IELTS Task 2 - Please judge my essay

Topic - The society would benefit from a ban on all forms of advertising because it serves no useful purpose, and can even be damaging. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

(My Essay)

There is a view that advertisements are not beneficial to the public and could even be detrimental to people and hence should be banned. While I agree that some advertisements can cause damage to people and serve no useful purpose, a blanket ban on all forms of advertising is not an effective solution. Instead, advertisements should be regulated and monitored by the Government to filter out the negative ones.

There are two main reasons why a total ban on advertisements is not the best solution. First, advertisements are a means to a business to let people know about their product or service. If that is taken away, a business will not have a proper mechanism to spread information about its product or service, thereby causing inconvenience to the general public. For instance, Manipal Hospital in Bangalore launched an emergency ambulance service recently and this information was broadcasted on television, radio and on social media to help people in need to subscribe to this service. If this was not permitted, people would not be aware of such a service and hence would suffer in times of need. Second, tax on advertisements is a major source of revenue to the government and such taxes could be used to build the much needed infrastructure in the country. If advertisements are banned, this flow of money to the government would stop and hence the development work could take a hit, thereby causing inconvenience to the citizens of the country.

In conclusion, although there may some advertisements which can cause harm to people and are not useful, it is not a wise decision to ban them completely. Instead, the government should focus more on weeding out the advertisements which are not beneficial to the public at large by having a separate department to regulate and monitor advertisements.