Problems in Advertising
Advertising is not a perfect business by any stretch of the imagination. But really, I can’t think of any business that I would deem perfect. Every business has problems. Many of them, and advertising isn’t exempt from this. One of the biggest issues in my mind is the truth.
No one wants to be lied to.
As advertisers, we shouldn’t ever lie right out to the consumer, and I don’t think any business that hires us would want us to do that. But there is a grey area when it comes to how much of the truth to tell.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there are times we should lie to people. I’m saying, that I agree with this article when it talks about there being two types of truth. “Ask yourself if a higher purpose would be served is Pampers and Kotex commercials showed the real thing instead of that fake blue water. Sometimes there’s a difference between the pure truth and the useful truth.”
I for one wouldn’t be a fan of those commercials if they were showing the “pure truth” in these cases.
The article also gave an example of Volvo wanted to show that their cars were strong enough to withstand being run over by a monster truck. In order to make the commercial, the film company needed several takes of a monster truck driving over a Volvo. Clearly, the car wouldn’t be able to handle being run over more than once, so when it came out that the car in the ad had been reinforced, Volvo and the ad agency suffered for it.
The car was rigged, yes. But the ad did its job of showing that it could be run over by a monster truck and withstand it.
Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with what the company or Volvo did. They weren’t trying to make it look like the car could handle being run over more than once. That’s where the problem would be for me.
I understand why people were angry that the car had been reinforced. They felt they had been lied to. But at the same time, I don’t think the ad was an attempt to lie to consumers about what the car could handle.
We have to keep in mind that no one wants to be lied to. And as advertisers, our job is to make our client’s product look as good as we can without lying about it.
So many times, I’ve heard my parents or friends say things about not trusting advertisements. I think trust is a huge issue that consumers have with our industry as a whole. It’s our job to make ads that will build up credibility for the company we are working for.
How do you do that? By telling the truth! What a concept!
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says that “advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive; advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and advertisements cannot be unfair”.
So, when we are in a big agency someday, if we just remember these three simple things we’ll be just fine.
Sources
Moore, C. (2006 ). Ethics in Advertising . In Advertising Educational Foundation.Retrieved March 21, 2015, from
http://www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/speaker_pres/data/6000
Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business (n.d.). In Federal Trade Commission . Retrieved March 21, 2015, from
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/businesscenter/guidance/advertising-faqs-guide-small-business
