Photoshop and Deceptive Advertising: An Analysis of Blog Comments

The advertising industry is often criticized for presenting unrealistic images of fashion and beauty which can have a negative influence on women and girls. In particular, a small number of advertisements for cosmetics have come under fire from advertising regulators in the UK and USA. This exploratory paper discusses two magazine advertisements for mascara which came to the attention of by the US regulatory authority (National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus) “for excessive photoshopping”, leading to both ads being withdrawn from future campaigns. Using content analysis, the paper will analyze bloggers’ comments about the decision to discover what were the main issues raised

Consumer Offense Towards the Advertising of Some Gender-Related Products

Causing people to take offense can occur when a marketer undertakes a controversial advertising campaign. What can make this a particularly important issue is when companies make what for many individuals is a controversial product, like condoms, erectile dysfunction drugs, feminine hygiene products and certain kinds of underwear. Such companies manufacture legitimate products for their target customers, and they need to be able to communicate an effective message to their customers without causing offense that can lead to dissatisfaction, negative publicity, the rejection of the message, boycotts, other forms of complaining behavior, or other unpleasant outcomes. This article presents the results of a survey of 265 university students to examine whether they perceive particular gender-related products as offensive, what execution techniques, if any, lead them to find advertisements offensive, in general, and to calculate correlations to find out any potential association between specific gender-related products and specific offensive advertising execution techniques. The inquiry uncovered a number of execution techniques that were perceived as offensive and there were several statistical differences in comparisons between gender and age

A study of personal beliefs of advertising and attitudes towards advertisements: Pollay and Mittal (1993) revisited

This study involves a survey of university students and focuses on the personal beliefs and uses of advertising identified in Pollay and Mittals (1993) seminal paper, i.e., Product Information, Social Role/Image, and Hedonic/Pleasure. Our results suggest that respondents attitudes towards advertisements is most strongly driven by the Hedonic/Pleasure factor of advertising, followed by its Product Information role, but is unaffected by the Social Role/Image function of advertising. Our structural equation modelling results suggest that there has been an increase in the importance of the Hedonic/Pleasure role of advertising since Pollay and Mittals (1993) original study. In addition, the measurement diagnostics for these three constructs from our modelling suggest that there may be a need to revisit these items, and to develop and validate new and better measures of them

Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: An Exploratory Study of the Top 10 Media Organisations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an issue of growing interest in the business world, and many large, multinational companies, including media organisations, are voluntarily disclosing information regarding their CSR activities. While there is criticism of the ethical values of the media , some media organisations are using CSR to promote a positive side of their business. This exploratory study observes what the leading media organisations are doing in terms of CSR activities to propose a CSR disclosure index for the media industry, and discusses some implications for other organisations

An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure by Advertising Agencies

The corporate annual report has become more than a mandatory financial report for public companies, with many companies also using it as an important marketing communication tool. As corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an issue of growing interest in the business world, many publicly listed companies, including advertising agencies, are voluntarily disclosing information regarding their CSR activities in their annual report. This descriptive study analyses the annual reports of the top six holding companies in the global advertising industry, in order to observe which advertising companies disclose their CSR activities and what activities they undertake, and the development of a CSR disclosure index for advertising agencies. The results indicate that some advertising companies do engage in CSR activities and disclose them in the annual report, but the level of these CSR disclosures is different between the organisations

Does the Use of Facebook Lead to Purchases?

The ability of social media to attract large numbers of people around the world also makes these websites a platform of interest for advertisers. While these sites were hesitant at first to ‘sell out’ to massive amounts of advertising, advertising has produced for them a major revenue stream. However, an issue is whether the use of social media leads people to purchase. This paper will analyse the results of a survey of 169 Facebook users to determine the predictors for a purchase based on information from Facebook. The findings indicate that Facebook engagement, seeking friends, seeking information and gender are the main predictors of purchase

Effects of disliked executional techniques in advertising: A five-country comparison

This study analyzes Asian consumers' attitudes towards disliked television commercials to provide an insight into the construct of advertising dislikeability. Dislikeability is an important concept because if certain attributes of an advertisement are disliked, this can lead to potential customers disliking the brand, being dissatisfied with the advertiser, complaining about the advertisement, and/or refusing to purchase the advertised product. A total of 1,000 people were questioned in five Asian cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok and Mumbai) using telephone interviews. The study reveals seven dislike attributes: bad style of the ad, meaningless storyline, ugly or stupid characters, exaggerating product effectiveness, irresponsible or misleading content, scary or violent characters/settings, and hard-sell approaches. Findings from this study show that there is a close relationship between disliking television advertising and purchase intention. Additionally, the importance of the seven dislikeability dimensions differs between cities and product categories. Managerial implications are offered for organizations advertising in Asia

Perceptions of offensive advertising elements: A China–U.S. comparison

© 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved. As China continues to rapidly expand and further open itself to market forces, the People’s Republic arouses significant interest as a new mega-market. Consequently, the influx of new business opportunities and advertising has resulted in Chinese consumers increasingly exposed to potentially offensive advertising. While some products and images may seem acceptable when advertised in the West, there are some that may offend Chinese cultural sensitivities. The purpose of this study is to better understand similarities and differences that exist between American and Chinese perceptions surrounding offensive advertising. The results highlight a number of statistical cultural differences that have business implications for international marketers