In 2012 the world spent over 460 billion dollars on advertising. Money is spent by commercial companies to promote their products and services and by political and non-political groups to raise awareness of various issues. If more than $300 billion is spent on advertising every year, then people must be strongly influenced by advertising, otherwise groups would not spend such a large sum on advertising. People are influenced by advertising, but what does this mean for society? Vitriolic detractors of advertising argue that advertising is a malignant tumor of modern society, while supporters of advertising counter that promotions are the backbone of society. While it is true that some advertisements are as harmful as cancers, critics rarely mention the multitude of benefits received from advertising. Advertising has contributed to the building of economies, countries and our modern culture; without advertising, civilization would never have evolved from the pre-agricultural communities that once dominated the planet. Therefore, I believe that the positive effects of advertising are one of the main factors of humanity's progress. The purpose of advertising is often confused with the effect of advertising. Advertising is a technique used by companies to convince consumers to purchase a certain product or service. Companies use advertising because commercials have “enormous power and economic value” (Shaw). Advertisements are the easiest way to distribute information on a large scale, and companies know this. With just one well-designed display, millions of consumers will be familiar with the product or service being advertised. From an economic perspective, advertisements are like catalysts, only one advertisement is needed to acquire a large consumer base, and like a catalyst, a business... a paper center... a college, to start a 'business and things like that ) and if these people had not seen ads promoting constructive ideas, there might have been more people who would have to depend on others to survive. Seeing such ads, many people realized the benefits of creating something with themselves; without such advertisements, society would consist only of extremely rich and extremely poor people. Works Cited American Red Cross Poster, 2004 Day, Nancy. Advertising: information or manipulation? Berkely Heights: Enslow Publishers, 1999. Print.Shaw, Eric H. and Stuart Alan. "Cigarettes." The Advertising Encyclopedia of the Advertising Age. Ed. John McDonough and Karen Egolf. 3 vols. New York: Fitzray Dearborn, 2003. Print."Strategy Analysis: Press Releases." Strategy analysis: press releases. Np, nd Web. 12 December. 2013. .