Advertisements are all around us. They affect what we eat, drink, see, hear, and think. However, have companies gone too far? Companies have begun exploiting potential consumers through unethical means. These methods include tracking your internet search history (Mills 1-2), placing ads for alcohol and cigarettes in impoverished neighborhoods (Collins 1), and showing general disregard towards the health of people in non-white communities(Collins 1). This will be proven through the analyzation of how companies target consumers using technology, the examination of billboards and their relation to racial inequalities in health, as well as the investigation of why African Americans have such a gap in health when compared to whites. Along with this, I will be studying the artistic proofs of the supporting documents. By the end of this piece, I hope you can agree that companies’ methods of contemporary advertising are a breach of rights.
Over two billion people use the internet, for many different means. However, for whatever reason it is being used, companies are recording the websites that are being visited. In Elinor Mills’ , staff writer at CNET News, article, “Target me with your ads, please”, she quotes Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, “"There really are no legal limitations today on what companies can do with personal information they collect for targeting purposes." (Mills 2) For the executive director of a private information center to say that, says a lot about the advertising industry. Due to the ever-advancing technology, companies are gaining more ways to connect with the consumer. However, companies advertise rampantly, and without proper checks in place, the civil rights of...
... middle of paper ...
...ds, please”, it is a proven source for information on technological advertising.
In conclusion, the methods of advertising by companies are infringing upon the civil rights of United States citizens. Through loopholes, businesses have been able to control the influences in African American and other minority communities. In addition, through unchecked monitoring, the right to privacy is being overstepped. Slavery has been over for far too long, for this kind of oppression to still follow African Americans and consumers alike. As long as we forfeit our rights and put companies above the law, society can never move forward to reach equality.
Works Cited
http://news.cnet.com/Target-me-with-your-ads%2C-please/2100-1024_3-6221241.html http://news.cnet.com/Target-me-with-your-ads%2C-please---page-2/2100-1024_3-6221241-2.html http://www.utexas.edu/features/2006/health/
Joseph Turow’s The Daily You shows us the in depth look of behind the scenes of the advertising industry and its impact on individuals in the consumer society we live in. Every time you click a link, fill out a form or visit a website, advertisers are working to collect personal information about you, says Joseph Turow, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Then they target ads to you based on that information they collected. This tracking is ubiquitous across the Internet, from search engines to online retailers and even greeting card companies.
Did you know that almost everything you do on the internet is being tracked and recorded in some way? In the Article, George Orwell… Meet Mark Zuckerberg, by Lori Andrews, Andrews talks about how behavioral advertising, which is the tracking of consumer’s online activities in order to bring custom-made advertisements, is a topic that is concealed to many people and can cause damage. Search engines like Google store the searches you have made and in 2006 there were search logs released which had personal information that people were judged by (Andrews 716-717). Data aggregation is the main way Facebook makes its money. Andrews believes that it’s an invasion of privacy and is not known well enough by the public. This article is aimed at young and new internet users that are ignorant of the possible dangers on the web. Lori Andrews is successful at informing novice users about the dangers of behavioral
Turow wants to bring to light what happens behind the scenes, and why the benefits of technology also come with a cost that many are not aware of. He does this through a hypothetical that involves the lifestyle of a family. They eat fast food, are of lower income, and have issues with weight. Advertisers use this information to direct coupons to fast food restaurants to the family, show ads for used cars, and direct diet pills and gym advertisements to the females of the family (Turow 229). This is an effective illustration and lead in to the bulk of Turow’s essay and argument. Turow argues that while some might see this targeted campaign as beneficial, he goes a step further and extends the hypothetical. In this situation the members of this family talk with other members of society and find they have a different advertisement experience compared to them. This leads to a feeling of comparison, with directed advertisements dictating an individual’s place in society. The strategy behind using a hypothetical situation makes the information not only easier to digest, but it makes the impact feel more personal. This point addresses the sociological and emotional impact that such advertisements can have, and is a logical step from the information that is
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising refers to one of the marketing strategies in a pharmaceutical industry. As pharmaceutical products directly affect people's lives and health, many industrialized countries ban DTC advertisements; the United States and New Zealand are the only industrialized countries that allow DTC advertising of prescription medicines. However, there is a controversy over whether DTC advertising, as one of the most effective forms of mass communication, should be more regulated than it is now. This debate is ongoing. This research argument, however, contends that people need stronger regulations against many DTC advertisements in the pharmaceutical industry because they are usually manipulative and misleading to people.
..., websites and online marketers do find ways around users’ precautions to gain personal information. There are many people out there who want to use personal information like credit card numbers or addresses to cause harm to others. These cases are the extremely negative ones that people want to and should avoid. The case of companies and third parties tracking browsing history and other information for advertising purposes hover over a finer line between good and bad. For some people, tracking can be considered convenient in terms of shopping for what they are interested in, and others may be uncomfortable with the thought of being tracked without knowing. As stated in the beginning, complete privacy is unlikely, but being informed about the tactics of the Internet can help one protect themselves and others in their care to be as careful and private as possible.
If big business’s past is any indication of its future, it proves that businesses cannot be trusted to act ethically towards the masses. There must be laws in place that protect the consumer and outline the extent an advertiser can reach before divulging into privacy violations. An opt-out or do not track option before behavioral advertisement occurs will sufficiently address the ethical and privacy concerns posed by behavioral advertisement. The line must be drawn in order to empower consumers with free will and to restrict the severity of big business surveillance.
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke. When using the web, web users’ information tend to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that enforces companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advisements on social media about how web users can be more cautious to what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining,
The personal connection Americans have with their phones, tablets, and computers; and the rising popularity of online shopping and social websites due to the massive influence the social media has on Americans, it is clear why this generation is called the Information Age, also known as Digital Age. With the Internet being a huge part of our lives, more and more personal data is being made available, because of our ever-increasing dependence and use of the Internet on our phones, tablets, and computers. Some corporations such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook; governments, and other third parties have been tracking our internet use and acquiring data in order to provide personalized services and advertisements for consumers. Many American such as Nicholas Carr who wrote the article “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, With Real Dangers,” Anil Dagar who wrote the article “Internet, Economy and Privacy,” and Grace Nasri who wrote the article “Why Consumers are Increasingly Willing to Trade Data for Personalization,” believe that the continuing loss of personal privacy may lead us as a society to devalue the concept of privacy and see privacy as outdated and unimportant. Privacy is dead and corporations, governments, and third parties murdered it for their personal gain not for the interest of the public as they claim. There are more disadvantages than advantages on letting corporations, governments, and third parties track and acquire data to personalized services and advertisements for us.
To begin, I strongly believe that social media makes use of surveillance to exploit its users by manufacturing desires, communities, and audiences. The goal of this type of media is almost entirely the generation of advertising revenue. Surveillance provides meaning of improving the efficiency of advertising and offering private information that can be exploited by these groups towards other ends. As Andrejevic (2002) suggests, this information is still private, and so it does not constitute the loss of privacy in the modern digital age. However, it place private information in the hands of private corporations. Such as, how it will be used, and how it can be used is a question of some debate. While Andrejevic’s work has proved remarkably prescient, he failed to predict the threats to privacy that might arise if these private corporations ever released their privately held information to other parties, such as the government (243). This has become a more crucial issues in recent years.
Whenever I go to any site on the Web and I see an advertisement, I DoubleClick on it in order to view it. DoubleClick has taken the first step in building a profile on my surfing habits. From this point on, until I change browser, buy a new computer, or delete my cookie files, DoubleClick can track my browser’s activity across all sites. DoubleClick controls sixty percent of the banner ad market. This profiling powerhouse collects data about where I go and what I do on line. DoubleClick rents or sells this data to other companies, allowing them to broadcast advertising e-mails to recipients whoses urfing habits fit a desired profile. DoubleClick associates these files through cookies obtained on my hard drive. By sending out junk e-mail with graphics, advertisers can match e-mail addresses with previously issued cookies. Privacy advocates contend that DoubleClick’s use of cookies is an invasion of privacy and could lead to misuse of the information.
Myhre, Julie. "Technology Is Invading Our Privacy." Direct Marketing News. N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
In today’s difficult economy who can afford to spend their hard-earned money carelessly? Americans want good quality and low prices, and businesses that advertise their product make saving money possible. Advertising was created for one reason, so businesses could make known their product (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). Some consumers may argue that advertising is not informative, but that it is manipulative because some advertisements make false claims. Fortunately, there are regulations and consumer rights that promote truth in advertising. Consumers must embrace their rights to keep advertising the way it is meant to be. Advertising is meant to be informative and not manipulative, and consumers play a great role in promoting truth in advertising.
Across America in homes, schools, and businesses, sits advertisers' mass marketing tool, the television, usurping freedoms from children and their parents and changing American culture. Virtually an entire nation has surrendered itself wholesale to a medium for selling. Advertisers, within the constraints of the law, use their thirty-second commercials to target America's youth to be the decision-makers, convincing their parents to buy the advertised toys, foods, drinks, clothes, and other products. Inherent in this targeting, especially of the very young, are the advertisers; fostering the youth's loyalty to brands, creating among the children a loss of individuality and self-sufficiency, denying them the ability to explore and create but instead often encouraging poor health habits. The children demanding advertiser's products are influencing economic hardships in many families today. These children, targeted by advertisers, are so vulnerable to trickery, are so mentally and emotionally unable to understand reality because they lack the cognitive reasoning skills needed to be skeptical of advertisements. Children spend thousands of hours captivated by various advertising tactics and do not understand their subtleties.
...maintain that advertising exists primarily to create demand among consumers. People have certain types of wants and needs, and they are perfectly capable to discover it for themselves. People today just need food, clothing and shelter everything else is superfluous and additional stuff. Advertising are able to create demand that would not exist just by manipulating people’s min and emotions. Advertising is master in manipulate reality and fantasy, by creating “magic show.” It is true that advertising has been a powerful mechanism that distorts our whole society’s values and priorities. On the other hand, advertising educate people about several issues. In political terms, it moves mass of people and persuade them to vote for a candidate. And, of course, in terms of economy, contributes in the development through the consumption of the costumer.