Advertising Encourages Us to Buy Things That We Really Do Not Need - IELTS Task 2 Band 9 Essays

Achieve your dream score with our detailed IELTS eBooks - your complete guide!

Model Essay 1

Advertisers constantly vie for our attention, often blurring the line between genuine product information and persuasive enticement. I contend that, on balance, advertising more often encourages consumers to purchase items they do not need, even though it can sometimes disseminate useful information about innovations. I will first explain how modern marketing exploits psychological levers to manufacture demand, then acknowledge the legitimate informative function of some adverts while arguing why that does not outweigh their overall commercial effect.

Advertising frequently manufactures perceived needs by deploying emotional triggers, social proof and scarcity tactics that short-circuit rational decision-making. Marketers design narratives that equate products with identity, status or happiness, transforming optional luxuries into apparently essential signals of self-worth. Digital platforms amplify this effect by micro-targeting — showing personalised ads at moments of vulnerability — and by normalising frequent upgrading through planned obsolescence and fashion cycles. The result is not merely increased awareness but habitual overconsumption: consider how fast-fashion ads promote multiple seasonal wardrobes or how lifestyle influencers make the latest gadgets appear indispensable. Such techniques inflate wants into perceived needs, eroding budgetary discipline and producing wasteful consumption that often yields little lasting utility.

That said, advertising does have a socially useful dimension: it can inform people about genuinely beneficial innovations and important public services. Campaigns for new medical devices, energy-efficient appliances, or public-health initiatives can accelerate adoption of technologies that improve wellbeing. However, even informative adverts are framed to accentuate benefits and downplay limitations, and their reach is unequal—those most persuaded are not always those who most need the product. Consequently, the informative value does not neutralise the predominant commercial impulse created by advertising; better outcomes require stricter regulation, transparency about claims, and stronger consumer education.

In sum, while advertising can occasionally alert consumers to valuable innovations, its prevailing operational logic is to stimulate extra demand. The psychological and structural mechanisms marketers employ make it more likely that adverts encourage unnecessary purchases than that they simply inform rational choice.

Achieve your dream score with our detailed IELTS eBooks - your complete guide!

Model Essay 2

In contemporary society, advertisements permeate almost every aspect of daily life—from digital platforms to urban billboards—subtly shaping not only what we buy but how we think. I strongly believe that advertising primarily manipulates consumer psychology to create artificial desires rather than fulfilling genuine needs. This essay will argue, first, that advertising distorts people’s perception of necessity by constructing false ideals of happiness and success, and second, that it fosters materialistic social values that harm both personal wellbeing and the environment.

Advertising’s most powerful influence lies in its ability to redefine what people perceive as essential by linking products to aspirational emotions rather than practical value. Modern campaigns no longer sell objects; they sell lifestyles. For example, luxury car advertisements rarely focus on engineering quality—they highlight status, freedom, and admiration, suggesting that ownership itself equates to achievement. Similarly, beauty and fitness industries thrive on portraying unattainable perfection, implicitly telling consumers that happiness or confidence can be purchased. This emotional manipulation is deeply calculated, using psychological cues such as scarcity (“limited edition”), social comparison, and fear of missing out to drive impulsive spending. Over time, people internalise these messages, mistaking temporary satisfaction for genuine fulfilment. Consequently, advertising shifts consumption from a rational activity into an emotional pursuit of identity, ensuring perpetual demand for things that were never truly necessary.

Beyond individual psychology, advertising also reshapes societal priorities by embedding materialism into cultural values. When economic worth and personal success are continuously equated with visible possessions, communities begin to value consumption over contentment. Children grow up idolising influencers and brand logos more than intellectual or moral achievements, while adults measure progress through material upgrades. This collective mindset not only strains mental health through constant comparison but also accelerates unsustainable production and environmental degradation. Consider the phenomenon of electronic waste: advertising drives the disposal of functional devices in favour of “newer” models with marginal improvements. Thus, the wider consequence of relentless promotion is not just wasteful spending but a consumer culture that undermines ethical responsibility and ecological balance.

In conclusion, although advertising can inform us about available products, its deeper impact is largely detrimental. By distorting the meaning of necessity and embedding materialism into modern life, it manipulates human psychology and corrodes societal values. Therefore, I firmly believe advertising encourages excessive consumption far more than it enlightens people about genuine needs.

Achieve your dream score with our detailed IELTS eBooks - your complete guide!