society, makes no sense. Feel free to respond to me (preferably politely) at my personal email address below, and point out flaws in my argument as I am always ready to learn.

I can understand that companies/individuals need to make money. Without advertising most free websites would no longer be free so I’m not against advertising in general. What becomes annoying is the sheer volume of advertising media especially on the Internet. It can totally take over a Web page which has caused me to abandon it on occasion and look for the information elsewhere. Also, the targeted advertising is horrible. The websites you look at are recorded and adverts appear related to something you were looking at days or even weeks before. I feel like I’m being followed (which I am) but it also feels like I’m being stalked by an ex lover. It’s REALLY creepy!

We would love to hear what you think – please leave a comment!

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Advertisements are becoming more and more common in everyday life Sample Essay

Updated On Dec 13, 2023

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IELTS Writing Prediction Questions for 2024

This article contains Advertisements are becoming more and more common in everyday life sample essays.

Given below is a real IELTS Writing Part 2 Essay question. We have provided sample essays as well as an essay outline so that you can practice writing your own!

Not sure how to approach IELTS Essay questions? Take a look at IELTS Writing Task 2 Preparation Tips and Tricks !

Learn how to write the perfect essay introduction with the guide below!

Read the sample essay for Advertisements are becoming more and more common in everyday life. Is this a positive or negative development?

IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample Essay

Advertising is gaining more popularity in the marketing of products or services. While advertisements are considered to be advantageous, they can have numerous negative influences.

It is unquestionable that there are several benefits of advertising. By dint o f the large-scale expansion of advertising in almost every kind of mass media and nearly all hoardings , this sector is likely to generate a diversity of employment opportunities . In other words, it provides occupations for artists, painters or copywriters in designing and preparing logos, contents or ideas for advertisements. Another advantage is that advertising may enable the messages involved in products and services to reach potential customers , followed by an increase in sales for businesses. Additionally, only thanks to advertisements, can customers be kept informed about newly-launched products . Therefore, they have more choices to make about their beloved products, contributing to the enhancement of their comforts and standard of living.

However, advertising could cause several disadvantages for customers. No sooner might companies or business exaggerate or even distort the facts related to their products for commercial purposes than the customers can experience feelings of confusion about these items, making them have troubles   selecting the products to their taste. Furthermore, the facts show that the more advertising expenses increase, the higher the product price is. The reason can be that the selling price of the advertised items covers the high cost of advertisements . As a result, the advertised products can cost more than they should. Finally, when customers cannot resist the temptation of products which are advertised beyond customers’ expectations , there is every likelihood of them purchasing products which may be unnecessary. This trend could be seen as a waste of money.

In conclusion, based on the aforementioned explanations, individuals may gain both considerable benefits and drawbacks through the growing prevalence of advertisements.

Band 9 Sample Essay

Today, as is rightly said by many, is a world of marketing and endorsements. In the competitive world that we have today, advertisements and commercials are a must. This essay shall advocate the development and constructive impact of advertising.

Early-stage or mid-age startups, organizations and companies, the more we see, the more we observe the encompassing pervasion of businesses these days. One niche has typically umpteen business models. With the rising era of entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and digital nomads, the vigour and strife amongst businesses have only been exacerbated. Therefore, advertisements are of greatest essence keeping in view the current times, thereby, resulting in the increasing usage of various adver

tising channels, be it, pamphlets, hoardings, flyers, newspaper commercials, or the entire digital marketing rigmarole. The more the marketing, the more is the awareness.

Many people might not even be acknowledged to the new product line a company launches or a new product that paves its way in the market. In such a scenario, making them aware is the only perspective initially thought of. Moreover, making a new customer be a stalwart, remarketing branding and endorsing are what businesses primarily and obviously look for. During today’s time when options are many, in the pursuit of customers, a recognition of a brand evanescing is not uncalled for, reminding them of one’s existence, in such a case, is majorly solicited.

Some may argue that advertising tactics today have been misguiding, well, that’s not the case amongst those who are prudential and wakeful of the multiple sources available.

Conclusively, it could be stated that advertisement has been progressive development, and not only should it be treated as an option to ponder upon, but also considered as one of the key constituents of a business model and the relevant campaign.

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Analysis Essay On An Advertisement (Writing Guide)

How to write good analysis essay on an advertisement.

Outline example

How to start, introduction example.

• How to write the thesis statement

Thesis example

How to write body paragraphs, example of body paragraphs.

• How to conclude

Conclusion example

• Revision tips

Advertising plays a major role in our society today; everywhere you go you will find products being advertised on television, online pages, billboards. Advertisement analysis is a common assignment students are required to undertake. Writing an analysis of an advertisement is more about writing a review of the advertisement using a specific format. There are several strategies to go about this type of assignment. So, below is a step-by-step approach to writing an analysis of an advertisement.

Introduction :

• What is the advertisement for
• Summary of the context of the advertisement
• Background information about the company
• The thesis statement
• The effect of the advertisement and the target audience

Body Paragraphs :

• Present evidence of the effectiveness of the ad on the target audience
• Give examples
• Show various components of the advertisement
• Explain some of the outstanding strategies used to persuade the target audience
• Describe the values and emotion the ad provokes in the readers
• Describe the visual strategies
• Describe the ethos, pathos, and logos
• Describe the textual strategies, including the diction and the tone.

Conclusion :

• Present the most important points justify why the advertisement is successful
• The present technique used that makes the product outstanding
• Review the intention of the advertisement
• Provide your opinion.

In the introduction, it is important to state what the analysis will focus on. The ideas to get to the point as early as possible. The essay writer should not assume that the readers are familiar with the product. That is why the first step is to analyze if the advertisement presents a brief history and a detailed description of what the product is about. A good advertisement needs to show how the product is superior to other products in the market.

For example, when a company produces a commercial the aim is to increase sales.

• Here are also points you should consider when writing your essay:
• Some people prefer to write the introduction after they have written the essay itself – you should try both ways to see which one works better for you.
• The introduction must always contain the thesis statement.
• Any information which is needed for the essay, but doesn’t necessarily fit into any of the body paragraphs, should go into the introduction.
• Don’t make any arguments in the introduction itself; save it for the body paragraphs.
• The introduction should summarise the main arguments you intend to make.

Now, you know the main rules of writing an introduction. Next, please find an example of the introduction.

Old Spice’s advertisement “How Your Man Could Smell Like” is an attractive phrase used to lure the audience to purchase the product. The advertisement meant to capture men’s attention through women. It presents an ideal image of how a man should smell. The advertisement used sexually themed strategy to grab the reader’s attention.

How to write a thesis statement

To write a thesis statement, make sure that you have done all the research you want to do, and that you know everything you want to when it comes to your essay. Try and boil down the ultimate point of the essay into a small amount of space – at the most two sentences. It should be clear enough that every part of your essay will be able to relate to it without much trouble.

The advertisement conveys a strong message about a strong personality where a man needs not only to be attractive but also to be confident by smelling like a real man. The advertisement uses emotional appeal to influence young women who value strong qualities in a man.

Any advertisement is meant for a specific audience, therefore, a good analysis should present the target audience. The body paragraphs should clearly present, which groups of people are being targeted, discusses how the intention presented work together to create a good impression. When writing an advertisement analysis essay, it is important to explain how popular and effective the advertisement is. Describe the rhetorical appeals, including pathos, ethos, and logo, these are concepts that provoke emotion among the target audience in an attempt to convince them to like the product.

Tips on body paragraph writing:

• Each paragraph should only deal with one argument, to keep from being cluttered.
• Each paragraph should have a topic sentence to introduce it, and a summary sentence at the end of both wind things up, and lead into the next sentence.
• Each paragraph should reference the thesis statement in some way.
• Each paragraph should fit into the essay in a way which makes it flow properly, leading readers through the essay to a similar conclusion.
• Each paragraph should contain just the right amount of research – not so much as to confuse the issue, but not so little that it seems like there is nothing to say.

Below is an example of the body paragraphs for advertising analysis.

1st paragraph

The commercial appeals to women more than men. This is important because it does not rely on the attractiveness of the model and the setting, but on sensational, emotional responses presenting how perfect men should translate into the reality the ideal image of who a man should be and what he should smell like to attract a wider audience.

2nd paragraph

The advertisement uses an attractive man who seems to be physically fit, giving the product an image that men are appealing to women’s tastes. The advertisement also presents the notion that a man’s’ emotional needs to smell like a real man to attract a woman. The advertisement uses a reliable strategy of sexuality. Sexually themed advertisements appeal to not only men and women but to a wider audience. Using such themes is the surest way to attract more people to use the product.

3rd paragraph

Normally, these advertisements focus on men who are physically attractive to try and sell their products, with the implication that the product will give an entire lifestyle, not simply a way to smell good. This is one way in which the advertisements appeal to people – making it seem as though they too can aspire to be as ‘cool’ as the man presents, simply by purchasing the aforementioned product.

How to write a conclusion

After review, the advertisement giving appropriate evidence to support the claim the next step of the analysis is to wrap up by reviewing the key points of the analysis. The conclusion of the analysis should be a brief summary justifying if the advertisement has achieved its objectives.

Tips to remember when writing your conclusion

• Remember to restate the thesis statement.
• Round up the arguments made in the essay – do not make any original arguments in the conclusion.
• The conclusion is your last chance to bring people round to your point of view, so make it count.
• Remember that you can bring in the history or additional information which is used in the introduction, to remind people of anything that might be useful.
• Your conclusion should mention every argument made in the essay.

Example of a conclusion is shown below.

The Old Spice ad is successful because it makes a good impression on people and makes the audience believe that smelling good can be attractive. The advertisement carefully uses sex appeal, making it attractive for both men and women. Mixing the right amount of humor makes it stand out because of its no offensive. Old Spice’s appeal to women makes men want to look and smells like a real man. The advertisement presents an ideal man as good looking, masculine and romantic. Any advertisement that arouses people’s emotions and people want to watch and remember their products can be termed as a successful advertisement.

Research paper revision

Revision is important since it gives you the opportunity to create the best essay you are capable of. Revision lets you check whether or not your essay flows correctly, whether it makes sense, as well as the smaller things like grammar and punctuation.

• Do two revisions – one for spelling and grammar, and one for structure.
• Check to make sure that the argument through the paper flows correctly.
• Try and come to revision with fresh eyes, since this will help you see problems more easily.
• If you can, ask someone else to read your essay, to point out any errors.
• Make sure to specifically check things like thesis statements, topic sentences, etc.

Need a custom essay?

1.How to write an analysis essay on an advertisement? To analyze an advertisement, one needs first to figure out the objectives behind the Ad film. Then, the analysis will deal with weighting the theme of the Ad and how well it conveyed the message. However, several other aspects are also mentioned in an ad analysis. Discuss the brand’s values and beliefs? Elaborate on the Ad appeal, emotional or rational? Discuss the storyline, the big idea, overall execution of the Ad film.

2.Who can write an analysis essay on an advertisement? Advertisement analysis is best written by field experts available on customessayorder.com. The platform provides wiring help to students who face difficulty in completing their college assignments. The writing company is good with deadlines, free revisions, professional proofreading, and guaranteed high-quality paper delivered on time written by native English speakers.

3.How to conclude an analysis essay on an advertisement? The conclusion simply summarizes the objectives the ad aimed at and how well it conveyed the message to the audience. Mention both the wins and losses. Also, give a sneak preview of how well the persuasion appeal worked for the brand in the ad.

4.What should an analysis essay on an advertisement include? Ad Analysis should identify the rhetorical appeals—logos, pathos, and ethos in the ad. Analyze the ad’s target demography. Moreover, several points to be included in an advertisement analysis are: · The big idea · Type of advertisement campaign – thematic or tactical · Persuasion appeal – emotional or rational · Core brand values · Subliminal message · Testimonial · Production value · budgets · Cast · Locations

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How to Analyze an Advertisement

Last Updated: August 10, 2022 References

This article was co-authored by Christine Michel Carter . Christine Michel Carter is a Global Marketing Expert, Best-Selling Author, and Strategy Consultant for Minority Woman Marketing, LLC. With over 13 years of experience, Christine specializes in strategic business and marketing consulting services including market analysis, organizational alignment, portfolio review, cultural accuracy, and brand and marketing review. She is also a speaker on millennial moms and black consumers. Christine holds a BS in Business Administration and Art History from Stevenson University. She is a leader in multicultural marketing strategy and has written over 100 articles views for several publications, including TIME and Forbes Women. Christine has worked with Fortune 500 clients such as Google, Walmart, and McDonald’s. She has been featured in The New York Times, BBC News, NBC, ABC, Fox, The Washington Post, Business Insider, and Today. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 169,032 times.

Breaking Down a Television Commercial

• For example, if the commercial appears on a TV channel that mainly shows children’s programming, then you can deduce that the advertisers are trying to appeal to children or maybe the parents of young children.
• If you see a commercial in a movie theater, you may be able to determine its target audience based on the nature of the movie. For example, commercials that appear before R-rated movies are probably intended for adult audiences.

• How a commercial seeks to grab your attention can also say a lot about its target audience. For example, a commercial that uses explosive special effects may be aimed at teenagers and young adults.
• Advertisers don’t just want their commercial to grab your attention; they also want you to remember it. Consider how their attention-grabbing techniques are meant to stick in your mind and influence your view of a product over the long term. [4] X Research source

• For example, a commercial might prominently feature upbeat music, smiling faces, and sunny weather to create a generally happy feeling that you then direct towards the product the commercial is advertising.
• Advertisers will usually try to make commercials that put their product in a positive light. Determining how they go about doing this will also reveal what unspoken beliefs or values the commercial is attempting to appeal to.

• For instance, may accompany depictions of a generic product with sad music to make you feel that products other than the one being advertised are not as good.
• Ask yourself if your feeling towards the commercial would change if it used a particular genre of music versus another, then think about why different music styles elicit different responses from you.

• For example, if a commercial pairs a particular beer brand with women in bikinis, the advertisers may be trying to appeal to teenage and adult men through sex appeal.
• Think about why an actor or actors of a certain race or gender were selected, and ask yourself if the perception of the product would change if different actors were used in the commercial. This may indicate certain biases or subconscious motives at work in the ad.

• If you’re analyzing one or more commercials for a marketing class, you may find that certain words are used more frequently than others. For example, words like “tasty” and “sensational” are commonly used in ads because they tend to make products seem more desirable.
• Pay particular attention to words that aren’t used to directly describe the product, and think about why those words have been included in the commercial. If words aren’t overtly being used to inform the audience, they’re being used to covertly influence viewers.

Evaluating Advertisements in Print Media

• For example, an ad that appears in Cosmopolitan magazine is probably meant to appeal to women, while an ad featured in the newspaper is probably aimed at a wider general audience.
• Think about how a person from a particular demographic might respond to an ad targeted at a different demographic, and why they might have a different reaction. This will help you to determine some of the hidden social meanings that the ad is incorporating.

• For example, if an ad for a watch features a man wearing it while on a cruise with his family, you may come to associate the watch with the excitement of going on a cruise and the positive feelings of having a family.
• Note that the ad’s plot may not seem relevant to the product itself. This is an example of an advertisement intentionally manipulating their audience’s feelings.

• Think as well about how the language in the ad describes the benefits of buying the product. For example, does the ad say the product will make you happier, cooler, or sexier?
• The typeface used is also an intentional design choice. Ask yourself how you might react to the ad if the words were printed in a different typeface and why that might be. [15] X Research source

• For example, ask yourself what sort of images of people or objects are included in the advertisement and how these images influence your reaction to the product. Consider whether your reaction would change if different people or objects were used.
• If you’re analyzing the ad from an artistic perspective, you should also note which colors are used and where in the ad those colors are placed. You may find there are certain colors that are matched with particular emotional responses.
• The ad may feature images that reflect a certain lifestyle (e.g., a two-story home in a wealthy neighborhood) and use these images to associate the product with particular values and beliefs in your mind.

• For example, a background of a sunny beach and palm tree might be trying to elicit feelings of calm and relaxation, while a busy city street might bring to mind feelings of activity or people in motion.

• For example, an advertisement that seeks to leave its audience excited and energized about its product might feature a large amount of overlapping words and images and leave very little blank space in the ad.
• An ad with lots of empty space might want to make people think of feelings like “quiet” or “understated.” [19] X Research source

Expert Q&A

• Advertisements can be analyzed in much the same way that books can (i.e., interpreting symbols, determining the motives of the creator, examining the use of particular themes, etc.). Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 2

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Christine Michel Carter. Global Marketing Expert. Expert Interview. 30 September 2020.
• ↑ http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/ml_lit_gr12/resources/pdfs/media_analysis/HS_15_Ad_Techniques2.pdf
• ↑ http://www.understandmedia.com/topics/media-theory/110-how-to-analyze-a-television-commercial
• ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/10/19/what-makes-a-tv-commercial-memorable-and-effective/#4dc553633079
• ↑ http://www.understandmedia.com/topics/media-theory/108-how-to-analyze-a-print-advertisement
• ↑ http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/how-analyze-advertisement
• ↑ http://www5.csudh.edu/ccauthen/350S12/ad-questions3.htm

About This Article

Advertisements are all around you, and once you know what to look for, you can analyze them to see how they work. Every ad is designed for a specific target audience, like children, young professionals, or women. An ad for children might use bright colors and big text, while an ad for young adults might feature twenty-something models. The goal of an ad is to grab its target audience's attention and make them feel or want something. Some ads might use flashy visual effects to draw people in, while others will rely on happy or sad music to play on people's emotions. If an ad has a famous person in it, the company that made the ad is probably trying to influence that celebrity's fan base to buy their products. The main thing to consider when looking at any ad is how all of the different elements are being used to sell you something. For more tips, including how to analyze TV commercials, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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The $21 billion influencer industry has an ad fraud problem

• Influencer marketing is booming, and brands spend billions to promote products with a personal touch.
• But the industry is unregulated and creates problems for brands, audiences, and influencers alike.
• Influencer ads can be fraudulent, discriminatory, and unethical, and audiences have no way to push back.

It seemed like a marketer's perfect plan to get products into the hands of their target audience: pay an internet icon or local influencer to promote them to their loyal fans.

And for the better part of the past two decades, it worked like a charm.

But these days, influencer marketing is off the rails. According to analysts and experts who spoke with Business Insider, influencer brand deals and advertisements are rife with unethical business practices thanks in part to limited regulation of a practice that is rapidly growing year over year.

Since 2016, the dollars driving the industry have ballooned from $1.6 billion a year to an estimated $21.1 billion in 2023, an Influencer Marketing Hub report found. The outlet estimated the industry would reach an estimated $24 billion by the end of 2024.

In a recent article for Harvard Business Review, Emily Hund, a researcher and the author of the book "The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media," made the case for new regulatory guardrails to be applied to the industry, saying marketers and regulators often turned a blind eye to bad behavior from brands and influencers , which can include discrimination, unfair business practices, and outright fraud.

"While the industry has developed into a sophisticated, albeit chaotic, space, it has done so largely outside the confines of regulatory or professional oversight," Hund wrote. "Its lack of boundaries opens the door for multidirectional exploitation. Marketers, brands, influencers, and platform companies all have opportunities to exploit one another to varying degrees of harm."

It's rough for brands

David Camp, a cofounder of the marketing company Metaforce, told BI that while there's nothing new about influencer marketing — it's just a revamped version of the classic celebrity endorsement, shrunk down for small-time personalities with niche audiences — the industry faces fraud, misrepresentation, and just plain unreliability.

Fake influencers can defraud brands by purchasing followers or manipulating their metrics to give the appearance of more engagement than they actually receive, driving up their asking price for partnerships and ad deals. The practice costs businesses about 15% of their ad spending, totaling more than $1.3 billion in 2019, CBS News reported, citing research from the cybersecurity firm Cheq.

"Those kinds of negative impacts are more likely in this domain because most of these online influencers do their own thing, and they're basically hustlers," Camp said. "They're trying to build an audience so that they can monetize it, and they're not typically represented by very polished spokespeople and agents that rep them to marketers and agencies, whereas in the traditional celebrity-influencer space, there's a whole coterie of people who are associated with evaluating potential spokespeople and influencers and vetting them and then negotiating with them."

In a traditional celebrity endorsement, the people promoting brands' products are well known and well represented and deliver a predictable result for the businesses that hire them — the audience of loyal followers shells out big bucks for the products that have been endorsed. Think Michael Jordan for Nike, George Foreman for the Salton electric grill, and Brooke Shields for Calvin Klein . With influencer marketing, that isn't always the case.

Related stories

For brands, this means their investment in influencers can end up wasted — or, worse, the social-media personalities could use an inopportune moment like the California wildfires in 2018 to promote themselves or a brand, which could damage reputations all around.

It's not great for consumers

Despite the money flying around, the Federal Trade Commission provides only basic guidelines about disclosure requirements for this marketing to protect consumers of influencers' content.

But only the biggest names seem to get caught when they mislead their audiences — and generally only when they run afoul of rules on disclosing their paid partnerships, which Camp said was the only rule he's aware of for digital media sponsorships and paid advertisements.

In 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with Kim Kardashian for $1.25 million after she failed to disclose a $250,000 payment she received to promote ethereummax crypto tokens on her Instagram page.

Similarly, Chiara Ferragni was fined $1 million in January following what Italian officials described as a misleading charity campaign in which she encouraged her followers to purchase a cake, with the proceeds going to a hospital donation, but never fulfilled the promise.

Lindsay Lohan, DJ Khaled, and Naomi Campbell have all also been subject to federal investigations into whether they failed to disclose paid partnerships, Hund said in her Harvard Business Review article. The celebrities received warning letters from the FTC requiring them to provide the agency with information about their relationships with the brands they stealthily promoted, according to the nonprofit Consumer Reports .

"Because she is one of the highest-profile celebrities in the world, Kardashian was an easy 'get' for regulators," Hund wrote. "But far too much sponsored content and far too many influencers exist for government agencies to effectively oversee them all."

That's not to mention instances of influencers tricking their audiences into buying branded products with overly positive reviews of companies they're paid by, despite quality issues or even labor issues .

It's inconsistent for influencers

It's not all easy for the influencers, either. Black and Hispanic content creators face a 35% pay gap compared with white creators, NBC News reported, citing a study from MSL, a public relations firm that works in influencer marketing. There are also reports of fake talent-management firms requesting $300 "deposits" as part of a scam to fool wannabe influencers .

"Creators bear the brunt of the industry's pervasive uncertainty: They must spend a significant amount of time navigating changing content norms, new platforms and tools, uneven contracts, high expectations for audience engagement, and the blowback that can come with being a public figure with few professional protections," Hund wrote for Harvard Business Review.

Some influencers faced racial discrimination during an in-person brand-sponsored trip, BI previously reported. And Dylan Mulvaney , an influencer who partnered with brands such as Nike and Bud Light, faced a barrage of anti-trans hate and harassment after she posted sponsored content for the companies on her social-media pages.

Her partnership with the brands became the reason conservative figures, including Ben Shapiro and Donald Trump Jr., called for a boycott of Bud Light. She said the resulting threats were so bad she traveled out of the country to escape the backlash .

No end to the mess in sight

Despite the industry's known problems, Camp said that in some cases, influencer marketing was still perceived as more desirable because there's a level of authenticity when someone you follow and trust is pitching a product versus just an anonymous ad.

While the FTC's guidelines on disclosures offer some guardrails for the industry, regulators have not focused much attention on the issue.

And there are no signs of slowing the ethical conflicts, especially in the digital marketing and advertising world, where Camp said "there's lots of smoke and mirrors, and it's hard to sometimes understand what you're actually looking at."

"Obviously, some influencers are more high-minded about the brands that they choose to associate with, but for those that are looking to just make money off of their eyeballs, they usually are hustling any which way they can," Camp told BI. "Anyone with an internet connection and an idea can write about their idea and aggregate eyeballs, so there's a lot of shit floating around in that space because there's really no filter, there's no barrier — so there's a very small percentage of cream that rises to that top."

Watch: Ulta Beauty's CMO says the brand's most effective influencers are its store associates

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Guest Essay

Let’s All Take a Deep Breath About China

By Rory Truex

Dr. Truex is an associate professor at Princeton University whose research focuses on Chinese authoritarianism.

The amygdala is a pair of neural clusters near the base of the brain that assesses danger and can help prompt a fight-or-flight response . A prolonged stress response may contribute to anxiety, which can cause people to perceive danger where there is none and obsess about worst-case scenarios.

America’s collective national body is suffering from a chronic case of China anxiety. Nearly anything with the word “Chinese” in front of it now triggers a fear response in our political system, muddling our ability to properly gauge and contextualize threats. This has led the U.S. government and American politicians to pursue policies grounded in repression and exclusion, mirroring the authoritarian system that they seek to combat.

Congress has moved to force the sale of TikTok , the Chinese-owned social media application; some states have sought restrictions on Chinese individuals or entities owning U.S. land and on Chinese researchers working in American universities ; and the federal government has barred certain Chinese technology firms from competing in our markets. These measures all have a national security rationale, and it is not my intention here to weigh the merits of every one. But collectively they are yielding a United States that is fundamentally more closed — and more like China in meaningful ways.

When you are constantly anxious, no threat is too small. In January, Rick Scott, a senator from Florida, introduced legislation that would ban imports of Chinese garlic, which he suggested could be a threat to U.S. national security , citing reports that it is fertilized with human sewage. In 2017, scientists at McGill University wrote there is no evidence that this is the case. Even if it was, it’s common practice to use human waste, known as “biosolids,” as fertilizer in many countries, including the United States.

More recently, Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Elise Stefanik introduced legislation that would bar the Department of Defense from contracting with Tutor.com, a U.S.-based tutoring company, on the grounds that it poses a threat to national security because it was purchased by Primavera Capital Group, an investment firm based in Hong Kong. Their argument is that this could give the Chinese government backdoor access to the tutoring sessions and personal information of American military personnel who use the firm’s service.

The legislation does not mention that Tutor.com’s student data is housed in the United States , that it volunteered for a security review by the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and that it created additional levels of data security protection in coordination with the U.S. government. The bill also does not specify how exactly the Chinese government would get access to Tutor.com’s data or what use it would actually have for information on the tutoring sessions of U.S. military personnel.

Last summer, several Republican lawmakers cried foul over the “Barbie” movie because a world map briefly shown in the background of one scene included a dashed line. They took this as a reference to China’s “nine-dashed line,” which Beijing uses to buttress its disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea. According to Representative Jim Banks, this is “endangering our national security.” The map in the movie is clearly fantastical, had only eight dashes and bore no resemblance to China’s line. Even the Philippine government, which has for years been embroiled in territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, dismissed the controversy and approved the movie’s domestic release.

Of course, the United States should actively confront President Xi Jinping of China about his repression at home and aggression abroad. As a scholar of China’s political system, I worry about how Mr. Xi has made his country even more authoritarian; about increasing human rights abuses in China, particularly those directed at the Uyghur population in Xinjiang ; about Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong, its threats toward Taiwan, its increasingly cozy relationship with Russia and its support for the war in Ukraine . America must remain alert to legitimate concerns about well-documented Chinese activities such as espionage and cyberattacks.

But should our policymakers really be focusing on Tutor.com, Chinese garlic or “Barbie”? Or should they concentrate on the more serious threats posed by China’s authoritarian system, or the many other issues that meaningfully affect the day-to-day lives of Americans?

Perhaps the most worrisome effect is that China anxiety is slowly creeping toward discrimination against Chinese Americans, a new “yellow peril.” We’ve already seen how an initiative begun during the Trump administration to target Chinese espionage led to unfair scrutiny of Chinese researchers and even Asian American government employees, leading to the program being terminated in 2022. And we saw how xenophobia during the pandemic triggered threats and attacks against Asian Americans. There also have been numerous reports of law enforcement officials interrogating Chinese students and researchers traveling to and from China on the grounds that they may be agents of the Chinese state. Again, this treatment — being brought in for questioning by the police or government officials — is something foreign scholars experience in China , where it is euphemistically referred to as “being invited for tea.”

Last year, state legislators in Texas proposed a bill that initially sought to prevent Chinese (as well as Iranian, North Korean and Russian) citizens and entities from buying land, homes or other real estate, citing concerns about the security of the food supply. Putting aside the fact that Chinese citizens are not the Chinese government, the actual amount of American farmland owned by Chinese entities is negligible — never exceeding 1 percent of farmland in any given American state as of 2021. The bill ultimately failed , but only after substantial pushback from the Chinese American community.

This China panic, also stirred up by both liberal and conservative U.S. media, may be influencing how average people perceive their fellow Americans of Chinese heritage. Michael Cerny, a fellow China researcher, and I recently surveyed over 2,500 Americans on the question of whether Chinese Americans who were born in the United States should be allowed to serve in the U.S. intelligence community. Roughly 27 percent said Chinese Americans’ access to classified information should be more limited than for other U.S. citizens, and 14 percent said they should be allowed no access at all.

This is overt racism, and while not the majority opinion, it is concerning that so many Americans are blurring the line between the Chinese government and people of Chinese ethnicity, mirroring the language of our politicians.

China is a formidable geopolitical rival. But there is no world in which garlic, “Barbie” or a tutoring site poses meaningful threats to American national security. Labeling them as such reveals a certain lack of seriousness in our policy discourse.

If the United States is to properly compete with China, it’s going to require healthy, balanced policymaking that protects U.S. national security without compromising core American values.

Let’s take a deep breath.

Rory Truex (@rorytruex) is an associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, where he teaches courses on Chinese politics and authoritarian rule.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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