Advertising is information or manipulation? Discuss

Globalization is a new phenomenon which appears in the 80’s and has led to increased competition. In this context, firms have to develop new techniques to differentiate themselves from others, that is the reason why, they invest more and more money in advertising.
Advertising takes part of our daily environment and is used in several ways (newspapers,TV, posters, on the street, radio...) so that nobody can escape from its spreading.

Advertising aims to send on a message at consumers. It was focused at first on the very product, on its qualities and its benefits. It can deal with business image, the products of the firms. We can then consider advertising as a means of information for the customers, not forgetting nevertheless its commercial purpose that is urging people to make a purchase.

However, in front of such a collection of adverts, consumers stop caring much about them. So then advertising has changed to become much more subtle in order to provide consumer’s reaction. Marketing‘s directors wants to imprinted into consumer’s mind rather than to describe the qualities of the product. Marketing departments have been created to look for and establish new tactics requiring to scientists being able to influence the unconscious. As Mr Willem, a designer, says advertising is a means “to colonize the brain”.
It has been proved that Men are emotionally weak and easily influenced, adverts use then seduction and persuasion to tend to manipulate potential consumers. What people can feel is becoming much more important than a purely statement or description. So, advertising produces funny pictures (as Free, a phone operator, does), or tongue-in-cheek scenes (as Volkswagen can do), or unusual pictures (as Benetton does showing naked people), or even showing young children to get them interested (they are becoming besides a carefully chosen target in advertising).
Recently, comparative adverts occur to win