The basic problem is that a legal individual, the corporation, has all the democratic rights of expression that a real individual has. Real individuals are born, die, get married, have children, have compassion, ideals and morals and have all the other attributes of humanity. Corporations exist to make money. One way they make money is by advertising. There is no reason corporations should have the rights that a real individual has.

The Australian Constitution should differentiate between a real and fictitious individual. Only a real individual should have full rights.

What should also be called into question is the huge number of advertisements in the media and on shop front windows. This is becoming a form of visual pollution.

Unfortunately, self regulation has not worked in the advertising industry. Over 90% of complaints made to the ASB are rejected, and many ads are approved by the ASB if they are deemed to be “funny”, and not necessarily because they present the truth about a product.

Humor (or someone’s attempt at humor) is deemed more important than truth in advertising.

The pinnacle of disgrace would probably be the ads for “Girls night in”, run by the Cancer Council. These ads featured a male tied by the hands and feet, gagged about the mouth and left in a cupboard, while the “girls” had their night in.

In a feminist state, a male was portrayed as being cancer in women, but tying up someone and leaving them in a cupboard is an illegal act. Although the ad portrayed an illegal act, (and actually encouraged an illegal act), the ad was approved by the ASB because they said it was “funny”.

Tying up someone and leaving them in a cupboard also has nothing to do with cancer, and there is now no correlation between the contents of an ad and what the ad is actually for.

I have often wondered why advertising has such an impact. For the last 30 years I have always done my best to avoid it. I can't understand why people watch it or read it and are influenced by it. All it does is raise the eventual cost of the product and try to appeal to base emotional instincts which are always prejudicial and usually misleading. I automatically record any commercial television that I want to see (except perhaps the news) so that I can fast forward the ads and it saves so much time. 60 Minutes becomes only about 45 minutes for instance. I never read the advertisements in papers or magazines, particularly the full page ones and yet I feel that I miss out on no salient information about a product. I have become so naive that on the odd occasion when I have actually seen a commercial, I sometimes haven't even understood what it is that it is selling. It appears that the product has to be sold through some kind of obscure representation that is lost on me. I refuse to listen to commercial radio and always have my finger on the mute button when trying to catch a very short episode of TV that is not worth recording.

My choice of products is usually based on advice from professionals in a particular area. For cheap consumables, my own trial and error. If for instance I know a product has excessive marketing that I have been unable to avoid, then I refuse to buy it. What percentage of an expensive hair spray for instance is contained in the production of the actual contents.... a few cents ? I actually came across a facial spray that contained only water that was selling for several dollars. Are people crazy to believe the advertising industry. Just ignore it and teach your children the same thing.

Sarah,
A good article one criticism , I would be happy to fore go humorous ads if it meant there were no ads, the ads were *informational* or certainly without the hyped spruiking.
Advertising is neither informative nor honest it's simply a dishonest/devious way of perverting the demand side of "supply and demand" for profit.

A survey showed that out of two ( identical) cans of baby food except one red one blue and priced different. The richer, educated area patrons chose the cheaper where as the opposite applied in the less well off areas .They believed the price was a determinant of quality.

I dispute that the average buyer, *can*, make informed choices on products.
Advertising clearly includes labelling, fliers, in store signage etc.
e.g.
- Who can decipher the contents in small print on consumables? Many generic products don't list any, asking is futile.

- Front load washing machines advertise a capacity. What *most* mean is on one cycle only, usually the least economic one.

*Many* are designed for sub zero temps in Europe and don't have cold water washes.
This moves the electricity cost from the machine to your hot water system.
To cover this they cite the hotter water is necessary to activate the enzymes in the soap powder. NB. There are cold water powders for front load washers here.
.
- Roof membrane says up to 4-5 degrees differential
What they don't tell you is that this range was achieved once on a house with specific aspect in a different climate.

-The list of weasel words included 'amazing additive X' when in reality the additive is in most of opposition products.

"Bigger family pack" can simply means more fillers.

20 cleaning products when 3-4 will suffice

As for magic mops and wipes....under independent tests they prove to be little *day to day* value.
- Of course there's the allowable puffing products best on the market better than brand 'z'
ask under what circumstances? And will it effect me? Probably not.

Advertising is one facet of our parasitic laden feral capitalist system that needs controllin

Read any book on marketing and you will see it is all based on manipulation. We can all manipulate others(and probably have) . From telling lies little or otherwise. What you dont tell people. Misrepresenting your own feelings on something. Its not hard to do. But most of us refrain because we know it is wrong to manipulate and deceive people. But where business and its god money is concerned anything is ok.

Hence our descent into the cesspit of degradation and slime that is todays advertising industry. They use sex to sell to children for f#@%s sake. They are partly responsible for so many obese people who cant walk by a maccas without going in. They turn children into pester machines designed to annoy and badger parents until they get what they want. And they have convinced parents that they are bad parents if they dont give in.
They use scare campaigns filled with lies to sell products we dont need. Like the new deodorant stickers for your dunny, because the ones in the cage are filthy ffs. What crap. Or all the "disinfectant" sprays/wipes/gels/etc etc because we are "covered in germs and all going to infect each other and die" What self serving rot. Funny how our parents and grandparents didnt die from all those germs. Its only us "unclean" modern folk who need to spend hundreds of dollars on sanitising ourselves. Probably to death.

Advertising is ok when it is restricted to informing the populace of what is available but when it becomes marketing and uses human psychology against us then it should be stopped and restricted.

What a bunch of whingers.

If the population is a bunch of mindless cretins that gorge themselves to death on big macs and prostitute their children just because of an ad they saw then they deserve what they get.

The advertising standards ensure that there is no deception in the adverts, what is left is for consumers to use the few brain cells left between their ears to work out what they really need.

Mikk and others would like advertising reduced to a level of simplicity suitable to the lowest common denominator (Village idiot) so no one is startled by the bright lights or loud music.

For god's sake get a life.