"How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit"

In "How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit", the author discusses how advertisements can sometimes be helpful, while other times be misleading. Ads are normally used to persuade people to buy products. In many ways they're helpful because of the information they give about a product; but they can also be misleading because of the information they leave out.

In the reading, the author explained how the Kellogg All-Bran cereal ad that opened in October of 1984 was somewhat deceptive. In the ad, Kellogg claimed that the National Cancer Institute believed that "a high fiber, low fat diet may reduce your risk of some kinds of cancer." Coinicidently, Kellogg's All-Bran cereal had nine grams of fiber per serving, the most of all cereals. So, Kellogg promoted their cereal as if to say, "If you eat our cereal, you won't get cancer," which probably isn't true. Then, the FDA and FTC started fighting over whether the ad was legal or not.

So, advertisements can be misleading by tying things together that don't relate, or by leaving out important information. For instance, acne advertisements can be misleading because of the wealth of information they leave out. Many times, in acne ads, the seller says, "4 out of 5 dermatologists recommend our product." However, they never say who those dermatologists are. For all the consumer knows, they could be anybody. Plus, it seems like every acne ad, diet ad, or toothpaste ad has 4 out of 5 doctors recommending the product; so, either all of those products are really good, or someone's lying or telling half-truths.