Commercials are an important part of the media. Without them Channels would not get the funding needed to broadcast your weekly Soap Opera, the News or Sports. Movies and TV shows would not get promoted, political parties could not campaign, merchant dice would not get sold as well and search engines would get less funding. The question is how much can we trust them?
Most Commercials have a claim that they are trying to argue. Whether it is to make you go watch that new movie, buy that ring, vote for that party or invest in a company. The problem is how to figure out which argument to trust. One way is to think what are the interested parties involved, and are they interested in helping you? For example what are the interested parties involved in a Cold Remedy Commercial? Well there is the Drug Company that designed the medication and there is the advertising Company that is trying to sell you the medication. Of these two only one should be trusted and that is the Drug Company which actually did the research and designed it for your benefit, vs. the Advertising Company which would put Megan Fox on the bottle just to make the sale for their own gain.
Another way is to find out what their argument is, and is it valid? For example let us say that this Cold Remedy's argument was that it ‘Contains acetaminophen so it works, is all Canadian, and is supported by Justin Bieber’. The only part of this that is an arguments is that is it ‘Contains acetaminophen so it works’ which is a fair argument considering that acetaminophen helps with colds and muscles ache. The rest is just rhetoric it does not matter that it is all Canadian or that Justin Bieber supports it. Any ways if he did support it than maybe that would make him an interested party, and if so is probably only concerned about his own benefit.
Commercials are everywhere in the media from the TV, to the Radio and even on the Internet. They are an unavoidable part of media and can be miss leading. So it is important to asses them before you put your trust into them.
Interesting point about trusting the drug company but not their marketing arm - most people jump to distrusting both. You're often right - the scientists working to find a cure/drug/therapy are not the same people that advertise the product, and the one is certainly more trustworthy than the other. Interesting read.
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