Question

"Advertising is a social waste." Give reasons in support of your answer.

Why is advertising criticised?

Advertising is a social waste. Explain.

Answer 1

Although advertising has a lot of benefits, it has been criticised on the following grounds.

1. It increases the prices of the products or services: Advertising increases the total cost of a product which is ultimately borne by the consumer. Hence, every product gets costlier due to advertisement.
2. It promotes unnecessary consumption: Advertising promotes the consumption of goods and services which are even not required by the people. Hence, it is a wastage of national resources.
3. It promotes the sale of inferior goods: Advertisers make false claims about a product and persuades innocent people to buy inferior and undesirable products.
4. It misleads the consumers: Consumers get misled by so many brands of the same product. For example, there are many brands of bathing soap and detergents advertised on TV. Each brand claims that it is better than others. Consumer gets confused.
5. Decline in moral values: In order to attract attention of the people, many times advertisers use indecent language and obscene photographs.