How advertisement effects peoples lives Essay Example for Free

How advertisement effects peoples lives Essay As Americans we are exposed to advertisements everyday. People are pressured from every direction by advertisements which exploit their deepest fears, attractions, needs, and desires, shaping their behaviors, goals, and thoughts. They are led into believing false information and promises that are mostly never kept, all for the simple reason of selling the product and making profit. We see advertisements everywherein magazines and newspapers, on the radio, on TV, online, in the mail, even over the phone. These advertisements use the basic ideas of either providing an elite status with the possession of the product, or giving a sense of belonging to a group or community. Since the recent military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, another ever present idea has been made prominent and that is using patriotism to evoke peoples desires. Americans are persuaded into buying unnecessary items everyday; however, we need to realize that no matter what advertisements say we should purchase items for their usefulness, not to fill voids in our lives, so we can help eliminate the problem we face today of being a materialistic society. The patriotic theme affecting peoples hearts, minds and senses, is commonly used to manipulate them into buying things. Since everyone has love for their country, using it to sell products is a brilliant idea, but I believe this is a bad practice. It makes people believe they are not ideal Americans, nor are they similar to the people around them if they do not buy that product. The Palmolive advertisement, in Seeing and Writing 2, is a key example, it appeals to the wives of the men at war in World War II (417). On the top of this advertisement there are three medals which contain picture of three different men in their uniforms and the words For Him appear next to each picture. In the lower part of the advertisement there is a woman looking up at these medals and above her head are the words, I pledge myself to guard every bit of Beauty that he cherishes in me, and finally in the background there are several faces of women also looking towards the medals. This advertisement is basically communicating to the wives the idea of guarding their beauty, by using this soap, just like their husbands are guarding their country. The ironic fact is that soap cannot make someone beautiful, nor do people lose their beauty if they do not use the correct brand of soap. This advertisement is connecting a heroic and patriotic act  to one used for mere beauty, in order to sell the soap. The Palmolive advertisement was run in 1943, but a more current advertisement which uses similar attributes is Chevrolet and its slogan for its recent line of cars, An American Revolution. This slogan is always placed on a blue sky background and the writing is in bold white letters, except for the E in Revolution, this letter is written in red ink. So when you come across this slogan, not only does the slogan sound patriotic to you, it also appears to be patriotic because it incorporates the red, the white and the blue. This phrase says to its audience that every American is buying and driving a Chevy car and so should they. Another detail that could be interpreted out of this advertisement is that since the U.S. is currently at war and fighting a revolution against terrorism, a person living in the U.S. can participate in this patriotic revolution by purchasing a Chevrolet. This would be true only if Chevrolet was funding the war, instead of the US government. Along with this, another advertisement that exploits this concept was the Netzero advertisement run during the time before the elections. In this advertisement the spokesman was running for President under the alias of Candidate Zero. His main goal was to provide cheaper and faster internet to every family and household. In order to get peoples attention, this clever idea was used, and it certainly worked on people like me. Viewers could also connect the advertisement with the actual presidential race and that way the product of the advertisement was stuck in their conscious awareness. The whole patriotic theme is strange because the connection between patriotism and the product does not make the product function better, so why do we feel obligated to pay attention to the advertisement and even purchase that product. Along with patriotism another concept used widely is the elitism the product brings to people with its possession. As Jack Solomon wrote in his essay Masters of Desire, We Americans dream of rising about the crowd, of attaining a social summit beyond the reach of ordinary citizens (1). He is basically saying that Americans want to be better then the people around  them and this belief is what marketers feast on, creating status symbols like Rolex, Mercedes, BMW, etc. One advertisement that crosses my mind in terms of using elitism would be the new U2 iPod Special Edition advertisement. This promotes an iPod with a black cover and laser engraved signatures of the U2 band members; everything else is similar to a regular iPod; whereas, the price is $50 more. People are led into believing that the U2 iPod is better than the regular one only because it is endorsed by U2. Another ironic detail is that a normal iPod itself is a product of elitism, because even though it has similar functions to a Sony or any other MP3 player, it costs $100 more only because it comes with the signature white headphones. These headphones, unique only because an iPod come equipped with them, have made themselves and the iPod a status symbol. Most people only buy an iPod because they want the headphones to show the illusion of superiority and uniqueness. Solomon says, The explanation is quite simple: when an object (or puppy!) either costs a lot of money or requires influential connections to possess, anyone who possesses it must also possess the necessary means of influence to acquire it (3). This explains why the white headphones have made the iPod a status symbol, since its shows possession of an expensive item, even though rationally speaking the color of the headphones does not make the iPod function better, they only make it different. Solomon also talks about another part of the American Dream, in which belonging to a group is important. The Chevrolet slogan connects us to the entire American population; the iPod connects us to other owners of an iPod, and so on. We need a sense of connection and belonging, fulfilling our need for attention and affection. Abraham Maslow, a founder of humanistic psychology, created a triangle in which he placed a persons needs in the order they needed to be fulfilled and the need for love and belonging was the third basic need. Disillusioned by the advertisements, people try to fulfill this need by buying the products. This proves that using this theme advertisers are able to affect the person on much deeper levels then recognizable, yet by no means does the product itself become more useful. It is understandable that advertisers need to appeal to people in order to  sell their product and that is why they use these tactics, but what is not understandable is while knowing the truth people believe the hoaxes and let advertisements dictate what they are going to buy. People need to realize that products should not be used to fulfill our weaknesses; they should be consumed based on our needs, because companies will keep manufacturing status symbols until we accept that products and items are only materialistic and we can never attain all the luxury items around us. We are scammed into buying false promises everyday, after we realize that we have a choice against it, we can choose not to let advertisements or minor details about the product like the endorsements, or the color of headphones, or the catchy slogan persuade us into buying a certain item.

Vaccine :: essays research papers fc

Vaccine Children are one of God's best gifts to people, as watching their children grow is one of the best pleasures people enjoy during their life course. For this reason, parents must take good care of their children during their early years, as they are vulnerable to many diseases due to their weak immunity. There are many diseases, infecting children, that may lead to death such as the polio disease. Scientists found a solution to this problem, by injecting a tiny sample of the virus into the child's blood, in order to stimulate the immune system to fight the disease if the child catches it, which is known as vaccination. However, McTaggart contradicts this by pointing out that vaccination problems far outweigh those of going unvaccinated (1). Therefore, there are many questions concerning the safety and effectiveness of vaccines as opposed to those of going unvaccinated. Vaccines can cause complications that are more harmful than those of going unvaccinated or even the disease itself. Professor of epidemiology at the university of Washington, Dr Russell Alexander, points out that the panel set up to determine the risks of vaccination did not compare it to those of being unvaccinated (qtd in Miller 9). This means that the research done by the panel, which proved vaccination risks to be 'too small to count', contains many weaknesses. McTaggart links the appearance of learning disabilities, autism, and hyperactivity to the beginning of the mass vaccination programs (1). Thus, vaccination is directly related to many diseases, in which some are still unknown. McTaggart adds that the mumps vaccine has proved to be a direct cause of seizures, meningitis, deafness, and encephalitis. (6). These are extremely dangerous and unrecoverable diseases. Dr J Anthony Morris, an immunization specialist formerly of America's 'National Institutes of Health' and 'Food and Drug Administration' says that "In several of the studies, the measles vaccine strain has been recovered from the spines of the victims, showing conclusively that the vaccine caused the encephalitis" (qtd in McTaggart. 5). Thus, this doctor as a medical authority relates the measles vaccine to a deadly disease such as the encephalitis. On the other hand, the risks of catching the disease for unvaccinated children are similar, if not less, to the risks of developing harmful complications due to the vaccine. Therefore, vaccination is more risky to your child than going unvaccinated. In addition to the safety problems, vaccines have also proven to be ineffective among many children. McTaggart reasons the current debate about vaccination to the fact that measles portion of the triple shot is not working (2). This means that children who receive the triple shot, called MMR, which is a short hand for

Monitoring Internet Communication

The Internet has for many become a symbol of freedom – freedom of communication, human interaction, and flow of information. People all over the world can with ease submit their ideas and feelings to this virtual medium and retrieve from it the equally free ideas of other people. However, some claim that Internet communication does not have to be as free as it is. Instead, it needs to be monitored to prevent its usage as a medium for terrorist organisations, drug dealers, fraudsters, and other criminal or unlawful groupings. Others point out that Internet is virtually the only way for people with oppressive regimes to access information that will present them with an objective picture of the outside world. While there are reasons for both points, free speech should take precedence in democratic nations, and therefore Internet monitoring is a harmful practice. Such monitoring is in fact a violation of free speech, one of the inalienable human rights. Generations of thinkers and revolutionaries lost their lives for the triumph of democracy that is only possible with free speech as one of its cornerstones. If the American journalists, for instance, had been deprived of the right to criticise Presidents, senators, congressmen, and other political leaders, it is hard to imagine what the nation would have turned into. Constant monitoring of political leaders is what gives the nation a chance to remain democratic. On the other hand, nations like China are banning certain websites to blind their citizens to what is going on in the rest of the world. This shows that freedom of speech is a hallmark of a democratic nation, and monitoring Internet communication violates these rights. Giving an individual person the right to know constitutes the respect of the autonomy of an individual. A human being has the right to access information pertaining to different spheres of life and should not be restricted in this ability by the opinion of the few. Since, if Internet communication is to be monitored to ban, for instance, pornographic material, the question arises: who will be the people that will decide what is pornography and what is not? The Ancient Greek statues could easily be termed inappropriate by some medieval priest. Putting access to information at the judgement of a few obscure individuals will make these people make decisions for all, and there is no guarantee that their judgement will help society make better choices. A popular objection that without monitoring Internet content someone â€Å"might unknowingly visit a Web site with this material and cause him- or herself mental harm† does not seem valid either (Garlock, 1999). The problem is that Internet is like life in the sense that it encompasses a great deal of its variety and glory. You cannot shield yourself from harmful influences in life any more than you can on the Internet. If someone is disgusted, for instance, by the site of the sick and the crippled, no one will remove them from streets just to please the person. Similarly, the Internet has to contain images and information about the outside world that reflects its diversity. Therefore, no one can isolate oneself from harmful influence on the Internet since they reflect real life. Thus, monitoring Internet communication is hardly a valid idea. In the political realm, it will lead to restriction of freedom that can bring about the emergence of un-democratic regimes oppressing ill-informed citizens. On the other hand, giving people a free medium is one of the ways to save them from the state’s propaganda machine by letting them see alternative viewpoints. Monitoring is also a bad idea because it will put the individual at the mercy of a select group that will perform the monitoring in accordance with their own ideas and perceptions. Finally, the idea of using Internet as a means of protecting people from undesirable content does not hold simply because no one can hide in a ‘hole’ from real life. The only option is to go to sites that you yourself think proper for you and avoid troublesome content. With respect to others, one can paraphrase Voltaire’s words: â€Å"I disapprove of what you post, but I will defend to the death your right to place it online†. References Garlock, A. (1999). Internet Censorship. Retrieved April 25, 2006 Wollstein, J. Freedom of Speech Under Siege. Retrieved April 25, 2006, from http://www.serendipity.li/cda/freespee.html

The History Of The Internet Essay - 2287 Words

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The internet has come a very long way in the past 50 years. New inovations such as integrated software and hardware has changed the way that poeple view and obtain information today. The internet is a global computer network connecting millions and millions of users throughout the world. quot;It is a network connecting many computer networks and is based on a common addressing system and communications protocol.quot;It has become one of the fastest growing forms of communication today(Encyclodpedia Britannica 1999). nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The Internet got started by the Defense Department as a Cold War experiment in the 1950’s. The government needed a way to relay information between tanks and†¦show more content†¦nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;When it first started ARPAnet was limited mainly to military business by the ARPA but soon scientists began to use it to work on research through e-mail. Not long after the first mailing list appeared called SF-LOVERS. The ARPA repeatedly shut the growing number of mailing lists down but gave up after a while calling it a way to quot;test the networks mail capacity.quot; The ARPAnet as it was now called began to grow and by the ‘80’s it began to link to other college and government networks. quot;NSFnet (national science foundation network) and the newly founded usenet were among the first to be connected. These links began the quot;ARPAinternetquot; later called just the internet.quot; The internet grew rapidly over time and bega n to ease out of government ownership and into privately owned routes. In 1990 ARPAnet was shut down but by this time the internet had become completely public and no longer relied on the original ARPAnet. It however still used the TCP/IP technology developed by Cerf(Buick, Joanna and Jevtic, Zoran). nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;quot;Usenet was a network similar to ARPAnet created by graduate students and facultyShow MoreRelatedHistory of Internet10240 Words   |  41 PagesHISTORY OF COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET OUTLINE 1B MODULE Steps Toward Modern Computing 31 First Steps: Calculators 31 The Technological Edge: Electronics 31 Putting It All Together: The ENIAC 36 The Stored-Program Concept 36 The Computer’s Family Tree 37 The First Generation (1950s) 37 The Second Generation (Early 1960s) 38 The Third Generation (Mid-1960s to Mid-1970s) 39 The Fourth Generation (1975 to the Present) 41 A Fifth Generation? 44 The Internet Revolution 45 Lessons Learned 48 Read MoreThe History Of The Internet2033 Words   |  9 PagesThe history of the Internet starts with the making of electronic computers in the 1950’s. After a bunch of rabble The first concepts of the Internet were invented in the 1960’s who saw much use in allowing computers to share information. It was mainly used for scientific and military purposes, research, development, and sorts. J.C.R. Licklider of MIT first suggested the idea of a global network of computers in 1962. He moved to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop the InternetRead MoreHistory of the Internet535 Words   |  2 PagesInternet The Internet is a child of the 1960s. 1969 was when the first network of computers, ARPANET, communicated with one another. I took a full decade before the Internet was developed. In 1984, domain names were introduced, bringing with them, the familiar suffixes of â€Å"com† and â€Å"org† (Anonymous, 2013). It didn’t become widely used until the 1990s when two significant developments arrived. In 1991, the World Wide Web (Web 1.0) was released, along with hyper-links, which made navigation easierRead More History Of The Internet Essay1527 Words   |  7 PagesHistory of the Internet Works Cited Buick, Joanna and Jevtic, Zoran. Introducing Cyberspace. New York, NY: Totem Books, 1995. Crick, Prof. Rex E. E-Mail History. [Online] Available http://www2.uta.edu/geology/compulit/mailhist.html, December 20, 1999. Hafner, Katie and Lyon, Mathew. Where Wizards Stay up Late. New York, NY: nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Simon amp; Schuster Inc., 1996. quot;Internet.quot; Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999 ed. Kristula, Dave. The History ofRead More The History of the Internet Essay1277 Words   |  6 PagesThe History of the Internet When one thinks of the internet, one may think of America Online, Yahoo!, or of Sandra Bullock being caught up in an espionage conspiracy. For me, it is a means of communication. 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Piracy has significantly impacted the Internet as aRead MoreHistory Of Internet On The World1486 Words   |  6 PagesJosh Margolis EMF140 November 2, 2015 History of Internet Before the the Internet was created, linking the world, human beings were already thinking with a connected mind. While messages obviously were unable to be transferred electronically, humans invented different ways to trade information and news with other people. Firstly was the post. In order to send a friend a message, a letter would have had to been written and mailed. Mailing messages was a long process, often taking days to getRead MoreThe History of Computers and the Internet1457 Words   |  6 PagesWith the invention of the internet in the late 1960s and early 1970s, no one had a clue what it would one day develop into. When computers started becoming an everyday household appliance and the internet became more widespread, social networking sites (SNS) were developed as a means of communicating with people across the world. Friendster was launched in 2002, and grew rapidly over the course of three months as people started connecting and networking over the internet inste ad of in person. MyspaceRead MoreThe History and Development of the Internet1937 Words   |  8 Pagesstart with, we have to discuss the historical backdrop of the Internet and its development. The Internet developed out of improvements in bundle exchanging and circulated machine systems intended to be secure in time of war. Throughout the last few decades, the Internet has had monstrous developing. Several years back, numerous individuals completed not have machine information and were not mindful of how to utilize it. Today, the Internet is utilized regularly for just about every errand. A huge numberRead More The History and Future of the Internet Essay831 Words   |  4 PagesThe History and Future of the Internet Many believe the internet was an over night sensation, that one day, someone invented the internet and it spread in popularity faster than Tickle Me Elmo or the Macarena. Although the internet did have a surge of commercial popularity, with the invention of Mosaic and later with e-commerce, it was created many years ago with the development of military networking technologies. Also, the internet, unlike many pop culture fads of the nineties, will continue