Advertisers Gone Too Far

Advertisers Gone Too Far

Today's advertisers have gone too far because they are striving too hard to be the best and they will do anything to be on top. Advertising is becoming a way of living in the world today. You can't go anywhere without seeing advertisements on cars, buses, billboards, television screens, magazines, etc. Advertising is everywhere! Advertisers are the people that create the ads that you see. The advertiser's job is to sell their product to the consumer. By doing this, advertisers need to think of ways that will catch the viewers attention. "A great statistic I love to recite to people is that 20 years ago it took three commercials to reach 80% of the U.S. population. Today it takes 150." says Jeff Hicks of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, a Miami ad agency. Given the challenging market, retailers must advertise aggressively to sell their products and stay in business, but this causes the problem of advertisers going too far. They push the limits by twisting the truth for people of any age to believe and target the gullible viewers to buy a product that they do not even need.

Advertisers are focused on selling the product instead of caring if the consumer's needs are satisfied. Advertisers lead consumers to confuse "want" with "need". Advertisers use many different ways to draw in the consumer, such as using "double-talk". This is a strategy that an advertiser would use to convince a consumer and a buyer that their product is the most effective even if it may be "false advertising." The problem with "double-talk" is that it is really only allowing the advertisers to manipulate their buyers and consumers into buying their products without actually lying to them. They are just stretching the truth. It is one of the many ways advertisers can stay in business and not get sued for false advertising. Advertisers have "BzzAgents" which are people who offer encouragement tips on how to improve word-of-mouth strategies, also known as "double talk". A peculiar fact about BzzAgents is not only are they volunteer agents willing to become shock troops in the marketing revolution, but many of them are flat-out excited about it. BzzAgents are involved in shaping the market which gives them power, mostly with their words and allows them to encourage the advertisers to seek advice from them. After all, there is one thing that is even more powerful than having the upper hand in the market, more seductive than persuading: believing. It's exactly what advertisers lead the consumers and buyers to do; believe every word they have to say.

Manipulation is the key to advertising. Advertisers take advantage of the consumer by manipulating them with their words. Most people were taught that words are there to help them communicate clearly. But some people find ways to use words, instead, to try to hide the truth! Although by law advertisers must tell the truth, some ads use words which mislead or confuse viewers. For example, cosmetic companies, such as Neutrogena or Cover Girl, advertise that "their makeup helps eliminate the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles". Reading this ad, you expect the product to get rid of those fine lines and wrinkles on your face but what you don't realize is that the advertiser is using "weasel words". Weasel words are words that are intended to, or have the effect of, softening the force of a potentially controversial statement, or avoiding forms of a clear position on a particular issue. These ads are not at all true but the advertiser is able to get away with it because they are not clarifying that their product will make the lines disappear over time but saying that they may help hide them when the product is being worn.