Integrative advertising : the marketing 'dark side' or merely the emperor's new clothes?

This paper assesses the move towards more 'integrative advertising' methods which rely on the mixing of commercial and non-commercial content, and the suitability of the current EU legislative framework to deal with such developments. In essence, the paper examines the 'identification' and 'transparency' principles in the context of online advertising. This analysis allows for the drawing of conclusions vis-à-vis future policy initiatives and enforcement challenges. The paper states that for true advertising literacy mere identification of commercial communications is insufficient and that efforts need to be made in order to educate consumers (especially children) to allow for the continuing relevance and reliance on the notion of the average consumer

Perspectivas à regulação da atividade de influenciador digital no Brasil

O marketing de influência tem chamado a atenção de consumidores desde o século XIX. Com o advento da internet, uma nova atividade de influenciador digital apresenta desafios a legislações vinculadas à regulação da publicidade e propaganda convencionais. O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar em que medida o arcabouço jurídico contemporâneo é suficiente para disciplinar as atividades de digital influencers. Por meio de revisão crítica de bibliografia, com base no cenário nacional e estrangeiro, constata-se a necessidade de normativa específica direcionada ao marketing de influência, de modo a garantir sua compatibilidade com a Constituição da República e com o Código de Defesa do Consumidor

The Evolving Property Right of Personal Information and Image Rights.

PhD Theses.This Thesis aims to provide a theoretical justification for protecting a person’s image as a property right in English Law, providing for the commercial exploitation of this right in a coherent manner. Personality/image rights are an evolving area of law, being driven by technology and the increased commercialisation of the personality. Unlike some jurisdictions, such as Germany, English law has no defined image right, and little theoretical or philosophical underpinning to the extent of protection. What protection there is has evolved from a number of different intellectual property rights such as Passing Off and Breach of Confidence. In an attempt to protect an image these IP rights are often being stretched to breaking point due to the commercial value of, or the desire to protect, a person’s image; evolving to a place just shy of an image right, without ever officially creating one. This Thesis examines how and to what extent image rights are protected in English Law, looking at each IP right in turn as it relates to image rights and how it exists within a coherent philosophical base. How other jurisdictions, such as Germany, America and Canada have influenced English Law and jurisprudence, and the influential theoretical basis for granting a property right in an image. The conclusion recommends the creation of a property right in an image and proposes a legislative change, based on existing Canadian Law that would allow for commercial exploitation to be separated from considerations of privacy and human rights. This change would keep existing case law but allow a property right to evolve separately from the Tort of Misuse of Private Information, allowing that to protect privacy and allowing other rights such as Trade Marks and Passing Off to fulfill their original function, while providing for the commercial protection of an image

a protecção do consumidor face aos efeitos das modernas práticas comerciais

Recent advances in Psychology have provided scientific evidence that the consumer decision-making process is affected by cognitive vulnerabilities subjected to exploitation by professionals that fully understand its features. HANSON and KYSAR’s (1999) market manipulation theory argues that most of the commercial practices used by traders are directly intended to exploit said weaknesses; despite general acceptance by the academic community, market manipulation theory failed to persuade both legislators and law enforcers. However, up-to-date extensive research in Psychology and Behavioural Economics has led to an increased interest in Psychological studies among legislators – including the European Legislator – reflected by the creation of new laws and regulations based on this knowledge, also in the field of Consumer Law. Despite the progressive openness to psychological evidence by the European Legislator, it has been understood that consumers still seem to be highly unprotected against the effects of commercial practices designed to exploit the vulnerabilities of decision-making processes. The purpose of this study is to understand the real outlines of consumer’s decision-making manipulation by traders as well as proposing and grouping solutions. In the first part we sought to characterize the consumer decision-making process, identifying its various weaknesses and the most common commercial practices used by traders to exploit them. Still in that same part and in a second part, we aimed to carry out a critical analysis in the light of present-day Psychology research and major legal studies to determine which may be the most effective ways to protect the consumer against the injurious effects of such practices.Face aos avanços que se verificaram nas ciências sociais a partir das décadas de 60/70 do séc. passado, em particular na Psicologia, ficou cientificamente comprovado que o processo de decisão do consumidor padece de determinadas vulnerabilidades cognitivas susceptíveis de ser exploradas por quem domine o seu modo de funcionamento. Tendo por base estes conhecimentos, HANSON e KYSAR, em 1999, desenvolveram a chamada market manipulation, teoria segundo a qual muitas das práticas comerciais utilizadas pelos profissionais visam directamente o aproveitamento daquele tipo de fragilidades. Todavia, embora genericamente bem aceite pela comunidade académica, tal tese não logrou em convencer o legislador e os aplicadores do Direito. Segundo parece, este panorama tende a mudar. Muito graças à extensa produção científica que desde aí se tem verificado, em especial no campo da Economia Comportamental (BE), constata-se hoje em dia um cada vez maior interesse nos estudos da Psicologia por parte dos legisladores (incluindo o europeu), sendo já diversos os casos de leis e regulações que foram criadas com base nesses conhecimentos, inclusivamente no âmbito do Direito do Consumo. Sucede que, apesar desta progressiva abertura do legislador europeu aos conhecimentos da Psicologia, tem-se entendido que o consumidor parece ainda estar em larga medida desprotegido face aos efeitos de práticas comerciais que se aproveitem das vulnerabilidades do seu processo de decisão. O propósito deste estudo passa por tentar compreender os reais contornos desta temática e propor e agrupar soluções. Numa primeira parte é procurado caracterizar o processo de decisão do consumidor, identificando as diversas vulnerabilidades de que padece e as práticas mais comuns que os profissionais utilizam para as explorar. Ainda nessa parte e numa segunda, é tentada uma análise crítica, à luz dos conhecimentos actuais da Psicologia e dos principais estudos jurídicos que tratam estas matérias, daquelas que podem ser as melhores formas de proteger o consumidor face aos efeitos lesivos desse tipo de expedientes

Children’s rights and advertising literacy in the digital era : towards an empowering regulatory framework for commercial communication

On a daily basis, children are exposed to a broad variety of new digital advertising techniques. These new forms of commercial communication have specific features (i.e. immersive, interactive, personalised) that make them particularly appealing to children, but also raise concerns as children often do not recognise or understand the persuasive intent of these new forms. Accordingly, these new forms raise significant legal and ethical questions from a children's rights perspective (e.g. their right to development, privacy and data protection, participation). However, currently a wide array of provisions regulates commercial communication aimed at children, across various channels. The research starts from the observation that the regulatory framework is fragmented into both legislative and alternative regulatory instruments (i.e. self- and co-regulation) and takes as its working hypothesis that this potentially may lead to gaps or overlaps such as inter alia a lack of clear and uniform definitions and even contradicting rules, which in turn may have a negative impact on children's development and advertising literacy. Therefore, the project questions what substantive and procedural elements a regulatory framework on commercial communication needs for children to be educated and empowered to cope with commercial communication (i.e. ad literate), so that they can grow up to be critical, informed consumers who make their own conscious choices in today's new media environment.status: publishe

An exploration of creative managers' perspectives on digital creativity: the impact of viral campaigns on creative processes, appeals and creative teams in UK advertising agencies

This research aims to develop conceptual insight into the practice and impact of a specific digital phenomenon – “viral marketing” – on marketing communications agencies. Specifically, it explores the UK, one of the most important hubs in global advertising looking at agenciesr campaign design planning, the roles of creative teams and the management processes through three research objectives: - To explicate, classify and explore the changes in advertising campaign planning processes and roles which digital phenomena such as virals have introduced - To capture and codify the working models which creative managers employ and the messaging strategies considered and implemented in viral campaigns - To develop theoretical models for understanding virals, agency campaign management, creative roles and develop extant frameworks Prior Work: Research into virals has grown rapidly over the last ten years but it is dominated by computing studies of online diffusion. The creative perspective has received little attention. Those studies which do address this viewpoint are principally focussed on the final advert. The voice of the producers of such campaigns – creative managers – is largely absent from the literature with a single study of campaign measurement. The roles of core teams/functions within the agencies, the criteria for viral creative concept evaluation, the campaign processes and working models are experiencing unprecedented change. Viral campaigns offer a bridge between the “old” and “new” worlds; it possesses the characteristics of TV and the Web. It is important because such viral campaigns have challenged the established models of advertising management and planning. Methods: The study undertakes the first comprehensive evaluation of the exisiting research into viral marketing, locating gaps in the creative design and management. Qualitative methodology through semi-structured in-depth interviews with creative managers in a range of UK advertising agencies is used to represent their views and responses to viral phenomena as they conceived, designed and reflected on campaigns. Contribution to Knowledge: This is the first study of the pre-launch/pre-production phase of campaign development. It has clarified a plethora of terms, in so doing developing the SPEED framework to understand the biological metaphor underpinning the phenomena, and finally producing a more accurate and comprehensive definition of the phenomenon. The paradigm funnel evaluation of prior research has tested and extended formal tools to arrive at a state of the art. The current research primarily consists of studies utilising secondary datasets, mainly quantitative – this study explores questions not just of what but of why, producing deeper insight than available before. Theoretical contributions: In the final model of viral creative management and design is an overarching conceptual contribution which for the first time represents creative roles, agency management and creative considerations at both pre and post-launch campaign phases. The thesis also develops theoretical constructs in specific areas – definition from practitioners, construct of campaign zones in viral design, a model of critical factors which facilitate virals, comparative theory of conventional and viral campaigns, characteristics of viral agencies, model of digital brand/agency relationships, a role construct for digital creatives among the main theoretical developments. These led into the final theoretical model