I believe Banksy is correct. However, I think the media has made the public so accustomed to their ways that people do not realise they are being manipulated into believing they are inferior.
The media have a goal to make the audience believe they need that product or service to better their life. Most adverts seem harmless but they do have an effect on the audience in negative ways. For example, holiday adverts usually show a happy family or even women in bikinis to convince audiences they have the best experience for them. These adverts are using something that cannot be guaranteed to endorse their service. People believe that the holiday will be good because of their appearance or how happy the family is. This shows how the media take the ‘most appealing’ parts of a holiday and present them in such a way that the audience wants to recreate it - despite the whole thing being fabricated. This could lead to people going on the holiday and not having as much fun as they expected - possibly blaming themselves for not being the ideal person.
Moreover, the extensive amount of advertising shown has made the audiences become numb to shock tactics due to the overuse of them. The overuse of advertising also makes the audience remember and ultimately agree with the advertisement as they have seen it so many times that it must be true. I believe a lot of people are more susceptible to advertising and it can cause some psychological damage (unrealistic expectations in the media). On the other hand, there are people who ignore unrealistic standards and take the oppositional reading (Stuart Hall) to the media. The media takes advantage of vulnerable people by producing an overwhelming amount of advertising that you can’t escape from.
Anywhere from newspapers to social media an advert can be found multiple times. Furthermore, in my experience, the same advert gets repeated across many platforms and will not change for weeks at a time. This makes the audience very familiar with the product or service and almost makes them want to try it out - or even click on the advert in hopes it will change as it has already had that attention. However, this interaction may trigger the advertisers to push more adverts onto the people in hopes of money. This shows how big corporations are heavily advertising in the chances of gaining benefits for themselves and not the general public. These businesses are selfish and want the most amount of money for the smallest cost of making.
Public spaces should be filled with real art and culture rather than corporate sponsored art and logos. This will allow the population to have more freedom in their choices and not just buy a product because it belongs to a certain brand. Reducing the amount of public advertisement will allow more equality and fairness between businesses. This also could allow for more diversity in products as people will be more open to buying something that isn’t well known and mass produced.
The use of real art and culture within public places will create a warmer environment for people. It will encourage a freedom of speech and opinion as they will not be bombarded by certain ideologies made by money grabbers. An increase of culture will also improve and bring more of a connection between people of the communities. Furthermore, this will increase the diversity of representations and everyone will feel more welcome and appreciated in the world.
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