Does advertising really help consumers in making well considered choices ?

Does advertising really help consumers in making well considered choices ? 

What is one thing that you come across everywhere, no matter whether you are at home, in the market, on a highway, a train, watching a movie or in a flight? It is the advertisement. You get to see them in form of television ads, you tube ads, pamphlets, in the newspaper, billboards and so on. Excitingly, we are surrounded by advertisement all around us because as a popular saying goes, "jo dikhta hai, wahi bikta hai". The main purpose of advertisement is to sell. Companies have been running advertisement for time immemorial with some television ads like "washing powder nirma" becoming part of our life. The advertisement industry has evolved with time and digitalisation. Instead of radio or television, now we get to see numerous ads , which is truely irritating, on you tube, while reading online news articles, playing games or even listening to music. In fact, I can hardly remember the time when I vibed on music without being interrupted by Spotify ads.

With so much exposure to advertisements, does it really helps us to make good choices? Advertisements does provide some basic information about the product , the price advantage it offers over other brands and so on. It is through these ads that we now know that toothpastes have namak(salt) and not every blue bottle is the best toilet cleaner. So in some cases, advertisements does help in spreading awareness about new products that have been launched in the market and it's use case. However, does advertisement still help us in making well considered choice is something that needs to be given a thought. An advertisement is just a way to lure people towards the product and make them buy it. It is for the very reason that companies keep popping you up with advertisement every now and then. I really feels like Zomato and Swiggy cares more about me than anyone else. Who else would asks you "Khana kha liya, chai pi lo" three times everyday? It tricks us to buy unwanted things. 

The information provided in the ads is often not correct or a play of words. It only displays those information that have to capacity to captivate the audience. More often the advertisements are more of a symbolism than actually making literal sense.So yeah Red Bull doesn't give you wings and Maggie is never cooked in 2 minutes.  A consumer gets no qualitative information about the products they are sold. More often, a superstar or a sports icon endorsing the product is the only unique selling proposition of the product.

Advertisements creates demand for certain products and the products we never used before becomes part of our lifestyle. Why would someone buy a small slim perfume bottle that slips easily in your pocket unless the advertisements created a pull for the product in the market. Flash discounts offered to the consumers through ads, a notification for price drop is enough for us to leave all work and order the product immediately. It shifts all the focus from quality to price benefit. People tend to buy it just because they are getting it at lowest cost and not because they really need it. 

People subconsciously know that advertisements just tricks them. It is for the very reason that people don't consider advertisements while making a major decision like the choice of university in which they wish to enroll. Every college and university claims various features and accomplishments but a student takes admission only after a good research. A advertisements does helps us to find out about the product but it is we who have to go an extra mile to check if the product is really at par with its advertisements and fits our requirement.