Advertisers/Consumers

I would say the relationship between advertisers and the consumer is almost exclusively mutual. It’s a very interesting situation in that although it seems that advertisers may have the upper hand, consumers really have more power than they might think. The consumer controls the popularity and thus the income of an item. If it does not sell, then advertisers must rethink their strategies and devise a new plan for the item, or the product might be scrapped altogether. This is a double-edged sword however in that the consumer might make a product that most would deem morally questionable popular, and then create some pop culture phenomenon that just won’t go away. Once an advertisement company figures this out, they tend to milk that front for as long as possible, which is probably the main reason why they get so much flak while the consumer usually gets none. However, advertisers and the advertisements they make are not evil in design. It really depends on the person and their own moral values to decide what is right and what is wrong, regardless of how universally agreed the subject might be, which Oglivy hits on in his essay “What’s Wrong with Advertising?” (353) So the real question is when does advertisement cross the line for you? And is it really the advertisers fault for cashing in on it?