Courage, Advertising, Television, and Smoking: Short Essays

Courage as a Universal Virtue

Courage — the ability to face danger or hardship without showing fear — may carry subtly different meanings across cultures, but it is universally regarded as a virtue. Courageous people, such as those who display bravery in wars and battles, are honored by their nations, communities, and even their enemies through medals, rewards, and praise. Most heroes in history built their reputations on the extraordinary courage they showed in the face of adversity. Cowardice, by contrast, is almost unanimously considered a vice, and cowardly people are commonly derided as chicken-hearted, gutless, or "yellow."

Some people distinguish between "physical courage" and "moral courage," although both types are usually present side by side. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, might be categorized as possessing primarily "moral" courage, since he took an unflinching stand against racial discrimination. Yet King could not have been morally courageous if he were a physical coward, given that his moral convictions exposed him to physical danger — a fact ultimately proved by his assassination. Another example of the fusion of physical and moral courage in recent history is the boxer Muhammad Ali. He had the courage of conviction to refuse to fight a war he considered unjust (the Vietnam War), at the risk of considerable personal loss — he was banned from boxing for nearly four years while at the height of his prowess. He also displayed unmatched physical courage in subsequent fights against formidable opponents such as George Foreman and Joe Frazier, and continued to exhibit that same characteristic courage in the face of Parkinson's disease.

Courage in modern society is as valid as it was in ancient times. It is, without doubt, one of the noblest of human qualities, and it deserves to be celebrated all the more in an increasingly materialistic world.

Advertisement in the City

Advertisement — the paid communication by which information about a product or idea is transmitted to potential consumers — has become one of the most ubiquitous symbols of capitalism in the modern world. It confronts us at nearly every step of everyday life, from the moment we wake up and glance at the morning newspaper to the time we go to sleep after watching a late-night movie. Its presence in the city is particularly overwhelming.

When the vast majority of people began moving to urban centers as a result of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, it marked the most radical transformation in human life since the shift from hunting and gathering to cultivating crops. Since then, cities have grown not only outward but upward as well, and more human beings now live in the concentrated spaces of mega-cities than ever before. It is therefore natural that advertisers should focus their efforts on city dwellers.

The main objectives of advertising are to communicate information about a particular product, service, or brand, and to persuade people to buy. In cities, almost every form of advertising known is employed: television, radio and cinema ads, billboards, neon signs, the sides of buses, taxicab doors, blimps, and even skywriting. Over the years, advertisers have used any available inch of urban space to keep their products in the public eye.