How are Third World countries depicted in contemporary advertising

How are Third World countries depicted in contemporary advertising?

This essay will explore the different ways in which advertisers from

the first world or more developed countries have chosen to represent

these countries to the Western audiences. I will investigate the three

main ways these under developed countries are perceived. Firstly I

will look at the perception of the Third world being in extreme need

of aid and the impression of “desperation” which comes across from

adverts concerning poverty, child labour and other types of

advertising like this. I will look at the different ways in which

this has affected the western society’s views on the third world.

Secondly I will look at the advertising of countries in the third

world as beautiful, tranquil places in which people from the developed

world are persuaded to come and spend their holidays in. Thirdly, I

will look at the ways in which the third world is depicted as being

“out of control”, uncivilized and the opposite to first world

countries. I will look at the creation of this through advertising

which broadcasts a world of drugs, corruptions, gang violence and a

‘backwards’ society opposite to that of westerns societies. Even

though it is true that much of these things do occur in developing

countries especially in urban areas, I will analyse how true the

advertisings depictions actually are. Finally I will draw together how

these different advertising tactics have brought about many different

views of the third world and how they actually compare to the reality

of the situations many of these third world countries actually face.

Probably the most popular and recognisable image that many of us

associate with the third world is that of “desperation” and need of

help due to natural disasters, child labour and poverty. Various

techniques are used by advertisers to attract the viewers such as

through television appeals, newspaper and magazine articles, radio

appeals and more recently; internet advertising has become a large

promoter. Charities use various techniques to represent the people in