Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Advertising can tell you about a country. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Nowadays, with the development of tourism and media, people gradually know more about other countries through advertising, especially those countries with plentiful tourism resources. But I do not believe that the advertisements from media could tell us a real and integrated country although I admit the effect of advertisement.
Frankly speaking, advertising is literally a useful way to give foreigners the basic information. For the audience, we can know from some short advertising the famous places of interest, the historic buildings, the interesting customs and special festivals if we have no opportunity to go there by ourselves. Also, compared to the oral introductions among people, advertising on TV can give us the direct impression on a country because of the vivid photos. For a foreigner who knows little about this country, the information from advertising is enough for him if he only want to treat the country as a chatting topic.
However, if we want to know more about the country, for instance, about its history, its society and its culture, just advertisement is far from enough. For example, we could have an idea about the Great Wall, Forbidden City and the Summer Palace and other historic spots from the advertisement, but could it give us a complete understanding of nearly five thousand years of Chinese history? Could we say we can know about China without understanding of its history? Absolutely not. So I believe that only living in a country for several years can we can get the deep comprehension of a country.
Furthermore, not all of advertising gives us true information. It is for the commercial purpose that the advertisements are made. So it is possible that there are some exaggerations in it. For example, it is reported that some island countries in South East Asia have broadcasted illusive advertisements in order to attract tourists' eyes. So the validity of advertising needs to be suspect.
In conclusion, I agree that foreigners could get basic information about a country by means of advertising, but it is impossible to know the country completely in this way. And it would be unwise to trust the advertising without any critical judgement.