An essay on how advertising gives false messages and how it affects American society.

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Jonathan Davila
Professor Dougherty
ENGL 1C M
15 October 2012
The Invisible Curtain
Whether people are driving on the freeway or waiting at a bus stop, they are
always surrounded by advertisements that are full of fallacies. Advertising has had a
dramatic affect on society due to the mass media promoting these ads and causing many
Americans to fall for the fallacies shown on these ads. These effects have changed the
way people in America see themselves and has changed the way of life. People in
America have faced the effects of these advertisements by paying attention and buying
the products they see on these ads or by trying to become like the celebrities they have
grown a liking too. In Jean Kilbourne’s video Killing Us Softly she talks about, “how the
image of women in advertising has changed over the last 20 years” (Kilbourne). She
describes how advertising leads many American women to become more depressed due
to celebrity advertising and how perfect the images they see are. Many advertisements
Americans see today include a certain athlete or celebrity promoting energy drinks or
beauty products, while some include the smoking of cigarettes or drinking alcoholic
beverages. Americans will continue to be affected by these advertisements if they
continue to purchase items which will cause them financial harm.
In American society advertising is used as a way of gaining profit from American
consumers. Americans spend money on these items they want, even though they do not
actually need them. By buying these items many Americans will usually use their credit

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cards and therefore fall into debt because they will spend so much money that they are
unable to pay back. Debt has become a common issue due to the recession, and
advertisements are contributing to the problem. On a Youtube video called Advertising:
It’s Effect on American Culture, it states that “Many times advertisements which display
a product often use people to promote the product even if the commercial seems like it
may have nothing to do with the product” (Vogt). Products are a major cause for debt in
which companies create a certain product that people buy then creating a newer one
which causes many Americans to buy the newer products because they do not want to fall
behind. The media is to blame many times because they will announce a new product
being released and will promote the item with billboards and tons of television
commercials which causes American citizens to want the newer version of an item or
they want what everyone else is getting.
Television commercials often use famous actors to promote an item or television
program they are in. Celebrities nowadays have a huge impact on American culture. Due
to these products that actors supposedly use, many Americans see this and want to be like
that person so they spend more money on products that they believe their favorite actor or
athlete may be using. While watching these commercials on television we can often see
which are meant for women or for men. Examples of some commercials geared towards
men are beer and Carl’s Jr advertisements which use pretty girls to catch a man’s
attention. The most common advertisements seen in today’s society are beer commercials
which use feature pretty girls and a man who has to drink a certain brand of beer in order
to get the girl. One example of an advertisement can be a Bud Light ad which shows a
girl and it says, “Life is good… Live the Good Life with Bud Light.” These types of

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advertisements send a bad message to people especially younger students who are in high
school who are usually influenced by others to drink beer. On the site Nizkor states that,
“beer commercial might show happy, scantily clad men and women prancing about a
beach, guzzling beer” (Nizkor). People who see these advertisements may become
convinced and think if they drink Bud Light they will be cooler and have more fun while
living the “Good Life.” A huge example of advertisements being used in mass media is in
the Super Bowl.
Companies today know that Americans love football and during the Super Bowl
they take advantage by trying to advertise their products on television. Americans seeing
the Super Bowl are affected in a way in which they see these commercials and think they
are interesting or funny which catches their immediate attention and causes them to want
the item the commercial may be promoting. In a news article by Andrew Brandt, he
discusses how the Super Bowl is used to generate billions of dollars in just a few hours
by saying that, “5 million people are projected to buy new televisions in preparation for
the game, and fans are expected to spend $11 billion on Super Bowl-related purchases”
(Brandt). Millions of consumers who see these commercials will usually go out the next
day or later on to purchase these “cool” items later on just to find out they are not as good
as what they see on the commercials.
America is becoming a materialistic society because many people want the best or
newest items. People buy a product just to find out that a newer version will come out a
few months later. Many times a person will buy a new phone or electronic device and
when they see a friend or someone else with a newer product they feel left behind and
decide to buy a newer product which they just want, but they do not really need. A good

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example of this is the company Apple in which they make a product and a few months
later they make a new iPod or iPhone that Americans enjoy buying. Apple makes huge
profits because of this because they know Americans will see advertisements online and
on television which will cause them to get rid of their older device and upgrade to a
newer one with almost all the same technological features.
Although advertising has been great for many businesses the true nature of these
ads affects American society. Overall these ads have a negative impact because it
portrays images that are not true and only helps the business trying to sell their products.
Americans need to wake up and stop falling for these advertisements and stop giving
money to businesses that look only to make profit. A lesson that can be learned from this
is next time you are sitting in your car or watching television beware of the true message
these advertisements are trying to send and avoid them at all cost.
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Work Cited
"Fallacy: Appeal to Emotion." Fallacy: Appeal to Emotion. The Nizkor Project, 15 Oct.
2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-
emotion.html>.
Kilbourne, Jean. "Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women." YouTube.
ChallengingMedia, 04 Oct. 2006. Web. 07 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FpyGwP3yzE>.
Pritchard, Andrew J. "My Media - How Media Affects MY World." My Media - How
Media Affects MY World. Youtube, 27 Feb. 2008. Web. 08 Oct. 2012.
<http://mymedia-howmediaaffectsmyworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/beer-worlds-
oldest-and-most-popular.html>.
Vogt, Dan. "Advertising: It’s Effect on American Culture." YouTube. Dan Vogt, 19 May
2011. Web. 06 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF1zx_pAI6I>.