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i wrote this for rhetoric class, so it's kinda pushy......

     Advertising has profound effects on our perceptions of reality.  Indeed, the very purpose of advertising is to meld the mental outlook of the audience toward a more benign attitude in regard to the product or idea being propagated.  However, the full implications of this mental shift are overlooked quite conveniently as being too insignificant for our concern.  We know that our lives are in fact made up of small instances.  No one experience defines who we are.  It is the collection of little changes throughout our lives that slowly develops our personality, and we are constantly changing.
     Each individual experiences things that no one else does, or at least a collection of things in a combination that is unique.  And everything has a small effect on our outlook of reality.  But this is where advertising cuts into our lives in an intrusion of the natural process of change.  Because advertising is fed to the whole of society, through mediums such as television, newspapers, and radio, the change in perception is one that is experienced by the majority of people.  However, the message of the advertisement, because it is made with the specific intention of changing the audiences’ perception, is quite narrow.  Therefore, a very specific change in perception of reality is beheld by a huge percentage of the population.  This leads to tidal like shifts in the society itself.  A large number of people now agree on insignificant product preferences.  Yet even more importantly and probably more intense is the mores which are distributed.
     In advertising it is necessary to grab the attention of the audience.  Often, emotionally shocking or pleasant material is given to the audience in order to bend their attitude.  This material then becomes integrated into the society, not only as commonplace material, but the norm by which other things are measured.  In many instances advertising has brought about a false sense of reality that the true reality is unable to live up too.  A prime example of is the idealized women shown in advertisements or the even the very glamour of the advertisement in comparison to the relatively dull reality.  This desire for that glamorized reality causes disillusionment within the population.  What they are actually able to obtain is much less than what they feel they should be able to obtain.  It is undesirable to have a population who feels that they can not have what they deserve.  But even worse than this is the smaller changes that are more applicable to reality.
     Advertising specifically targets people and says, “hey you, you want this, you want to do this, and you want to be this.”  The advertisers just want to get their job done, they just want to sell their product, but they do more.  They create a world that desires not just the product they are selling but who also feels things, thinks things, and craves things that they never would have, given natural circumstances.  Small changes in their desires and wants greatly affect a person’s life.  Who do we live for, and what do we die for, when everything is bought and sold.  The dollar, the dollar, the almighty dollar.  Buy a woman today and a sandwich tomorrow.  So whom do we buy, and what do we say to them.  Hello, Is anyone listening?  Boredom sets in as the crowd disperses.  When entertainment is lost then so too is reason to believe.  And do we want a society that cherishes a fast fix over reason?  Perhaps we do, that question is not rhetorical.  But we should not want a society in which humans lose their ability to act as they wish.  We should not chain a man’s flesh or hold a woman captive.  Neither than should we hold a human’s mind.  The sorry state of it is that no one is doing anything terribly bad individually.  It is the result of constant bombardment that eventually hides a human within their cave of belief and acceptance of truth that was never there.
But that is a bit extreme.  I am afraid I have lost some of the reality to the theory.  Advertisements will never bring about such a drastic change.   They will however, altar peoples lives.  Often the scope of such changes can be difficult to predict and we can never know what effect such tampering could cause.  Am I arguing against advertising?  No.  All I am saying is that power is a risky thing, and that advertising is a powerful thing.  I don’t think that should be taken lightly.
           In any case, changing the course of another human’s life is a risky maneuver.  And the more you know about the situation ironically causes your advice to be more risky.  All paths may lead to a bad end and, knowing this, it is wise to alter the decisions of others as little as possible.  But maybe I am too harsh.  Can the changing of others opinion lead to a heightening of conciseness and of moral and health standards?  This is a difficult question to answer because any opinion can be claimed ownership to.  Were I to state that my paper has ink on it, I could be proved wrong or right and thereby also brought about to realizing the truth.  However, in the case of opinions neither one of us holds the truth, we are merely discussing a matter of personal preference.  Respect for fellow men would lead us to believe that these differences are beneficial to society.  If our opinions differ then so too will our lives. And if our lives differ then we should create a society of beauty rather than something mundane.
     So then where is advertising?  Does it belong to a class of demons ready to pervert the human soul?  No, certainly not.  Advertising is a thing, a powerful thing, but a thing none the less.  Any power can be used for good or for bad.  They more one understands a power the more the more they can use it for exactly what they wish to.  But they power will have a positive or a negative effect on those it is used, always.  If the user is ignorant to the full potential of the power he/she welds then it does not diminsish the power.  Rather, it simply becomes more chaotic, more dangerous because now we are unleashing something we don’t fully understand.  What I am trying to say is that the reckless use of something as powerful as advertising ought to stop.  It is bad enough that people intentionally use it for selfish reasons.  But I doubt that the majority of advertisers bother to consider the full extent of what their propaganda will produce.  I also fear that many (if not all) advertisers are incapable of knowing the full extent of such a massive power as to meld the human mind.  This conclusion is reached quite simply by being witness to the mass of advertising presented to the public.
This is by far too much.  Let us not give a sword to a newborn babe, and let us not give advertising to the humans.  It shall corrupt even the wisest of us.