I recently read an article by Murray L. Bob titled “Keep Ads Out of Books: Paid Advertisements in Books Will Undermine Our Freest Vehicle of Expression”. This article is about a controversy concerning whether or not advertisements should be placed in books. The world is becoming so consumed with the idea that money is everything. The author of the article says “it is a shame to take a chance on compromising a book in order to make a buck”. I have to say that I agree with Bob on this. I do not believe it is worth compromising our books with advertisements. We already have magazines and television for that.
Although I disagree with this, there are people who agree. Some people view ads in books as a step up. Meaning, they believe that it is a strategic way for companies to earn money. Major companies also find it beneficial because with books being sold with their advertisements in them, people will want whatever product is being advertised, and they will earn money. Maybe to some people this is not an issue because what is one extra page in a book that can be skipped over? I on the other had do not think that ads should be placed in books. Books are one of the few things left that are not as involved in the consumerist society that we live in.
I read this in a class and there were a lot of views from both sides. Many people thought it was a good way to introduce readers to new things and get their attention on important things. There were also a lot of people who completely disagreed, and as you can tell I am one of those people. People thought that a book’s integrity should not be compromised because of advertisements. Although it is pretty evident how I feel on the matter I am curious to see where other people stand on the issue, so my question to everyone is what do you think of putting advertisements in books? Do you think it’s a good idea or a bad one?
I totally agree. Books have a sacred quality to them. Ads should stay on Television and Magazines like you said. Authors are meant to share their writing with us not whore themselves out to make money.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with both of you! I think that books should stay pure, that they should not be tainted by the shamefulness that ads bring about. Whenever I see an ad in a book, I really loose respect for the person who wrote it. All I can think about is how this person really wanted to make a buck; and that to me, makes we want to stop reading the book right away. If someone did want to experience the ads in the midst of their reading, then pick up the magazine because basically all a magazine is is ads.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. It is not a good idea. It takes away from the authors message. I believe that they can be distracting and are unnecessary. I believe putting ads in books will only reduce the amount of readers. Imagine a commercial popping up just when you are getting to the good part. Ads will only ruin books and should not be allowed.
ReplyDeleteI think you are absolutely right; ads have no place in books. In my mind, books are the last form of print which hasn’t been taken over by companies trying to make some extra money and promote their products. We are surrounded by media a large part of the day so why do we need to shove it in one more aspect of our lives? I read books to relax and enjoy my spare time not look for a good deal.
ReplyDeleteAds should most definitely be kept out of books. Ads are everywhere... they are seen almost every five minutes while watching television, all over the roads on billboards, on almost every page of a magazine, in newspapers, and more. We see ads when we download "applications" for our smart phones. Books are now being read on kindles and nooks. If I want to sit down, relax, and open the pages of a book, I definitely do not want to be seeing ads for irrelevant (or even relevant) items. It would be completely inappropriate!
ReplyDeleteAdvertisements are notorious for being annoying, but at the same time some people look for advertisements. I think that they have become so common that people truly forget what their sole purpose is. If somebody needs a service done they look for advertisements and seek a solution to their problem. Books are something that the majority of people read. To get a company’s name out there for a particular service they need to place it somewhere where a lot of people are going to see it. I don’t mind advertisements. Usually if it doesn’t interest me ill just skip right over it. It’s like tv. When you record a tv show you can just fast forward through all the previews. So what if there are advertisements in a book? If you don’t want to look at it then just don’t read it.
ReplyDeleteI would not want advertisements put in books. They are extremely annoying. Our society is so focused on money that people would do just about anything for money. Advertisements may be a good idea with strict guidelines, but I do not support this idea. Like amanda.ley said, they already have magazines and TV for that. Books without advertisements should be kept as books without advertisements.
ReplyDeleteI would hate having advertisements in books! Reading a book is not a passive task, we concentrate and focus on the plot, characters, and drama of the book. Being interrupted by ads selling Sketchers Shape-Ups or Bacardi would be very annoying. It would be like going to a movie theater and having commercial breaks.
ReplyDeleteI think that advertisements should stay on tv and in magazines. Books should be left alone. Most of the time if an advertisement is in a book the reader is going to skip right over it and not even pay attention to it anyways. I honestly think that it is a waist of time and money by the advertisement companies to put their advertisements in books.
ReplyDeleteIt's ridiculous. If they really want to put ads in books they should keep it within digital media and/or within an application itself, not the text. It's distracting and I forsee a ton of pirating texts that don't have ads simply because...they don't have ads. That's the same thing that happen with music and DRM. Plus, if they did it in one book, it would be aloud in all of them. Imagine the bible with ads. Now, you probably won't see that because I'm sure they will make acceptions. So all in all, it just creates more confusion for the fat cats that want more cash than they've already built a fallout shelter with. Pointless.
ReplyDeleteI do not want advertisement in books. I can not stand advertisements as it is. Like the new thing with youtube, I don't care about the "new awesome razor", I just want to watch my dang video. But I do understand that is how companies make money, by advertising their product. So if they do end up putting advertisements in books, it will be something i have to get over. With this economy people need to do what every it takes to make money.
ReplyDeleteI would support putting advertisements only if putting them there is going to make me pay less for the books. That's the way YouTube and Facebook work, we get to use it for free because of the ads that keep those sites running. If the adverstisements are placed in books just for the company's profit and not my own then I absolutely oppose to it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that advertisement ruins the quality of the book, I probably think this way because I persoanally don't pay any attention to them. I don't think the advertisements were put in purposefully to undermine the writer. They could just be a simple suggestion or an effort to publicize a really great work worth reading.
ReplyDeleteBooks should not have advertisements added on for the sake of promoting another company. We already have enough of that going on with television, radio, newspapers, magazines, websites, etc. Now, I understand how advertisement could be a good thing, but there is no reason for it to be in a book. As Samuel White said, books do have a form of a sacred quality to them, for they are printed for one specific subject and reason. They were not printed to promote something else.
ReplyDeleteBig companies will always be looking to find new ways to advertise in order to make a quick 'buck.' I find it hard to believe that a lot of companies would do there as in my opinion there are much better ways to advertise. I don't think that books should have advertisements in them. People that read books enjoy them because they get to get away from T.V. and ads. I doubt avid readers want ads in the middle of their books. I don't agree that ads should be in books, but it would make the author, publisher, and company advertising a good bit of money. And well that is all that they care about. People aren't going to stop buying books because of the ads. The thing to do would be to advertise in Ebooks if they were smart.
ReplyDeleteI think advertisements should be kept out of books. Ads printed in books would quickly become outdated, and even though people could just flip the page and skip over the ad, it would still distract the reader and take a away part of the enjoyment of reading. A McDonalds ad in the middle of a fictional medieval novel would really throw me off, and prevent me from immersing myself into the world of the book. If I was an author, I would definitely avoid the company that wanted to print ads in the middle of my work, distracting my readers from my art. If people really believe this should happen, I hope the authors are allowed to decide if they want to have ads in their books, and are given more money if they choose to do so, but I hope that most choose to keep their books free of advertisements.
ReplyDeletePlacing advertisements in books is an easy distraction for the reader. Personally, I get distracted very easily, so placing ads in books would take me off of the message that the author is portraying. Saying this, I also think that is a good way for coorporations to expose themselves, seeing that many people read books. However, I agree with you, that there should be no ads in books.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there should be ads in book. There are a lot of ads in newspapers and magazines I think it would be a little too much if people start to put ads in books. Also as someone who gets distracted easily I think ads can be a distraction. I will sit and look at all the ads instead of reading the book.
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ReplyDeleteI think that with new technology people are starting to stray from books and newspaper and using their phones, the internet, and tablets like the kindle to read. Advertisers would be smart to take advantage of advertising on these platforms instead of something that will become less and less popular in the future.,
ReplyDeleteI hardly ever like watching television nowadays because most of the time a show is running it's all Ad's you even see at the beginning of some YouTube videos. A book should have that certain "freedom" where your imagination won't be interrupted by a half page covering a sale on mascara at Wal-Mart.
ReplyDeleteI think that companies have enough opportunities to advertise in various mediums. The idea of reading a book and it being riddled with ads is ridiculous to me. Ads within books would be a ridiculous and unnecessary distraction.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think its awkward if there were ad's in books. It disrupts the reader and the story. As well, i feel like it ruins the book if some random ad is the middle of the book. There are so many other opportunities to advertise in other places in a book is unnecessary.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think it's a great idea. For the people who don't wish to see or read the advertisement in a book, they can just skip over it. Also, you talk about the integrity of a BOOK? What kind of integrity does a book have? and what will putting a simple advertisement in it do to it? Nothing. It's a new way to advertise for other companies, and instead of thinking of it in a conservative point of view, people should be open minded to these new ideas.
ReplyDeleteCompanies will always be searching for places to put their advertisements. It was only a matter of time before they figured out they can put them in books. I personally would hate finding an advertisement in a book I was reading. It just doesnt seem right. But then again, the companies need customers, which means they need those ads. And when an author agrees to put a companies ad into one of their books they will make even more money than before. And honestly thats what people want in life, a lot of money. So yeah, ads in books are stupid and wrong, but they want the money and the customers. So they are going to do what they want.
ReplyDeleteI really don't like to see advertisement in books. It is a distraction to what you are reading and, truth be told, it is a form of visual pollution. We are exposed to advertisements every day in a lot of different ways. It is advertisements that build false sense of expectations, beauty, health, and many other subjects we fall easily into. It seems we can't catch a break to form our own opinions if we have advertisements telling us what is good and bad. They should definitely be taken out of books. Give us a chance to breathe please.
ReplyDeleteI think that advertisements should be keep out of our books. Ads are already in so many places in our lives from the television to the signs lining the roads. A book is just one more place that we would have to live with the constant pressure to buy this or that. There are already enough places for companies to advertise, so in my personal opinion I think that books should be left out.
ReplyDeleteI think ads should be allowed in books. I doubt that an ad will play a part in the overall view of the book. In an economic sense it is a great idea. Placing ads in books geared toward its readers can help generate interest in the product crating more demand, and in turn, more jobs to produce the product. Better yet, they could sell the books with ads at a cheaper price so more people can afford to buy and enjoy books.
ReplyDeleteI think that books already provide a steady source of income for the writer (granted the book doesn't suck). Adds placed in books would distract from the book itself. Advertisements take up so much of our daily lives. This would become especially distracting in a book if the add misled you to believe a particular image that maybe the writer was trying to fight. There should not be any advertisements in books today.
ReplyDeleteAdvertiments should not be in books! People buy books to read about something they enjoy or to get lost in a fantasy world, not to be bothered by advertisements. If you want advertisements, pick up a magazine...
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on the fact that we already have enough advertisements in magazines, television and billboards; we do not need them in books. I would just find it odd and kind of awkward if I saw an ad along the side of the page im reading. Although it is true that by having ads in books, it is a strategic way to make money, its just not necessary. I can see why probably some authors would be okay with this idea because it gives them more money as well. It wouldn’t bother me so much if these advertisements were at the beginning or end of the book. It will most likely not change my opinion of the book altogether, but I would find it as a distraction. Then again, that’s what the businesses would want, for you to get distracted, look at their ad and possibly purchase something.
ReplyDeletei think that ads belong in magazines and newspapers. ads in books would become old and outdated because books are meant to be read forever while magazines and newspapers have to do with current event. it would be interesting though to read an old book with an advertisement from back in the day, it may help the reader to understand the time period that the book was originally written in. overall though i do not believe this is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI think having ads in books is a horrible idea, no one is picking up a book and trying to see new products. People like to get lost in book stories so having ads in them would ruin this for most people. Ads in magazines and newspapers is something that I think should continue because it is a good way for a lot of companies to get their products out.
ReplyDeleteIf I was reading a book and I turned the page to see a full page advertisement, I would put that book down and never read that author again. The point of reading a book is to relax and strengthen the mind, not to be bombarded by ads as we already are on a daily bases. Placing ads in books would be an awful and disgraceful move for a publisher to make.
ReplyDeleteI think author's depend on advertisement of their other books. If an author owns a specific book, then he has the right to put whatever he wants in it. Also, if the book has a second part to it, they must advertise the second part of the book, or otherwise readers would never know there's more books to the series.
ReplyDeleteThe words books and advertising should never be used in the same sentence. What is our world coming to today that we are thinking about putting ads in books? I am not an avid reader, so I cannot give feedback on that, but I can add to this by saying that ads will probably distract readers from the actual text by either diverting away their attention or making the reader think something complete different than what they already are.
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