SAMPLE ESSAY "ADS"

People often think that “Any publicity is good publicity.” The earliest use of this expression is from the US newspaper The Atlanta Constitution by Phineas Taylor Barnum in 1915. He used this expression, because advertisements began to shape our world from that time. But today it is over. From now on, advertisements started to give hidden evil messages rather than to shape. So we can easily say that any publicity is not good publicity. Although there are good aspects of advertisement such as controlling product prices, saving good deal of time, guaranteeing quick sales, giving educational, social and safety messages, there is also abuse of an advertisement like deceiving people into buying things that they don’t really need, making people think they need things that they shouldn’t even want, lying, and misleading. But there are also 4 basic issues of insidious types of the advertisements such as offensive, racist, subliminal and illuminati.

First one is offensive. Advertisements are intended to make an impression. But not all impressions are good ones. These are “what not to do” tips, but big-name brands have made these mistakes time and again like Kfc and Victorian secret. Both of these company use veiled female figure in their offensive advertisement. Other sample is Delux painting company. It uses Michael Jackson’s physical change in its offensive advertisement. Even Pet Funeral Services uses a portion of Hello Kitty’s logo and the slogan in its offensive advertisement. Another example is Fabrice Muamba. He is an English football player. He collapsed during an FA Cup match against Tottenham because of a heart attack. Following successful treatment he was released from the hospital. But then, BBC used this event in its offensive advertisement.

The second insidious type of advertisement is racist advertisement. Racism has a long history in advertisement, but it unfortunately is still being written.  Whether international or domestic, national or local, brands and agencies continue to put out material in print, television and web advertisements filled with racism. One of the most racist commercials in recent history is particularly appalling. Volkswagen features an Arab terrorist in its advertisement campaign for the new Polo automobile. The terrorist attempts to be a suicide bomber at the scene of a busy restaurant, but his plan is thwarted because the Polo, despite being small, is just too strong for his bomb. In 2006, Sony released an advertisement promoting its black and white portable PlayStation. It depicts two women battling, yet the scandal concerned the domination of the white over the black woman. It was quickly removed from the public. KFC released an Australian advertisement in early 2010, and once it hit the Internet Americans cried out against its racist nature. The concept that a bucket of chicken can calm a black crowd and the main actor is alone. Again, the advertisement was withdrawn.

The third and the most important one is subliminal advertisement. Its dictionary meaning is “not recognized or understood by the conscious mind, but still having an influence on it” on Cambridge dictionary and “affecting your mind even though you are not aware of it” on Oxford advanced learner dictionary. There are many examples of advertisements accordance with these definitions. In Gilbbys Whisky Company’s advertisement, there is a glass of ice. But there is also a subliminal message like sex. Other example is Pepsi Beverage Company’s advertisement. When we place two Pepsi box one on the top of the other, we can clearly see the word “sex”. And the female body is one of the inevitable of subliminal advertisement. Bailey’s Irish whisky company uses a women figure in its subliminal advertisement. And, McDonald’s refers to women breast in its some advertisements.

Last but least one is illuminati advertisement. The Illuminati translated as the people of the light, but it is a secret society which founded on May 1, in 1776, in order to ensure that the new world order. And they are trying to impose their views using internet, advertisements, videos, etc. We can give some examples to see their evil intentions. Apple, one of the largest companies in the world, uses illuminati figure in its product promotion. HSBC Bank is also one of the largest companies in the world which have an important role in spreading The Illuminati. In Panasonic’s advertisement of a new camera, they are using Anubis, god of the afterlife, which is one of the basic figures of Illuminati. Lastly, there is a big co-operation based on illuminati between YouTube and Ask Search engine.

All of these basic issues of insidious types of the advertisements show that there are not only good aspects of advertisement, but also abuse of an advertisement. So we can’t use the expression “all publicity is good publicity”, but we can easily say that all publicity is not good publicity.