People’s lives are now surrounded by advertisement. This affects what people consider important and has a negative impact on people’s lives. To what extent do you agree or disagree? v.1

Nowadays, many people claim that advertisement impacts many aspects in our lives; however, it also has detrimental effects. In my opinion, I completely agree with this view, which will be discussed in this essay. Firstly, companies aim to promote the consumption of their products by advertising. To do this, they tend to emphasize on values such as success, status, happiness and wealth and link these values with material possessions. Therefore, customers may aquate the pursuit of happiness with possessing material wealth; in spite of expending a large amount of money. People may become shoppaholics and this may cause debts or even bankruptcy. Moreover, materialism makes people put priority on material pursuits, leading an unhappy and unfulfilled life. Secondly, women are also the victim of advertisements. To clarify, many commercials usually distort by perfect images of women’s skin or body portrayed to change women’s view of beauty perception; as result, women will seek out that product to help them prettier and feel more confident. However, many bleaching or whitening products containing toxic substances may cause many skin diseases. Last but not least, advertisement creates artificial needs and unnecessary purchases. For example, new phone models are released periodically to appeal to those who want to show off their status and wealth. Meanwhile, the functions of new phones are no different to the older versions. In conclusion, I believe that advertisement impacts on some materialistic aspects of our lives and it may cause adverse impacts on people.