Introduction
The act of purchasing a space to promote a product, service, or charitable cause is advertising. Advertisements, tactics, and procedures are used to put items, services, ideas, or causes in front of the public eye and convince them to take a certain action in response to what is marketed. People are persuaded by advertising methods to pay attention to the road, support various organizations, support democratic politicians. However, the purpose of advertising is to lure new customers and, therefore, make great revenue, which makes it a manipulative and competitive field that might even be considered harmful to society.
The Purpose of Advertising
Advertising has an impact on marketing and how a product is perceived by the public. The aim of marketing is to determine the needs of customers (Brenkert). Thus, tpurpose of a marketing department is to provide the customer a visual representation of what the product will look like via commercials. Here, people’s impressions of a product are substantially influenced by the price of the given goods and the way it is presented. Thus, even if the product lacks good quality, the objective of advertising is to focus on the positive aspects of the good, thus, attracting customers’ attention. In this sense, even products of poor quality and lower prices can be sold in a matter of minutes.
As a result, the aim of every business is to make the an appealing advertisement that will leave a particular impression. All of this is part of building the company’s reputation and fostering consumer loyalty. Advertising strategy relies heavily on the appealing presentation since people’s impressions of a product might be based purely on its appearance. As a result, it is an essential component of the marketing strategy. This effectively communicates the company’s desired perception of the band. Customers’ opinions of a product may be swayed by various factors, including the introduction of new items, revisions to existing products, and other tweaks. Customers will not purchase the goods solely because a company placed them on the market (Virtanen et al.). People gain confidence in he company and its products due to advertising efforts. New products may be perceived in various ways, and products that have remained untouched for years can have an impact on how a product is regarded, depending on how quickly the product is released (Virtanen et al.). As part of a marketing plan, advertising promotes awareness and interest in the brand or product.
The advertisements people see affect them in ways that they are not always conscious of. According to Robert Arrington’s article “Advertising and Behavior Control,” advertisers are not fooling people, but rather are manipulating them (285). Advertisers are eroding individuals’ autonomy or freedom to choose because they attempt to arouse desires in people through advertisements. It is believed that when an advertisement’s goal is to persuade people to desire something that they would not otherwise want, the advertising is attempting to control society’s behavior. That is, to force it to do something that the advertiser wants it to do rather than something it wants to do for itself.
As the number of options increases, so do the levels of worry and unhappiness. The advertising industry simplifies complex topics, sometimes using either/or situations, to make decision-making less intimidating. Advertisements rely on emotional appeals rather than rational arguments (Arnold et al.). To illustrate the benefits of a sleeping drug, promotional materials can depict friends having dinner together or a parent participating in family activities rather than concentrating on the product. Advertisements are intended to take the decision-making process out of the equation (Arnold et al.). When it comes to avoiding loss, people are more emotionally committed than when it comes to receiving benefits. Flash sales and pseudo-emergency advertisements prey on our sensitivity to losing and the dread of missing out.
Additionally, some categories of individuals are more susceptible to being duped by deceptive advertisements. People who are especially sensitive to deceptive advertisements include youngsters, the elderly, the mentally challenged, who may misinterpret advertisements, and the bereaved; their emotions may be caught off guard (Arnold et al.). Particularly dangerous are the advertisements explicitly intended to take advantage of that weakness. After that, it has been suggested that marketers have a moral obligation to refrain from using advertisements that target vulnerable populations.
After all, the objective of advertising is not so much to inform as it is to convince, as previously thought. Advertisers urge people to accomplish something that they may not have done without their assistance. The goal of these campaigns may be to convince individuals to purchase their product rather than that of a rival, or to generate an appetite for goods and services that they did not previously consider desirable at all. Suppose marketers generate cravings in individuals that lead to those people purchasing a thing that they otherwise would not have purchased (Arnold et al.). Many consumers will purchase a thing because they anticipate an emotional impact, such as a sense of status or adventure that the object would provide. In the actual world, the goods do not have these emotional impacts, and as a result, such decisions are not illogical. However, this is contested because the advertising arouses a desire to acquire a product that most of people find difficult to resist. Such advertisements make individuals feel irresistible, which makes them act against their better judgment and take away their autonomy.
When it comes to specific manipulative tactics of advertising, companies employ various methods that allow them to gain perspective into customers’ needs. Most forms of advertising aim to convince consumers to buy a product or service, and manipulative marketing aims to do this by confusing and deceiving people by utilizing facts, reasoning, and appealing to their feelings (Barnard). Overestimation of product qualities, flawed logic, and emotional language is the most common assertions employed in advertising deception.
As for the overestimation of the excellent quality, it implies incorrect product details, but it can be a sort of puffery as well. This term refers to a retailer’s good overstatements about the degree of excellence of their products, the reality or fabrication of which cannot be proven exactly (Barnard). For example, claiming that the given retailer provides the best coffee beans around the world or the given retailer is the best provider of beers can be considered commercial puffery (Barnard). The puffery appears to affect those who are not significant users of the goods, but it drives away people with expertise or who have a lot of information (Barnard). These findings demonstrate that fabrications like these are ineffective in accomplishing advertisement campaign objectives. The puffery may attract new customers, but it may also drive away many existing customers.
Another way advertising can be manipulative is through giving statements that are initially false. Any logical inaccuracy that happens regularly is referred to be a fallacy. Fallacies or false arguments can be created inadvertently or on purpose. Due to the apparent capacity for customer deception, the second circumstance is the most important in marketing and advertising (Barnard). When developing, presenting, or conveying messages to customers, the advertising illusion involves making inconsistencies (Barnard). There is a huge range of fallacies that might be utilized in advertising, and credibility fallacies are an essential component that can be exploited extensively in advertising.
Additionally, advertisers can manipulate and deceive customers through emotional arguments. Emotional arguments are assertions that connect to the feelings of customers on all levels. Such arguments that urge to succeed, control, feel secure, protect, fulfill interest, the need for attachment, direction, significance, respect, independence, physiological requirements like as nutrition, beverage, rest, and so on, may all be found in commercials. Marketers may make educated guesses about customer emotions, and advertising is written in such a way that they appear to guarantee specific results (Barnard). Moreover, advertising might indicate a possible link between an item and satisfaction, social acceptability, a happy family, a happy relationship, deep friendship, and so on (Barnard). If required, companies might even utilize the fear to profit from hysteria. A large-scale outbreak gives corporations the finest chance to boost earnings. Hand sanitizer is one example that can be seen as relevant, especially during a pandemic. Many businesses have profited from health scares, profiting immensely.
Lastly, to gain attention from the customers, many businesses utilize the combination of entertainment and advertisements. In this situation, advertisements for certain food corporations are disguised as entertainment. This is particularly enticing to children on television, but adults enjoy it as well (Barnard). These activities are, by their very essence, addicting, allowing advertisers to get around the restrictions on selling unhealthy food on television (Barnard). For example, such businesses as General Mills and Kellogg’s, two of the largest cereal companies in the United States, employed games to promote their latest foods. Even the agencies such as FDA or USDA have contradicting interests (Brownell and Warner). These agencies promote overall health of the nation and at the same time strive to make more money.
In today’s culture, many individuals believe that advertising is damaging in various ways, which makes this argument correct. Image is vital in today’s culture, and advertising uses this to its benefit. People who are anxious or fearful are manipulated into purchasing items they do not need via advertising. Because of this, advertising is deemed detrimental when it appeals to people’s emotions and primal impulses in an overt manner. To give in to greed, bigotry, and hatred toward others, as well as racial and ethnic prejudice and the like, rather than a reasoned sense of justice and the best interests of everyone, may do significant damage to society. Advertising has the potential to have a corrupting effect on culture and cultural values.
Conclusion
In conclusion, though advertising plays a vital role in people’s lives since it illuminates new trends and introduces new products to the markets, it is still a manipulative field. The objective of every business is to make a profit, be it in an ethical or unethical way. As a result, even if the quality of the good is poor, advertising can present only the good sides of the item, attracting the customer’s attention. Moreover, many businesses use psychological techniques and deceptions in order to make the community believe that the given product is guaranteed to bring satisfaction and convenience. Lastly, most advertisements influence minorities, elderly, or mentally challenged individuals, which can be seen as unethical. Thus, advertising is not only manipulative but harmful in conditions when it puts a business’s interests first and disregards the overall needs and health of the consumers.
Works Cited
Arnold, Denis G, et al. Ethical Theory and Business. 10th ed.,Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Arrington, Robert L. Rationalism, Realism, and Relativism: Perspectives in Contemporary Moral Epistemology. Cornell University Press, 2019.
Barnard, Malcolm. Advertising: The Rhetorical Imperative. In Visual Culture (pp. 26-41). Routledge, 2017.
Brenkert, George. G. Marketing and The Vulnerable. Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 1, 1998, pp. 7-20.
Brownell, Kelly. D. and Kenneth E.Warner. The Perils of Ignoring History: Big Tobacco Played Dirty and Millions Died. How Similar is Big Food?. The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 87, no.1, 2009, pp. 259-294.
Virtanen, Henrik, et al. ” Follow for Follow: Marketing of a Start-up Company on Instagram.” Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 2017.