Advertising (Shaping or Mirroring)

Does Advertising Shape or Simply Mirror Society?  

Advertising generally communicates with consumers to be persuaded to purchase a product.  Studies have shown that the average American sees up to 3,500 ads on average per day.  With that being said, one could agree that advertising shapes society due to the fact of how much we see of it every day!  On another end, advertising is mirroring our society and reflecting the opinions that a consumer already has.  

Shaping Society

In general, advertising generates sales for a company and creates brand equity.  Big time companies spend millions of dollars on advertising each year and it only creates wealth and increases market share.  Advertising can also increase the current number of people who buy their product or services. It is often up to the consumer to decide whether the ad for the company is good or bad.  It can also be indicated that advertising tends to affect us in a significant way because our mines are immune to the message that the is being displayed.
 I think advertisements influence the way we think, the way we act, and how we view the world because of the consistent recurrence to lose weight, be sexy or drink in order to fit the hegemonic standards of masculine and feminism.  

This dove ad really puts things into perspective about how the models in the magazine really look, not air brushed or edited.  It ends with a quote that couldn't be truer.  "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Examples

I have been a golfer since I was in the 7th grade and my family and I have always been a huge fan of Tiger Woods.  He's an outstanding golfer, has had a great family, and inspirers millions.  After the scandal, I realized he isn't that great of a person and doesn't really interact with fans; he just plays golf and plays to win.  Granted, I will always be a Tiger fan, however, I read a lot of PGA magazines and Phil does a lot of "giving back" and donating to charities.  (If you're into golf or the PGA, you know that most Tiger fans are not Phil fans.)  He would shape a typical person because of the clothes he particularly wears or the clubs he hits, hallways.  One thing that really inspires me about athletes is not only how good they are at their profession, but who they are as a person.  Phil comes off as a great person who is always smiling, supports all kinds of charities and also is a big family person.  It really changes my perspective on how I feel and whom I really admire as a golfer on the PGA tour.

Mirroring Society 

It has been argued lately that advertisements mirrors and adapts societal trends.  Take technology and social media for example.  Technology services and social media is a huge trend in today’s society and only increase everyday.  Facebook was created back in 2004, but has time proceeded, new things have come out, and there will always be a next best thing.  A study showed that of the 1.8 billion people in the world who access the Internet daily, about 400 million have an operating Facebook account and over 50% of them use it daily.  This leads to digital advertising and how companies quickly found a new way to connect and market with different people.  Things such as digital tools are big necessities for communication in lives today whether its for personal use or business/professional use, that being said, advertisers around the world have to alter and mirror society in order to stay suitable to the consumer.

Examples

A couple things come to mind when thinking of advertisements how they mirror myself.  Being as active as I am and going to the gym regularly, advertisements for businesses like snap and anytime fitness mirror me because I am motivated to workout.  If someone who doesn't workout and is lazy, an advertisement or commercial for an athletic club that has a limited time coupon or offer might persuade them in that direction.

Smoking advertisements can also be very powerful in ones opinion.  With being a person who is anti-smoking, advertisements for cigarettes mirror me in the way that I am against them and it reflects my opinion that I have on cigarettes.  A quick side face that I found very interesting:  according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011, tobacco companies spent $8.4 billion on advertising and promoting the product and tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths each year.

This anti smoking ad I find very powerful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfAxUpeVhCg

Advertising is such a great and effective way to promote a product or company, but in the end it all depends on if it meets the expectations and needs of the consumer.  Different consumers have different experiences and beliefs about products and can change over time.  If advertisers adapted to different societies, then most definitely ads are mirroring our society rather than shaping.