The Pros And Cons Of Excessive Advertising

When was the last time you enjoyed good TV time with your family. How long ago was it when you used to watch a nice soap opera without worrying about the fact that a commercial break will appear in the midst and by the time the show is back on will forget who was playing who. Probably your answer to this question would be “about ten years ago” or “before the cellular industries started there advertising war against each other”. Nowadays we are living in a society where every thing is commercialized or branded. Advertising is one of the important factors which have added to this society. Excessive advertising is one of the most powerful and dangerous weapon in the hands of marketers these days. Although it has its pros like increasing sales,

Belch and Michael A. Belch states that

“If advertising critics really believe that persuasive advertising should not be permitted, they are actually proposing that no advertising be allowed, since the purpose of advertising is to persuade” (778)

The impact of advertising can be seen from two different points of views. One from critic’s point of view and other is the marketers point. The critics are of the view that the advertisers are very power full and they can influence people into buying goods that they don’t require. Critics say that the marketers don’t follow the basic Maslow theory of needs. They induce the consumers to buy products that are not even on there needs list or surpass the basic needs. (778)

The marketers are of the view that every consumer has the power to evaluate and choose what he wants. It is very difficult to persuade any consumer to buy something which they don’t need.

With this excessive advertising which is fully supported by the marketers, consumer expectations about the product also increase. Here advertisers tend to often misquote in there advertisements and when the consumer expectations are not meet it creates a negative image regarding the authenticity of the company’s

Kandy in his article Marketing is Evil talks about how marketer makes their consumers dependent on their product through excessive advertisement. Buyers are losing self independency. Some marketer are getting mean that they are providing harm to their competitors, besides this they are also giving falls claim about their competing and exposing that their products are superior of all. (Kandy)

He again comments that

“Today an advertiser who fails to tell the truth not only offends against morality but also against the law. In negative marketing, the advertisers highlights the disadvantages of competitor products rather than the advantages of their own” (Kandy)

In an interview with Mr. Saif-ur-Rehman Advertising Manager Telenor clearly mentioned that they don’t do excessive advertisement. For every new package they use excessive advertisement which lasts for about 10 days and is on-aired on almost 20-24 channels. After that period they wait for the decline period of the product and at that time use a reminder campaign to refresh the product in the minds of the consumers.

He was also of the view that they don’t make any false claims because there is a strict regulation from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority that if someone makes false claims they will be penalized and also it’s against the company’s policies.