Advertisements

There are many ways to sell one’s product, whether it’s through possible benefits, factual advantages, disvaluing competition, it all requires information output. Yet how much is told or even is true is unknown to us.

The ultimate aim of any advertisement is to persuade the consumer to buy the product, and to achieve this the information which is to be given has to be carefully chosen. Some are left out and yet that is acceptable, no one would talk ill of one's own product and it is also not considered lying so in this case honesty and integrity are not comprimised. For those information which is false, not only is it a crime, it also will lead to the loss of credibility of that company, so such lies are seldom used.

Thus if i was the creative director of an advertising agency and had to design an advertisement for a tobacco company, i would not comprimise honesty and integrity at all and simply through a creative means display the good points of our brand of tabacco.

(Sorry for the lack of content but there was not much to discuss about the passage)

National Service - How can this be amended or improved further to alleviate the problem of dodging?

National Service is a waste of time and effort to many Singaporean males, taking 2 years of their youth away to do something that is to them not fruitful. They could have gone to college or even start working to ensure a brighter and stable future, rather than needing to learn how to strip a rifle or endure physical training which would not be useful in their ideal future. Still, there are those who have stronger feelings against NS because they do not even like Singapore, they do not want to live here. Perhaps it's due to the kind of lifestyle or politics in Singapore, nevertheless, they do not see why they must serve the country if they do not even treat this country as their home.

The government's approach to make people think that being loyal to the country and giving back to society is a very noble quality is not effective because humans do not all feel that good values make them greater, but all humans are only concerned with how they are benefited. So a better way to reduce the problem of the dodging of NS is to show how it is essential for the survival of the community and in turn relate it to how it positively affects the individual.

Another method of the government which is not very effective is how it tries to instil patriotic feelings through songs that are not based with evidences at all. For example, the song "Home" the national day song in 1998, in the lyrics ther is "this is home, surely, where i know i must be". For those people who are not the least bit patriotic towards Singapore, this surely doesn't provide them with a stronger reason to not think so. To reduce the amount of people who do not like Singapore, it has to be shown to them that Singapore is a wonderful place to live in better than others, unique in good ways, then they would be more willing to stay.

National Service, compulsory for all Singaporean males, will increasingly be evaded if we leave the situation as it is, since Singaporeans will not remain this guilible forever to be easily brainwashed by such cheap tricks.

Science: a Menace to Civilisation?

People in developed countries live in states where science and technological developments are inevitable. For what reason is this so? Well these advances are suppose to improve human standards of living and make them happier. Saving time, improving comfort such luxury only about when we research deeper into how things work.

Some believe that ethics should be above everything and science is threatening this causing morals to change, but in fact ethics are defined by humans so there will always be ethics just different in different situations. So we cannot denounce that change in ethics is bad. We could use the society in Brave New World by George Orwell as an example. Who is to say that that society is a distopia? I say it is an utopia, this science has caused all the people to be happy in the present and in the future and that's perfect already. Just because they are conditioned to feel or think one way doesn't matter does it, they don't mind and other's don't mind. In fact, we in our current society are also being conditioned, who is to say that loyalty to one's country is a good value, it might lead to one's downfall for all we know, but we are "conditioned" to feel that way. For those people who realise this allow themselves to be conditioned this way is because this "value" would benefit them when other people are instilled with it too - they have to be an example.

To think blame science because it may cause harm due to the weapons they produce is also unreasonable. Not only is it that humans always want to be superior over another it is also because such technology already exists, just not discovered yet but human nature will cause such "horrible power" to be uncovered. If we could all settle our differences without losing one's cool, there would be no need for such technology. And just for this reason, arguing that science causes destruction is a pointless discussion, we should find ways to change man's mindset.

Don't blame science, blame mankind. Science is limitless, should we unleash it's full potential despite the possibility of destroying ourselves?