题目：Customers are faced with increasing amounts of advertising due to the competitionamong companies. To what extent do you think consumers are influenced by advertisements? And what measures can be taken to protect their interests?

作文：

Recently, I found on the internet that advertisements are regarded as another term of pollution to the public. However, hardly could anyone imagine the world it as it certainly brings huge amount of merits. As far as I could tell, the amount of pros that advertising has brought to people has far exceededits cons.

In the first instance, advertising is the sales gimmick to Oligopolies. In such sort of market, firms compete with each other to gain the market shares. However, they will be reluctantto increase or lower their price because the information is interdependent and consumers have got tones of other substitutes. Therefore, the only way to promote their sales will be through advertising. Some consumers, on the other hands, do find such information useful while choosing what to buy. There is a common sense in it: hardly could an inefficient and stagnant firm investa great deal of money on investment. In addition to that, big firms are able to lay the cornerstone to provide goods and services with better quality, which might benefit the consumers.

Nevertheless, some argue that people will be easily swayed by advertisement featuring with beautiful movie stars and make irrational decisions or even buy goods on impulse especially when talking about youngsters with less consciousnessand experience. This is still a rather minor problem. We can tackle this by taking some measurements. For example, to educate young people not buying goods they don’t need and maybe set a regulation of age limits on purchasing certain goods like cosmetics and high-tech products.

To conclude, advertisements in my opinion will hardly influence people’s purchasing patterns. Instead, some well-made advertisements can approvethe aesthetical capability of the viewers. Although youngsters are worried in this advertising explosion century, education and recognition can prevent them from being coned to a great extent.