Kontrowersje wokół reklamy. Próba podsumowania społecznej krytyki tego zjawiska

Advertising is criticized from many angles, offering a variety of arguments and referring them to different contexts. However, it turns out that this fragmented and chaotic debate is concentrated on conclusions that have been formulated many times in the past, or on rather trivial statements that do not contribute much to the relation between the world of business and its „environment” on the one hand and consumers on the other. The basic meaning of advertisements should not arouse any controversies. Advertising promotes the ideology of consumption. It creates the desired patterns of behavior and of images that are available along with the purchase of a product in any drugstore or supermarket. One also can have no doubts about the fact that advertising does work. It is also able to instruct the consumer in such a way that he forgets where he got the information from. Advertising does work, although it does not control our behavior so closely as its most severe critics say.