Increase 'resistance', protect your wallet and health from celebrity advertising

Young people are cautious when viewing and buying products advertised on TikTok - Photo: TTD

But is it because we are so absorbed in clinging to celebrities that we have lost our "resistance", and so we keep buying fake goods and then poor quality goods?

From "like" to news

When I looked up the list of nearly 600 types of fake milk published in the press, I found a product in... my house. After further investigation, I learned that this type of milk was "secretly" purchased online by my parents, hidden for their own use because they were afraid their children would find out (we had previously spoken out many times about parents buying medicine online).

It is worth mentioning that when showing the article with the name of the fake milk to my parents, they still brushed it off, saying that "the newspaper reported the news wrongly", "that Associate Professor and Doctor advertised it", and "millions of people are drinking it"...

My parents are just one of many victims of the problem of losing "resistance" to celebrities. They not only watch and like but also consider it the truth. Belief gradually permeates and they decide to buy products recommended by celebrities.

There are many funny stories from this reality. For example, when doctors actually advise against taking random medicine, no one listens, but when they see celebrities online saying "this medicine is great", "this cures the disease", they buy it right away.

Nutritionists advise eating vegetables, but when celebrities tell you to just buy a fiber-rich candy, you nod in agreement.

Users are manipulated by social media algorithms and led by "nice words" from celebrities, so they trust products and "forget" to care about quality.

BTV Quang Minh has participated in advertising many types of milk and functional foods and had to apologize twice on his personal page in the past few days - Photo: TTO

Need to receive information consciously

In the age of social media, the influence of celebrities is growing. We can all choose to follow our favorite celebrities, but that doesn't mean we trust everything they say.

Celebrities are not experts in every field. We can love them but do not identify them as ourselves, then trust them unconditionally, lose our sanity, and turn ourselves into blind users.

If we trust absolutely, without verifying, it is easy to be influenced by personal emotions, leading to sharing false information or buying poor quality products. When we lose our "resistance", we will become dependent on famous people, lose the ability to think independently, the ability to self-assess problems and will listen unconditionally.

When online, we need to change the way we receive information from celebrities by not believing it immediately, always verifying it, regularly asking questions, looking for opposite perspectives, and finding our own answers.

This is also a way of passively receiving information, blindly trusting in the world of mixed real and fake social networks.

The authorities have dealt with celebrities who have done wrong, but we are also "wrong" when we lose ourselves in cyberspace. After the fake milk, vegetable candy... scandals, we should see this as an opportunity to look back at ourselves, not let emotions decide reason, and not praise idols as the truth.

This is something that needs to be done immediately, because if we don't "increase our resistance", people will continue to be caught up in the vortex of an era where everyone becomes famous.

Take time to counsel your loved ones

After the fake milk incident, I realized a painful problem in the countryside is that the elderly easily believe in advertising and believe in celebrities on the internet.

They may not have the skills to distinguish between real and fake, but they have a very deep "online trust". This gap allows counterfeiters to create a series of channels to hit the right psychology, making the elderly trust them completely and secretly buy the product for use.

It will take many solutions to stop this problem, but first we need to take the time to counsel our loved ones.

At home, there should be conversations and monitoring of relatives' needs for medicine, milk, supplements... to advise on genuine products.

It is necessary to instruct relatives, especially the elderly, on how to check products when purchasing, such as checking the code via phone, checking the product's origin...

At the same time, we should share with each other about some changes in technology such as online advertising, changes in artificial intelligence, how to recognize real ads and fake ads...

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KHANH HUNG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tang-suc-de-khang-bao-ve-tui-tien-va-suc-khoe-truoc-quang-cao-tu-nguoi-noi-tieng-20250419084423822.htm