Advertising is a process by which marketing tools are used to try and sway a potential customer and retain an existing customer. Advertising can be found in all walks of life, all mediums and in all areas of society. Advertising is not exclusively for the purpose of selling a product of a service, though it is a core purpose for it. Advertising is also used to send a message to a target group, encourage action by others and simply to promote ideas in some cases. Regardless of the purpose of the advertisement, the advertising field has an impact on today's society that can be negative or positive depending on the circumstances.
             One of the things that advertising drives is a consumer culture. Advertising provides a consumer culture by its saturation of the market with suggestions on what the individuals in the culture should do, think, support or purchase(Mazur, 1996 p 34). "A negative consumer culture is created as advertising saturates every possible medium- from audio-visual to print. Relentless ad messages are fueling an out-of-control 'culture of consumerism,' and kids are often the target(Mazur, 1996 p 34)."
             In the past few decades advertising has become larger and more powerful than ever before. It is more persuasive than it ever has been as well as people are inundated with commercials from all areas of their lives. Text messages on cell phones ask customers to try a new restaurant, while computer monitors compete with televisions to promote products or services. Everywhere one turns he or she is met with advertising ploys designed to get the person to react in a particular manner. "Advertising budgets in the United States have doubled since 1976, and they've grown by more than 50 percent in just the last 10 years. Companies now spend about $162 billion each year to bombard us with print and broadcast ads; that works out to about $623 for every man, woman and child in the United States. It's important to remember that consu...