#Sponsored?: Recognition of Influencer Marketing on Instagram and Effects of Unethical Disclosure Practices

Due to changing technology use habits, consumers are being confronted less and less with traditional forms of advertising like TV commercials and newspaper advertisements. To be seen by consumers, brands have had to adapt and follow them to where they are getting their information and entertainment. One of the biggest moves in recent times is to advertising on social media. While social media has many benefits for brands, such as direct connections with consumers, social media platforms also give consumers the right to choose who they follow and what content they see. When a brand is not able to reach all of the consumers it wants to naturally, with its own content, an influencer may be employed to help. “Influencer marketing” is a relatively new form of native advertising, where an “influencer” (a social media user with a large, engaged following) is paid to post on social media with or about a brand or products. Influencer marketing is especially popular on Instagram. Seen as a paid brand endorsement, this type of advertising has gained attention from the Federal Trade Commission for its potential to deceive consumers. The FTC in recent years has updated its endorsement guides to reflect best practices for paid online and social media endorsements, and has brought cases against companies who have not followed their rules. This raises the question of if and how consumers recognize influencer marketing, and what effect, if any, unethical disclosure practices have on consumers’ brand attitudes and the value they get out of paid brand endorsements. This study looks at two factors for recognizing influencer marketing on Instagram, Instagram use and disclosure types, and the effects of unethical disclosure practices on brand attitudes of H&M and consumer’s perceived value of the advertisements. The study found that Instagram use and ambiguous disclosures can impact recognition of influencer marketing, but unethical disclosure practices may not have an effect on brand attitudes and advertising value

Heinrich Wild's Polaristrobometer: An early form of chemical polarimeter

The year 2011 having been proclaimed by UNESCO and IUPAP “International Year of Chemistry”, it seems fitting to have a close look at a physical chemistry instrument, the Polaristrobometer, an early form of polarimeter/saccharimeter, at its inventor, the Swiss physicist Heinrich Wild, at its enthusiastic reception by chemists, and at its principal manufacturer, Hermann & Pfister at Bern. Heinrich Wild (1833-1902) was appointed professor of physics at the University of Bern and director of the (mainly meteorological) Observatory in 1858. Called in 1868 to the direction of the Central Physical (Meteorological) Observatory in Saint Petersburg, he spent the next 27 years in Russia, extending enormously the network of observing stations and working on the improvement and standardisation of meteorological instruments. He retired to Zurich in 1895. His Polaristrobometer, first described in 1865, is built around the very sensitive polariscope invented by Savart a quarter of a century earlier. To achieve the measurement of the angle of rotation of the plane of polarisation of monochromatic light by optically active substances, the polariser is rotated until a network of parallel interference fringes disappears, as opposed to the more modern types of polarimeters where one looks for an equality of tint or of luminosity of two or more adjacent fields. This truly original, precise and practical polarimeter remained the best one available until the end of the 19th century, when it was superseded by instruments less prone to systematic errors and more convenient to use.That the Polaristrobometer was much in demand by chemists and commercially successful is shown by the many citations and images in physics textbooks and, above all, by the long descriptions and detailed instructions appearing in books and articles written by chemists from 1875 onwards, notably by the pioneer of polarimetry H. Landolt. Today, many Polaristrobometers can be found, often unidentified, in remote corners of science museums. Hermann & Pfister (later Pfister & Streit) at Bern became the main, but not exclusive manufacturer of this instrument. A model of reduced size (tubes of 50 mm instead of 220 mm) was first made by J. G. Hofmann at Paris and by Dr. Meyerstein at Göttingen. Both models are still mentioned in the 1896 catalog of Schmidt & Haensch at Berlin

Heinrich von Wild (1833-1902) and his Polaristrobometer

Born near Zurich, Heinrich Wild studied physics and became in 1858 professor at the University of Bern. In 1868, he was called to the direction of the Central Physical (Meteorological) Observatory in Saint-Petersburg. During his 27 years in Russia, he was busy studying meteorology and terrestrial magnetism, enormously extending the network of observing stations in Russia, publishing results, working on the improvement and standardisation of meteorological instruments and actively participating in international conferences. He was also concerned with the standardisation of weights and measures. Still at Bern in 1864, he used the very sensitive Savart polariscope to produce his “Polaristrobometer”, the first practical and commercially successful polarimeter/saccharimeter using monochromatic light. It remained one of the most sensitive instruments until the beginning of the 20th c. After his retirement to Zurich in 1895, Wild was again trying to improve it

A key to success for an instrument maker: Collaboration with a scientist The case of Haag-Streit (established 1858) and Heinrich Wild (1833-1902)

The firm known today as Haag-Streit was established in 1858 at Bern by F. Hermann and H. Studer, the latter being succeeded in 1865 by J. H. Pfister, to make precision scientific instruments. In the same year, H. Wild became professor of physics at the University of Bern, being also responsible for meteorology and metrology. He ordered from the young Bernese workshop the instruments he needed, both the rather simple ones for meteorology or geodesy (land-surveying) and the top-quality, one-off used for metrology. This was the beginning of a collaboration that was to last until the death of Wild, even during Wild’s stay at Saint Petersburg (1868-1895) as Director of the Central Physical (Meteorological) Observatory, and after the retirement of Hermann and its replacement by A. Streit in 1889. Instruments unrelated to meteorology or metrology were also designed by Wild: the “Polaristrobometer” (a precision chemical polarimeter), was a commercial success

Gottfried Erich Rosenthal (1745-1813), a follower of Deluc in northern Germany

Gottfried Erich Rosenthal (1745-1813) was born and died at Nordhausen (now in Thuringia). As his ancestors, he became a Master-Baker after his studies at the local Gymnasium, where he excelled in mathematics. In 1779, after reading the 1772 treatise by Deluc, he became interested in meteorology, building and selling (even to Goethe) thermometers and “improved” barometers, and using them to measure elevations, notably of the near Brocken. For the temperature correction of the barometer readings, he graduated his mercury thermometer (one is preserved at Lausanne) with four uncommon scales. In 1787, three years after finishing his monumental “Beyträge…”, where he described his instruments and his hypsometric measurements, he gave up meteorology, for unknown reasons

The Diffusion Hygrometer: A late invention of H. Greinacher

The diffusion of gases, dry and moist, had been studied in 1874 by Louis Dufour, who observed a pressure difference across a porous wall separating moist air and a vessel containing either water or a desiccant. 70 years later, Heinrich Greinacher (1880-1974) claimed to have built the first Diffusion Hygrometer, proposed a theory and got a patent for it. Two different models were produced by firms of Lausanne, TESA and Rüeger. Eventually, they were a commercial failure. We found one exemplar of each maker in the collections of our Physics Museum and have tested them. A comparison of the performances with the then currently available hygrometers will be made

Laboratory electromagnets: from the beginnings to Electromagnet Laboratories

The mechanical action on iron of the first horseshoe electro-magnets (1824) was obvious. Their use to investigate more subtle magnetic, magneto-optical, atomic or nuclear properties of matter began in 1845 with Faraday. Until the first iron-less Bitter magnets in 1933, and until the 1970s, when superconducting magnets became common, iron-cored electromagnets were normally used to produce steady magnetic fields of high intensity. We will follow the evolution of iron-cored laboratory electromagnets from Faraday to Ruhmkorff, then to du Bois and Pierre Weiss, culminating in the giant electromagnets built between WWI and WWII. The electromagnet published by Weiss in 1907 became the archetype of many later ones. The achievable field limitation due to iron saturation was overcome with iron-less solenoids, first with resistive windings (Bitter), later with superconductive coils. A series of fundamental physics discoveries, were made, often made using rather primitive electromagnets

Force and Work Measurements: The Beginnings

The first practical, portable “dynamometer”, designed in 1798 by Regnier, was used to quantify the muscular strength of men and animals. It was promptly used by ethnologists to test the strength of the “savages”. A smaller improved model (Collin dynamometer) is still sold to medical and para-medical practitioners. With the development of agricultural and industrial machinery from the beginning of the 19th c., the need arose to measure not only the force between a motor and a load, but also the work done and the delivered power. Inventors and mechanics competed to combine heavy force-measuring machinery with newly invented delicate, precise graphic-recording apparatus and/or integrators and planimeters