Please review my IELTS essay

Young people often copy the behaviour of famous people, so celebrities should only be allowed to advertise healthy food or drink and should not encourage unhealthy habits such as smoking.

Do you agree or disagree?

Television, social media and many other forms of modern media have facilitated the increased likelihood of many people, from actors, singers and sportspeople, gaining great fame and power to affect society, especially young children, who are extremely vulnerable. As a result, many people advocate that governments should introduce a ban on celebrity endorsement of unhealthy products, and famous people should not engage in habits that are harmful to health. I partly agree with the statement.

On the one hand, celebrities have a lot of influence. Their lifestyles are often glorified and imitated by others, and one way that their fans show support is to purchase their idols’ endorsed products. The sales of a certain beverage, for example, had experienced a fivefold increase after a week of seeing Jeon Jung-kook, a member of a worldwide famous Korean boyband, drinking it during a livestream. Unfortunately, many celebrities are also often seen participating in bad practices such as smoking and drinking alcohol, and advertising fast food, sugar-sweetened drinks and other harmful products which are linked to several diseases. Major brands such as McDonald’s and Pepsi, for example, usually put a celebrity face on their products to boost sales. Therefore, famous people might cause people to adopt a lifestyle that is not good for their health.

On the other hand, restrictions on what celebrities can endorse, or how they behave, seem both unreasonable and ineffective to some extent. Celebrities are also human – they are not perfect, thus, requiring them to only have good habits is rather unrealistic. Similarly, they should have the freedom to endorse whatever they want as advertising is an important aspect of their jobs to acquire wealth and more public exposure. In addition, the impact of celebrities on consumer choices is not as significant as several other factors, including socio-economic status, and products’ price and quality. For instance, people on low income have a higher tendency to eat fast food due to convenience and cost. Without hiring celebrities for promotion, companies that sell unhealthy products could just put the saved money into other forms of advertising or cut down their products’ price.

In conclusion, although celebrities should be aware of their influence and should promote good lifestyles, it is not necessary to restrict what they do and advertise.