ADVERTISEMENTS

ADVERTISEMENTS

We live in an age of advertisement - A world of artful advertisement - A vital necessity - It provides information and knowledge - It is- highly scientific - A source of employment to many.

Our newspapers and- magazines are full of advertisements. The radio broadcasts advertisements. We see advertisements on television. The cinema flashes advertisements on the silver-screen. We find advertisements on area-railing, building-walls, shop-fronts, electric-posts, trolleys, trucks, railway station and airport. Advertisement balloons roar high up in the sky. Sometimes advertisements are produced like a film on clouds. Indeed, we live in an age of advertisement.

Mr. J.B: Priestly says that ours is “a world of artful Advertisement”. He does not like these  advertisements. They do not believe in perfect life, a life which is all goodness, truth and beauty. And yet we are somehow taken in by our extravagant and exaggerating advertisements. Our newspapers and magazines are full of advertisements which promise us perfect life with their goods. But we cannot have this perfect life. The goods turn out to be frauds, We are disillusioned. The perfect life is spread out before us every day but it changes and Withers at a touch. We are led to expect perfection. We do not find it. We feel foiled.

But in these days of competition advertisement are a vital necessity. Trade and industry have expanded. Our wants have increased considerably. Thousands of things are made. Thousands of things are needed. With out advertisements, producers would not be able to bring their goods to the notice of consumers. Consumers would not be able to know where to find the things they want. Employers and intending employees require the help of advertisements. So do owners of cinema houses and circus proprietors and exhibition managers and all others who wish to attract clients for what they have to offer?

Advertisements are important from the point of view of information and knowledge. If we read them carefully, we come to know what the world is making and how it is progressing. Our knowledge increases. We acquire the power of discrimination and judgment. We become practical and worldly wise.

Modern advertising is no hypocritical humbug. It is a highly scientific art and a highly artistic science. It studies human nature. It produces most pleasing and attractive advertisements. These advertisements catch our eyes. They breakdown our sales resistance. They tempt us and impel us to buy things even when we do not really need them. They are an industry in and by themselves. They yield much needed  money to newspapers and magazine. They provide employment to thousands of writers, artists, craftsmen and office workers.