Advertising's Social Impact

Advertising has become an active influence in today's culture. Its messages affect our population in how we view ourselves, our dreams, and our desires. Advertisers use specific techniques to sell their products, such as the manipulative use of certain social groups and how they are presented in advertisements. Advertisements don't just sell their product; they sell the emotions and desires that are connected to the product. TJ Maxx has a particular ad campaign that promotes their clothes by presenting teenage women as achieving their desires. TJ Maxx plays on the emotions and desires of teenage women by presenting them in their ads as achieving a sense of independence and self-confidence by being able to freely express themselves.

Almost all young teenage women have the desire to be independent, to do for themselves and be able to express themselves freely. They also always want to look hip, cool, fierce and fashionable. TJ Maxx plays on these desires and emotions by employing particular language and imagery in their advertisements. "It has everything to do with images, dreams, and emotions," (Godrej 141) Godrej recognizes that ads are no longer just used to introduce/sell a product but are also used to sell ‘images, dreams, and emotions' connected to the product. This technique is evidenced in the TJ Maxx ads, both are not just selling clothes but they are selling a sense of independence, and self-confidence connected with the clothes.

The ads use particular language in order to connect these emotions and desires to the clothes. Consider the tag line: "Clothes express your freedom. Now if only you had a ride to the store" (Holland). The language used expresses the fundamental meaning of the ad. Choosing/buying your own clothes gives you the ‘freedom' to ‘express' yourself. It also implies that by being able to freely express yourself you can achieve individualism and independence. The line "Now if only you had a ride to the store," (IDK) presents a sense of innocence and dependence on others. All teenage women have a sense of innocence associated with them just due to their youth. The ability to freely express yourself will evolve this innocence into self-confidence. This ad presents that possibility, that even teenage women, who have to rely on others for many things, can still achieve independence with the clothes they choose and how they express themselves.

Now consider the tag line in the black and white ad "Score high on nonverbal skills" (IDK). The language used expresses the importance appearance is to teenage women. Scoring high in school is important and scoring high in verbal skills talks to teenage women. Teenage women closely associate with these terms and these ads play on those emotions, desiring to look hip, cool, fierce, and fashionable. ‘Score high' shows a sense of achieving these desires, ‘on nonverbal skills,' shows