Blog #6 Ethics in Advertising

Ethics in advertising can be described as that fine line between wrong and right. Many advertisers today straddle that line, and risk what is “acceptable”.  One of the biggest unwritten rules in advertising is, never intend to directly deceive.  To me this is surprising because almost every ad has some sort of deceiving concept to them. As an example, I bought Crest Vivid White toothpaste because it said you were guaranteed visibly whiter teeth in just one week. Who doesn’t want white teeth in a week just from reasonably priced toothpaste? I used the toothpaste and after a week I did not notice a difference, so I waited two weeks and still no difference. I eventually used to whole tube of toothpaste and my teeth were not any visibly whiter.  I soon realized that my teeth were probably not getting whiter because I drink a large amount of dark coffee everyday, which yellows my teeth.  I was upset because this toothpaste guaranteed I would have whiter teeth and I did not, I would have known this if the toothpaste said that It would vary from one person to another depending on their eating, grooming, and smoking habits. Untimely the marketers assumed that as consumers we would already know this, but the truth is if our teeth are yellow we are using this toothpaste to get them whiter, and it doesn’t work unless you stop your bad habits that yellow your teeth.

Another unwritten rule in the ethics of advertising is to not use lust, greed, or anything else that does not respect each and every human being. I laughed when I read this because I think almost every beauty product geared towards both men and women contain lust.  In a commercial for Brittney Spears new perfume there is a small scene of her in bed with a man and it looks intense, you hardly see the mans face but you see hers.  This is a perfect example of lust, you won’t buy this perfume because you are honestly in “love” with Brittney spears but you rather lust, or want, what the ad represents which is sex and happiness.  In another commercial made by Axe for men shower products a man washes in the Axe body wash and when he walks outside millions of girls in bikinis come running to him because of the Axe he used. These girls are in tiny string bikinis with model-like bodies that do not depict the average women.  Men do not want this because they are in “love” with these women but because they lust for them, they want the feeling that flawless women in string bikinis will come running to them if they use this product.  This is a perfect example of how unrealistic advertisers are getting, and along with being extremely unrealistic they are becoming so desperate to sell their products that they do not care how they depict women and men in their ads. 

 Brittney Spears Curious Commerical 

Axe Commercial  

Throughout history there have been many accounts of companies falsely advertising their products. In 1921 Listerine advertised that it was a cure for bad breath, dandruff, coughs, sore throats, a cut protectant and an after shave gel.  They were slapped with many lawsuits and fines against them and were forced to spend ten million dollars in re-advertising their product.  In 1996 Amoco released an as saying that because their gasoline was clear in color that it had superior performance and was environmentally friendly.  They were also slapped with fines and forced to re-advertise.   

 

 

Although there is an unwritten code of rules in advertising that will never stop the advertisers from falsely portraying people, giving people the wrong ideas, and simple claiming things that their products do not do.  In my opinion there needs to be laws set in stone against ad's like these because they are unrealistic and degrading, and it will only get worse.  

Sources:

http://www.carroll.edu/msmillie/busethics/ethadvertising.htm 

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17036 

www.youtube.com 

Blog #5 Advertising and women

I’ve always had the opinion that advertisements towards women have been degrading.  When the typical girl flips through a magazine she will se countless make-up ads that show flawless faces’ that are incredibly unrealistic.  As she turns the page she will see a swimsuit ad that has a women who appears to be seven feet tall, weigh barely on-hundred pounds, with flawless skin, and hair that every girl dreams of having.  The marketers of these advertisements have only one thing in mind; to sell products, they don’t even consider what these pictures are doing to the young, and normal girls’ minds as they flip through their “Seventeen” magazine. 

This was an ad in "Seventeen Magizine" in the may/april issue last year.

            An extremely good example of a commercial that is incredibly unrealistic towards what perfume should be about. The commercial is Beyonce’s commercial for “Heat Perfume”.  In this commercial she walks out in a racy red dress that shows cleavage and barely covers her hips. In the commercial she sings a love song and walks around in her small dress. At the very end she says, “Feel the heat”, and that’s it. Then a small image of a perfume bottle appears in the screen and a sexy male voice repeats what she says, and it’s over.  They barely even show the perfume! So to a thirteen year old girl who sees this on T.V. she now thinks that if she wears the perfume she will look and feel like that, because she feels like she can trust Beyonce, because many girls look up to her successful career and good reputation. 

            

Beyonce's "Heat" commercial 

Chanel perfume ad in cosmopolitan magizine

            

            One company that almost every person has heard of, Playboy, has become a national phenomenon.  They not only have a mansion to live in but, a magazine, a website, reality TV shows, movies, restaurants, hotels, and their one line of clothing.  It’s sad to me that a business that is represents naked pictures of women, porn, and an old man with three girlfriends can be this successful.  The popular television show “The girls next door” has attracted over millions of viewers, in different parts of the world.  This show was about life at the playboy mansion making it look fun to be in a bikini, pose naked, and always be with men look like the cultural norm.  A current article in Cosmopolitan magazine told us some shocking things that we would never have seen on the popular television series.  An ex-playboy bunny spoke to interviewers at Cosmopolitan and told them about life in the mansion, she mentions that they could be kicked out at anytime, were spied on, have a 9pm curfew, and could not gain more then a pound.  They were also highly recommended to be on birth control.  This television shows none of this, and makes many young girls want to be a playboy bunny.  

Hugh Herfner, the founder of Playboy, with his four girlfriends.

            Although brands like playboy are exploiting women, it would be mean to say that all women’s companies are like this. There is one company that is constantly on television and in magazines showing their “Campaign for real beauty”.  Dove, the company known for selling decently priced beauty products has made it their mission for the last two years now to raise women’s self-esteem as stated on their website:   

               “The Dove^® brand is rooted in listening to women. Based on the findings of a major global study, The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, Dove^® launched the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. The campaign started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty after the study proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable. Among the study’s findings was the statistic that only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. Since 2004, Dove^® has employed various communications vehicles to challenge beauty stereotypes and invite women to join a discussion about beauty.  In 2010, Dove^® evolved the campaign and launched an unprecedented effort to make beauty a source of confidence, not anxiety, with the Dove^® Movement for Self-Esteem.” 

In their advertisements they have pictures of women who are the average looking women in all colors and sizes.  These women look happy to be who they are and that they do not have to use the expensive products to be happy with who they are.  

A Dove magizine ad

Sources: 

advertising and exploiting of women 

Dove Capmaign for Real Beauty 

commercial-youtube.com

Images  

Blog #4 Advertising research methods

When it comes to advertising research the methods are endless. There are so many ways that marketers can research advertising from simply observing consumers to lengthy tests.  Researching advertising is the main way that advertisements have evolved. Pre-testing which can also be known as copy testing, is a form of research that predicts the performance of an advertisement and its success in the real world before it airs to the public. Pre-testing analyzes attention, brand loyalty motivation, communication between consumers and weather it is entertaining or informational. This for of research also breaks down the ads flow of attention and emotions the consumers will feel when seeing the ad.  Measuring the attention level is extremely important when it comes to pre-testing. This data collected tells us what parts of the ad consumers look it and which parts of the ad they ignore. Pre-testing can be extremely helpful for ads that are still rough drafts. It can tell us what else we need to put in the ad and what aspects of the ad need to be removed. 

            Another form of marketing research is called post-testing.  Post-testing provide either intervals or continuous research in the market.  They monitor a brand’s performance, including brand awareness, brand preference, product usage and attitudes consumers have towards the products and services. Some post-testing approaches track changes over time. It’s an easy way to tell the popularity of a product over a certain period of time.   Another method is a campaign, which is much larger and hands-on with the consumers. Mainly advertisers use post-testing to plan future advertising campaigns, so the approaches that provide the most detailed information on the accomplishments of the campaign are the ones that are typically used the most.  There are two main typed of post-testing campaigns.   The first is continuous tracking.  In continuous tracking is when the changes in advertising spending and compared to changes in brand awareness. Usually with these studies they will use the same group of people over a long period of time to track the changes.

            All of these methods I have talked about are known as field methods. The other form of research methods is the desk method. The desk method involves documents from past studies and books written by experts on the matter.  When engaging in the desk method you take many different test results on a similar brand or product and compare them. The results from twenty years ago to date can be extremely helpful. This data can tell you how consumers needs and wants have changed.  As technology and the way we live changed so do our wants and needs.  As we find out what consumers needs and wants are now we can more heavily advertise towards those needs and wants. Many popular documents that researches use are government documents such has census reports, bulletins on labor and commerce and governments income reports.  All of these can tell use how things over time have changed.  The census reports alone can tell us so many things. In a census we can learn all age groups living in an area, nationalities, and income of all the people in one town. Once we learn that we can then know if we need to advertise towards children or the elderly, African American or Mexican, and wealthy and poor.  Those are just to name a few.  If the census report has a high amount of children then for example, we can more heavily advertise products geared towards children on the local stations and in newspapers and magazines.  Not only can we advertise to children themselves, but we then know weather to advertise children’s products towards the parents for products that children are not as interested in directly, like children’s vitamins. 

            Advertising would not be what it is today without the research that has gone into it. You can say that advertising is one of the most innovative and ever changing businesses in our world today, next to technology. Advertising relates directly to the needs and wants of the consumers, and by studying the consumers over time we can tell how we need to approach our ads, and how we want to speak to the consumers. 

Sources:

http://www.smetoolkit.org/smetoolkit/en/content/en/196/Market-Research-Techniques

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1015078