Many companies use advertisements to increase sales. What are the main reasons that make an advertisement effective? Is it a good thing or a bad thing to society?

It is a common truth that advertising is used by almost all businesses in order to make them more lucrative. This has proven to be the most efficient method since, more often than not, advertisements offer easy solutions to all problems in a glamorous way. I personally feel that this is a negative development since it instills external values in people's minds. The primary reason behind the effectiveness of advertising in boosting profits is that it plays to individuals' weakness of searching for the most effortless ways to tackle difficulties, and does it fairly attractively. One of the marketing ploys is when in an appealing commercial with gorgeous models they show how everyday issues faced by many can be overcome with little or no effort, which is really tempting for people. To illustrate, the sales of one Russian clothing company have soared after they advertised a line of female undergarments that help women to look thinner, which created an illusion that their problems with weight can be solved simply by a trip to a shop. Undoubtedly, this is a negative trend as it condones a superficial attitude to life. Seeing these advertisements people are succumbing to the desire to resolve problems that require a profound approach by means which do not address the root causes, but deal with visible symptoms instead. For example, overweight women might mistakenly believe that wearing body shaping underwear will help them to achieve the desired result, while basically, they are just altering their image. Meanwhile, their physical condition may get worse because all they care about is their appearance, while their health issues are being unattended to. To sum up, despite a powerful potential to make a business more profitable by presenting seemingly simply ways to deal with serious issues, advertising takes a heavy toll on so as it triggers a light-hearted perception of important issues.