Pap pa rap pap pa love ko to! Who have not seen the latest advertisement of McDonald in the Philippines? It is about a young boy and a young girl who met in McDo with their parents. The boy watch as the girl dip her fries in the ice cream, then all of a sudden they grew up as young adults in the same place where they first met while in the background the famous single of the Eraser Head El Bimbo is being played, the lady pulls him to the play place and introduce him to her husband, ooh! Then the guy ate his fries the way the lady ate hers when they were young with the narration saying “hindi man naging tayo, pero ikaw parin ang first love ko. McDonalds indeed managed to touch the core of Filipinos through this commercial. Here in our country we really put importance on friendship especially our childhood friend. in like manner the vintage commercial of Karen Po depicts the Filipino culture of giving reverence to the elders. Two important traits of Filipinos are shown trough advertisement. Indeed it is powerful avenue to promote culture. However it can also deceive us. When I was in high school, I never got out of our house without fixing my hair with gel or was or conditioner, or hair polisher, etc. it presupposes also that I have tried different brands. This is because of the advertisements in the TV. I could easily be carried away. I was not minding its effect. The same as through with soap especially whitening soap until I got an allergy two years ago. Advertisement is a master of manipulation. According to the document “Ethics of Advertisement” the two purposes of advertisements are informing and persuading. Yes it is good but sometimes because of too much information we fall into the trap called information fatigue. We tend to ignore new info. Worst is we don’t reason out anymore every time we confront it. In our exhaustion our world is limited by what we only believe in as true info even it is already obsolete. As for the purpose of persuading, we might again fall into the trap of losing or sense of control. We are overwhelmed by advertisements that we want always to acquire the newest products in the market even thought we do not need them. In the document four aspects of the society are identified to be greatly affected by advertisement positively and negatively. Economic, political, cultural and moral or religious facet of the societies are benefited at the same time debilitated by advertisements. Economically speaking it is a vital player in the stability of our economy. It gives more jobs to people it geared to common good and the human development. “It is necessary part of the functioning of the modern market..Currently seem to be the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to the needs of socio-economic kind” (Ethics of Advertisement 868 #5). On the contrary, consumerism is its bad effect. According to Poe John Paul people are more focused in having than in being due to the consumerist mentality. In the political realm advertisement is important place to know the present issues in the government. This would provide us better measures in judging our public officials. Nonetheless, advertisement can be used by the rich politicians during election campaign to secure their victory. But where will they get the money they spend during the election? It is up to you to think. The two advertisement of McDonald stated above are good example of promoting cultural and moral values of the Filipinos. It could also help in the promotion of our cultural heritage. But due to the fast advancement of technologies shown in the advertisement, even some of our cultural heritages are in the midst of extinction. Every time I ride the LRT I always prefer to stand and watch the different billboards. Out of 100 I think billboard only one is about our religion, for other religions I have not seen any. It is a good boulevard to evangelize. However, many commercial promotes demoralization. Commercial about condoms are rampant. Almost all the advertisement that targets the adults and the teens has sexual or sensual undertones.
The Ethics of advertisement is no longer the primary concern of the people behind, it is profit. Media on one hand would tolerate because they have mutual purpose. I hope this document would be read by the people behind advertisements so that they will always promote human dignity and cultural or religious awareness, not demoralizing kinds of advertisements.
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