Week 15 Lecture 2

Advertising Effects//Regulation of Advertising

What makes a successful ad?

• Advertising professionals would disagree.

• Many ads win awards but don’t increase sales.

• “Surfing” (2000) – “Best ad of all time” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFuuHPkORsA

• A polysemic message? You can read anything you want into it?

Process of Advertising• 1- Audience Research• 2- Development of Campaign• 3- Buying (where to put the ad –

television, magazines, newspapers)– Placement within the magazine– Placement within the TV break

Process of Advertising• 4 – Did it work?– Attempt to measure audience response, eg – Did Sales Go Up?: Renault Clio sales rose

300% after “Papa and Nicole” series.– “Impact” : Do people remember the ads?– This last is a question of EFFECTS. – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

jDe9rvQRHEI Papa and Nicole! Ads

Placebo Effects of Marketing

• Placebo effect (explain)• If you charge more for something, people may find it more

satisfying (one of the four P’s is price…)• Subjects who consumed Energy Drink that was “on sale”

performed worse on a memory test than those who paid full price (Shiv, et. al. 2005)

Advertising Effects• What do advertisers see as

advertising’s desired effect?• What are the effects of advertising

on society at large?• Difficult to assess what effect it has

on us.• Does it work? If it didn’t , why would

companies spend so much on it?.

Advertising is Fine.

• Increases Choice: Advertising finances a range of media and provides us a wider range of choice in terms of the media available to us

• Informs of about products

• Stimulates consumption, benefits industry, employment, and general economic growth

Criticisms of Advertising

• Creates false hopes

• Works on our insecurities

• Unrealistic• Can influence our

media texts• Devalues our ideas

as a culture.

False Hopes/Anxieties

• John Berger (1972)• “The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally

dissatisfied with his present way of life. It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better.

• All publicity works upon anxiety. The sum of everything is money, and to get money is to overcome anxiety.”

Unrealistic and dangerous role models

• “Heroin chic” debate• 2000 (Jones and Smith)

British Medical Journal argued that representations of women had a deleterious effect on young women

• Kate Moss doubled her earnings as a model after the 2005 coke scandal.

Devaluation of Real Ideas• This is what Naomi Klein argues in

“No Logo” • That when everything is turned into a

“sellable idea”, it devalues real ideas http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/no-logo-brands-globalization-resistance/

Break

Ethics• When is it “right” to shock people?

Barnardos • Children’s charity• Many newspapers

refused to share the ad and filed a complaint.

• Authority ultimately said that though the advertising had distressed people the advertisers “intended to convey a serious and important message”

Benneton• AIDS patient ad, refused by

magazines.

• When Life magazine makes a cover about war, it makes the cover to inform, but also to sell the magazine and to sell the advertising pages inside the magazine -- Chivas Regal and all the others. So Time magazine and all the others make a cover to inform and to sell. To do what I do, I do that to sell but also to inform. And as soon as you inform, people point a finger at you and say, "You are exploiting!" No. It's the people who don't even inform [who are exploiting]. It's Prada bullshit, or Gap bullshit, or Chanel. They don't even inform. They make people stupid. 

-Oliviero TOscano

Law and Regulation

Regulation of Advertising• Content of advertising regulated differently

worldwide.• Regulation on drug ads- illegal in UK and Europe• In the US, it is legal• Healthcare providers believe they are not

influenced by marketing, but studies show otherwise, Doctors are more likely to prescribe the brand (and people more likely to request it.

• Viagra ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFuuHPkORsA

• In the United Kingdom, broadcast ads are heavily regulated, and must be compliance with the 2003 broadcast act.

• Non-broadcast ads are less heavily regulated

Committee for Advertising Practice

Advertising StandardsAuthority

Regulation of Advertising• Before Production– Ad agencies must submit script to them

for pre-approval before productionAfter production: Consumers may

complain and request investigation.

Example – the 349 pound computer• A TV ad, for Dell Computers, said "Whatever

you need a PC for, Dell has the one you want for less than you might expect. Right now get this Dell Inspiron notebook featuring an Intel Celeron processor for only £299." On-screen text gave a website address and a phone number. 

• 22 citizens complained it was listed on Web site for 349 pounds.

• Complaint upheld, ad banned.

Example – Water Bill• A radio ad, for Thames Water Utilities, broadcast on 11

February stated "Thames Water is tracking down people in London and the Thames Valley who are getting our water, but not our bill. This isn't fair on our paying customers. So, for six weeks, there'll be an amnesty. If you haven't been receiving a bill, tell us and we'll waive the charges and start afresh. But if you don't and are found after the amnesty, you could face years of back charges ..."

•  • Two listeners challenged whether the ad was

misleading, because they tried to take advantage of the amnesty but received bills for backdated water charges.

•  Upheld 

Regulating Advertising - Timing

• Regulates timing terrestrial TV, cable, and satellite ads– 7.5 minutes per hour during the evening

(terretrial)– 9 minutes per hour (cable and satellite)– No ads allowed during religious programming– No alcohol/tobacco/lottery ads during

childrens program– Since 2006, no junk food ads on Saturday

Morning

Regulating Advertising – for Kids• ASA has special rules

regarding ads targeted at children

• Ads for kids should not “Mislead” particularly in relation to games and toys and should not “imply that a child will be inferior in some way or liable to be held in contempt or ridicule” if they do not own the progress.

• “Children in advertisements should be reasonably well mannered and well-behaved.”

• Even ads not targeted at children, but which might disturb them, are included.

• Marion Nestle on Food Marketing to kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qO39VEc0Ag

• Banned in the UK,because “can frighten and distress children”

Example -

• Morality is a consideration in “banned ads” worldwide. This was banned in Russia for being “immoral.”

Watch• No Logo

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/no-logo-brands-globalization-resistance/

• Bus 475 (Documentary – return to the social form)

• http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/gradskills/conference/may09/C1%20MP.pdf

• http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2006/8/Dell-Computer-Corporation-Ltd/TF_ADJ_41597.aspx