Ad industry is grooming at an unbelievable rate.With investments worth crores of rupees,every ad is aiming to innovate,improvise,persuade,change and induce an action among its audiences.It is a proved fact that advertisements do have an impact on the people.Some critics suggest that advertising promotes a materialistic way of life by leading people to believe that purchasing products or services helps achieve happiness.Today,mass number of people of various age groups,gender,educational level,professions are seeing ads on various TV channels and having a broader impact on their habits,living and lifestyle.
Advertising stimulates consumption,economic-activity models,lifestyles and ofcourse purchasing power.Consumers come across extensive daily doses of advertising in multiple media.With the continual attack of marketing strategies on them,it is but obvious that somewhere it will affect an individual as well as the society.I believe that advertising today is slightly implanting a gender role to the society.When you see a car commercial for a mechanic based product(say oil or petrol),the mechanic is a man.At the same time,when you see a commercial about cleaning products for the house,normally.its the women's face you see.Media can help break the barriers on how gender roles are portrayed in society.Because popular consumer culture is both producer and product of social inequality,we ourselves have allowed advertising imagery to construct negative and perpetuate stereotypes of gender.These stereotypes constructed in advertising threaten the society because they cause an irrevocable inequality between men and women.
Nevertheless,advertising is an important part of the promotion of the marketing strategy,along with direct marketing,PR,etc.Moreover,it gives access to vital information related to the product or service and opens various avenues for the customer in the given market set-up.Whether the consumer is left 'confused' or 'informed' is,however,debatable.
