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Advertisement/Magazine Cover Essay
Many media houses are kept in business by the revenue got from posting advertisements on their pages or through giving some air time for the advertisement to be aired during commercial breaks on the television stations. Advertisement are mainly used to promote consumer awareness or to promote more sales of a particular product, on the other hand there are some advertisement are put on papers or television stations to discredit others.
Almost each and every sector in the world has turned on to advertisement to promote their goods or services; commercial companies are prohibited from making any false claims regarding their products or their competitors in the business. In politics however such standards do not apply as speech, statements, and advertisements in politics are considered as “Political speech”, in the United States that is protected under the first amendment. Candidates are allowed to launch unfounded scathing attacks on their opponents and at times even make false claims. Broadcasters are obligated to air the advertisements even though at times they know that they are false, this is because under the Federal Communications Act a broad casting station can put a blanket cover and reject all advertisement whether true or false but, they cannot refuse some advertisements and accept others (Kenney, pg. 180).
But it’s not just that candidates are allowed to launch unfounded attacks against their opponents or make false claims about their own records. Broadcasters are actually obligated to run their ads, even those known to be false. Under the Federal Communications Act, a station can have a blanket policy of refusing all ads from all candidates. But they cannot single out and decline to air a particular commercial whose content they know to be a lie (Kenney, pg. 180).
In the last presidential election in the United States the Obama Biden campaign team ran advertisement on all major newspapers including times Magazine. The advertisement which was given the caption bridge to nowhere shows a bridge that has some parts that have fallen apart; the bridge itself is in the middle of the ocean and is not long enough and made of old logs which are not strong enough to withstand the raging waters of the ocean. The first sections of the bridge which can be considered as being close to the shore do not have wooden planks that one can walk on to avoid drowning in the water. The advert which was meant to discredit Obama opponents as people whose leadership was bound to fail as it was not capable of taking the American people anywhere. Even though the claims by the Obama Campaign team might have been false, the American citizens have the final say (Kenney, pg. 150).
Conclusion
Advertisements are meant for publicity, even though at times some of the advertisements might not be entirely true, the most important aspect is that it achieves the desired results. Even though some guidelines and legislation have been put in place to prevent organizations from lying about their products and services it does not entirely mean that all the things in an advertisement is the truth. Political advertisements on the other hand cannot be considered as entirely false as at time some candidates place advertisements that are true. Advertisements are meant to have an impact whether positive or negative, but it should be remembered that a well put advertisement is worth a lot.
Work Cited
Kenney, John. Truth in advertising. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013. Print.
