Reflection 4

After watching Killing Us Softly part 4 for a second in class it really got me thinking about the other effects that advertising has on society and I realized that perhaps the most harmful effect is the moral and ethical implication of advertising.  As a capitalist nation the U.S. is for the most part completely dependent on advertising for pretty much everything from movies to health insurance, but I don't know why their aren't more advertisements that actually promotes concepts and ideals that may actually improve peoples lives.  I'm talking about things like the anti-smoking ads that show what smoking does to your lungs, or the above the influence ads that encouraged teens and young adults to avoid drugs and under age drinking.  There needs to be more ads like those that actually encourage people to live healthier, educated, and active lifestyles.  In the future I would like to see "Stay in School Don't be a Fool" ads, or "Hey Have You Helped Improve Your Neighborhood This Month?".  Advertising now for the most part already makes people feel insecure about themselves encouraging them to go buy all these products and it has created this hazardous environment where if we don't buy we won't be accepted.  Advertising holds a lot of power and influence over people and if their were more progressive minds working in the world of advertising that didn't just concern themselves with making money and selling products I strongly believe that people would actually start to care more about improving the state of our society because as it stands people are more worried about what car they drive or what shoes they're going to wear rather than the issues that actually directly affects Americans everyday.  The current state of advertising has created a society of self-centered, judgmental narcissists. Now I'm not saying that everyone is like that because of course they aren't, but if aliens were to come down to Earth I'm almost sure that is exactly what they would think.  I don't think that's the impression we would want to give visitors from another world, and I don't think that is the way we want to think of ourselves, and if that is the case then something has to change.