The Negative Speech : Advertising And The Deceptance Of Advertising

According to the commercial speech doctrine, only deceptive speech that is considered commercial may be regulated. General deceptive speech is not commercial, may not be regulated. When deciding what may and may not be regulated, it is important to understand the subtle differences in what is considered commercial and non commercial speech. An analyzation of false advertising would give further understanding to the notion of commercial speech and how it may be degenerative to a society when untruthful.

In today’s society, no matter where you are, there is always a good chance that you have seen an advertisement. These little creatures are everywhere. You may see them when you are reading a magazine, watching TV, or surfing the internet. We have become so used to them. Advertisements are good at making us stop what we are doing and giving them our full attention. What is an advertisement? An advertisement is an announcement made to the public. In Jib Fowles’ article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” he is informing us that companies are spending millions of dollars on advertisements to grab our attention in order to manipulate us into spending or thinking of spending our hard-earned money on their product. Even though a lot of people do not want to believe that a paper that is eight times eleven with an image and no more than five words is manipulative because we want to think that we are not that easy to trick. Nike created an advertisement for one of

Magazines are popular in the United States; they can be found in stores, offices, and houses. They are popular for advertising. Television, news, radio, billboards and online websites are just a few forms of media that companies use to advertise their products or services. Companies use advertisements to influence the consumer to either buy or use their products and services. Advertisements are used to manipulate consumers in many ways.

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

Every minute of every day, millions of people are exposed to advertisements. They plague televisions, streets, radio waves, and all means of communication. These advertisements employ many methods of persuasion and their influence is irresistible. Just like prisoners in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, we are told every day to invest our time and interest into the subject of these advertisements, and to accept the forms of reality they serve us. Whether it be a commercial for a must-have new car, to a spot featuring desirable fast food, or to magazines with photoshopped models; we are seduced to accept these false

Advertisements are an extremely prominent part of American society. Very few places exist that an individual can go without being exposed to some form of ad. From product placement to billboards, advertisements exist in nearly every facet of life. Marion Nestle discusses what she considers to be one of the more heinous forms of advertisement in her essay, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate.” Nestle uses several persuasive techniques to convince her audience of the evils of supermarkets. Her use of emotionally charged phrases paired with her more logical assertions help to drive her point home while her clear bias and lack of supportive source detract from her overall argument

In the United States, The FTC (federal Trade Commission) has the authority to impose penalty against advertisers whom violate Federal Standards for truthful advertising. The FTC considers a message to be deceptive, if they include statements that are likely to mislead reasonable customers and the statements that are likely to mislead reasonable customers and the statements are an important part of purchasing decision. A failure to include important information are also considered deceptive. Also, the FTC also looks at so-called “implied claims,?” Claims that you don’t explicitly make but that can be inferred from what you do or don’t say.

Business Dictionary is a website which elaborate on what “Bait and Switch” means, “illegal practice of ‘baiting’ customers with unrealistically low prices to bring them into the store, and then trying to sell them higher-priced goods on the pretext that the advertised bargain-priced goods are sold” (Business Dictionary, 2016). As I mentioned many have been victims of these schemes and we are incapable of noticing such actions being made against us. For example, many commonly purchased items such as airline tickets, retail stores, and “hotels may use bait customers by advertising rooms at a lower price and then charge customers mandatory “resort fees,” substantially increasing the price of the stay” (Bait and Switch, 2015). When presented with a “better” offer that you think would cost less, there is no double thinking in the purchase. “Bait and Switch” is a matter of choice of words that attract a

A deceptive advertising is a false advertising that uses confusing, misleading, and untrue statements to promote a product. An ad is deceptive if it contains a statement or omits an information that is likely to mislead the consumers.

In addition, don’t believe every advertisement. Designed to peak the interests of a targeted group, advertisements make consumers spend money. In other words, one receives a false perception of the item or event advertised. Every year in Maine, the exceedingly promoted Lobster Festival takes place. Sponsors of this event speak, glamorously, about a Main Eating Tent where one pays “ around $12.00 [for a plate]…”

In American consumer society, it is common knowledge that businessmen are rarely 100% truthful. Exaggerated advertisements, cheapened materials, and other similar practices have become part of business. The topic of debate, however, is whether this dishonesty in business is ethical. According to Albert Carr in the article “Is Business Bluffing Ethical?”, bluffing is morally acceptable within the parameters of doing business.

Each day we are bombarded with advertisements from a plethora of corporations in every waking moment of our lives. Advertising agencies have become so advanced at what they do, that often times we may not even realize we are being advertised a product. This raises an interesting ethical dilemma over a certain type of advertising: persuasive advertising. Philosophers, economists, and business professionals have debated over whether or not persuasive advertising is an immoral violation of the autonomy of consumers. While not all forms of advertising are in and of themselves certainly immoral, persuasive advertising is particularly reprehensible due to the fact that not only does it manipulate our unconscious desires of which we are completely unaware in order to sell a product, but it also routinely leads us to act against our own best interest, thus overriding our autonomy.

Dave Ramsey, America’s most trusted financial adviser and a radio show host, once said, “We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.” (Ramsey). Ramsey’s quote reflects the state of consumerism that our society is going through. Most of us can easily relate to this quote, let’s be honest most of us have been there done that and then later question our genuine need for whatever we have bought. Regardless, if we feel guilty or not we ought to ask ourselves why and what made this purchase seems so important and necessary at the time. Although this might not come as a surprise to most of us, the answer would be the advertisement industry. In 2016, The United States has spent more than 198 billion U.S dollars on advertising, making America the leader in advertisement in the world (Statista). These ads are designed to force consumers to keep buying things that are unnecessary by sending subliminal messages and applying psychology to trick the consumer into a spending spree. In his short story, “Subliminal Man”, J.G. Ballard uses science fiction approach to illustrate to his readers the preposterous techniques that the advertising industry has been using to boost consumerism. Ballard believes that the consumer’s brain has been tricked into buying against their well, by using technology and applying subliminal technics. Ballard short story questions the effect of consumerism on our moral values, lifestyle, and behavior. Ballard claims that

Edward Lazear, an economist who graduated from Stanford, defines bait and switch advertising as when a “low priced good is advertised but replaced by a different good at the showroom.” (813) In other words, what is advertised is not the final product. Rather, the advertisement is used to draw in customers who then must settle for the next best thing – according to the company, of course. Additionally, he gives a second definition of bait and switch. This definition is the conditional opposite, though it has the same central meaning: “a seller advertises he has the high-quality good at a low price but replaces it with the identical good, renamed and carrying a higher price.” (Lazear 828) Lazear also claims that bait and switch is a “profitable strategy resulting in a fully rational equilibrium with false advertising.” (813) The profitable nature of using bait and switch advertising is a direct result of consumer susceptibility. When using bait and switch tactics, enough customers “may be induced into the showroom by advertising to make up for those lost from failing to advertise truthfully” (Lazear 818). However, that profit turns on its head when the company is caught participating in such a practice.

Advertising is a persuasive communication attempt to change or reinforce one’s prior attitude that is predictable of future behavior. We are not born with the attitudes for which we hold toward various things in our environment. Instead, we learn our feelings of favorability or unfavorability through information about the object through advertising or direct experience with the object, or some combination of the two. Furthermore, the main aim of advertising is to ‘persuade’ to consumer in order to generate new markets for production.