Advertising as Manipulation |1

Running head: ADVERTISING AS MANIPULATION

Advertising: Information or Manipulation

Nur Izzati Binti Ahmad

International Islamic University Malaysia

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Abstract

This paper discusses whether the advertisements give more information or manipulation.

It aims to prove that most of the advertisements nowadays only focus on profit-maximization

without considering the effects to the consumers. The method of the data collection was through

the library research, reliable online journals and academic books. From these reading materials, it

was proved that the advertisements tempt us to buy something we do not need and give

unrealistic view about the product. Although consumers can use their own reasoning and logic,

they are somewhat being manipulated by the advertisements. The paper urges the consumers not

to easily fall for manipulative advertisement and stringent laws regarding the advertisements

should be established to regulate them.

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

These days, advertisement has become more influential and widely spread. Moreover,

with the advancement in technology, marketers can promote their products and services broadly

and globally. Kotler (2009) defined advertising as any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and

promotional of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Simply put, advertising is the

promotion of ideas, to promote the goods and services to the possible buyers. The main idea is

the combination on main object in the advertisement and the content of the product advertised.

It is undeniable that advertisements are very important to the marketers in order to

strengthen their position in market. Advertisement is also important for them to compete among

themselves, and to attract the buyers as many as possible in order to increase their revenues and

sales.

The marketers create attractive advertisements to catch consumers’ attention, and

sometimes manipulate consumers’ desire. Manipulation of the product includes pricing,

packaging, or promotion. If the clear and thorough observation is made, there are many

manipulative advertisements compared to informational advertisements. Most of the

advertisements nowadays are manipulative because they tempt us to buy something that we do

not need and give unrealistic view about the products.

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2.0 ARGUMENTS

2.1 Temptation

There are varieties of ways to advertise a product. From the billboards to newspapers, the

only thing that matter most to the advertisers is whether their advertisements are attractive

enough to attract the consumers. It is undeniable that the advertisers promote the products that

they want to sell. The products or services might not the important needs for us. According to

Nelson (1974), the producer in his advertising is not interested directly in providing information

for consumers. He is interested in selling more of his product.

The advertisers tempt consumers to buy something they do not really need by showing an

attractive and artistic advertisement. For instance is the advertisement about the mobile phones.

As we already know, the market and style for mobile phones are rapidly changing. Producers

keep on competing with each other to become the most favored brand. This is to ensure that they

will keep the revenue to increase. Sometimes, the qualities for the mobile phones are not exactly

what are being portrayed in the advertisement. The sound and image quality might not satisfy the

buyers’ expectations.

Phillips (1997), in his book Ethics and Manipulation in Advertising: Answering a Flawed

Indictment stated that the president of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace

Workers, claims:

Major function and purpose has been to feed already bloated corporate beasts. They’ve

discovered that the only way they can keep their revenues up is by paying exorbitant

sums to advertising professionals who combine art and psychology to exploit and

manipulate the vast range of human fears and needs. (p. 2)

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Here, we can say that the advertisers have the ability to influence and manipulate

consumers’ mind using the psychological approach. Consumers may not realize that they are

being manipulated for specific purpose and reason that is to contribute to the higher sales and

revenue for the advertisers and producers.

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2.2 Unrealistic View

Have you ever saw the advertisement about a product that will give you the perfect skin

in just about three days, a week? Or have you come across the advertisement that promotes one

detergent product and your clothes will become like the new ones after using that product?

Beauchamp (1992) mentioned that manipulation is an attempt to persuade consumers to believe

what is wrong, unsound, or does not have any good reasons. Manipulative advertisement can

give unrealistic picture of people and their lives, and also impractical view about the product.

To begin with, advertisement can manipulate in term of giving the unrealistic picture of

people and their lives, thus will lead to unhappiness and anxiety. This is somewhat true when it

comes to the advertisement about slimming product or perfect skin solution. Richins (1991)

quoted Mander (1977) that stated “consumers see these idealized images and (consciously or

unconsciously) compare their more mediocre selves and lives with the idealized images.”

Advertisement about beauty product particularly will use thin and beautiful models to promote

their product. This will make women depressed and their confidence become lower, thus might

lead to unhealthy eating practices or undergo procedures like plastic surgery.

Manipulative advertisement also gives impractical view about the product, for example in

food advertising. Most of the consumers with high cholesterol usually go for products that

stating cholesterol free. These products however often contain additional sugars or fats to

maintain the flavor, thus create hidden or undisclosed health risk. Other than that, marketers are

sometimes accused of manipulative and deceptive practices that lead consumers to believe they

will get more value than they actually do, such as factory or wholesale prices, or a large price

reduction from a false high retail price. There are also advertisements that are technically legal

with low prices, but with the small and hardly visible other charges or terms and conditions.
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Profitable customer relationships are built upon a foundation of value and trust. If

consumers do not get what they expect, they will switch to more reliable products. In addition,

consumers usually protect themselves from manipulation and deception. Most consumers

recognize a marketer’s selling intent and are careful when they buy, sometimes to the point of

not believing completely true product claim.

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2.3 Own Reasoning and Logic

It might seem as if the advertisement is not manipulation for the reason that people can

use their own reasoning and logic whether to treat the advertisement as informative or

manipulative. Bishop (2000) takes the position that whether or not they advocate false values is a

matter for subjective reflection. Consumers can choose either to go for Celcom or Maxis after

considering the pros and cons for both service providers.

Firstly, consumers themselves can consider if they are really in need for the advertised

products or not. If the benefit of buying the product is greater than the cost that they will incur,

they might proceed to buy the product. For instance, if consumers can get a lower rate with

Celcom, they might choose Celcom instead of Maxis or other service providers. What is stressed

upon here is the consumers’ ability to give reasonable judgments and evaluate the pros and cons

before buying the advertised products.

Secondly, consumers have their own free choice of preferences. It is up to them to buy

which products that they prefer more. They can buy advertised product even if the price is

expensive. According to Nelson (1970), the major control that consumers have over the market

for experience qualities is whether they repeat the purchase of a brand or not. This will likely

happen when we refer to the customer loyalty. To gain customer loyalty, they should be satisfied

with the products or services given. That is the reason for the willingness of the loyal customers

to pay higher price on a certain brand of product because they are convinced that it will gives

them satisfaction and thus, will stick to that particular product.

In addition, most advertisers state that their advertisements are persuasive, not

manipulative. They persuade the consumers by showing them the attractive texts, stunning

images, and eye-catching videos. That is what the so-called creative idea is all about – to grab
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people’s attention and to be noticed. The modern advertising alternative nowadays is through

the websites and weblogs. Increasing amount of internet users motivate the advertising company

to promote the products or services on the internet. For instance is Nuffnang, which is Asia-

Pacific’s first and leading blog advertising. Nuffnang uses online platform to allow advertisers to

serve graphic or video based advertisements onto more than 100,000 blogs hosted on various

platforms, such as Wordpress and Blogspot.

Briefly, many people believe that advertisement is not manipulation because the

consumers can use their own reasoning and logic. Consumers will act on perceived value,

preferences and whether the advertising attracts them or not.

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2.4 Own Reasoning or Being Manipulated?

While all those claims seem plausible, they fail to consider the other views. Yes,

consumers have their own reasoning, logic and preferences, but do consumers really act based on

their reasoning, logic and preferences, or they are being manipulated?

Nowadays, there is growing competition among the producers in order to get higher sales

and increase their revenues. The advertisers will create an advertisement which is creative

enough to attract the possible buyers. The modern advertising usually applies the Neuro-

Linguistic Programming (NLP) to captivate and attract the consumers. From the psychological

aspect, NLP concerned with the relationship between patterns of behavior and patterns of

thoughts. According to Larsen (2010), NLP were able to create beliefs and mental states in their

readers that were beyond what normal copywriting could do. They could make prospects believe

their company was the only one who could help them while the competitors were not to be

trusted. They got prospects to act quickly and pay higher prices than they ever did before. And

they were able to have the prospects automatically make assumptions about the company, their

products and services, and their competition. Here we can say that consumers are not completely

act based on their logic and preferences.

Other than that, advertisers nowadays have applied semiotics in their messages and

consequently, advertisements have begun to function more as symbols. Stubbes (1670) denotes

semiotics as the “branch of medical science relating to the interpretation of signs.” Bishop (2000)

describes the two typical representatives of self-identity image advertisements are the beautiful

woman and the sexy teenagers. Advertisers not only deceive the public and exaggerate the

effects of products but also provoke low self-esteem in consumers. For example is the
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advertisement for perfect skin solution or slimming products. The result and effect for those two

products might differ between individuals.

Lastly, persuasive advertising is differs from manipulative advertising. Persuasive

advertising becomes more important as competition increases. Here, the company’s objective is

to build selective demand. For example, once DVD players became established, Sony began

trying to persuade consumers that its brand offered the best quality for their money. According to

Kotler (2009) in his book Principles of Marketing, some persuasive advertising has become

comparative advertising, in which a company directly or indirectly compares its brand with one

or more other brands. For example are soft drinks, computers, and credit cards. On the other

hand, according to Beauchamp (1999), manipulative advertising limits free and informed action.

It is like convincing customers to buy something, but it is based on incorrect or inconclusive

information. One example is retailers fake the percentage markdown from suggested retail prices

so that customers are mislead into thinking that they are actually receiving a bargain. Another

example is the term and conditions that is small and hardly visible. For consumers who are

observant might not face any problems, but those who are not aware might fall into the trap.

In conclusion, even though the consumers can weigh the perceived values and act based

on their own preferences and will, they are somewhat being manipulated by the advertisements.

From the psychological aspect, NLP can influence consumers to buy things that they do not need

because NLP were able to create beliefs. From the social aspect, advertisers use attractive images

or attributes to portray their products. They manipulate by make the consumers believe that they

will get the same as what illustrated by the advertisement. Sometimes, consumers are confused

between persuasive advertising and manipulative advertising gives uncertain and inaccurate

information about the products.

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3.0 CONCLUSION

To sum it all up, it can be seen that most of the advertisements manipulate consumers

rather than provide the useful information. Advertisers and marketers only concern about the

sales they are going to make without have any consideration about the useful and main

information that they left out. For example, the retail price for one product which is masked and

have high markup price to make the consumers believed that they actually received the bargain.

Consumers should instill in themselves not to believe and fall for every attractive advertisements.

They should consider the cost and benefit if want to purchase the product, and also ponder on

every possibilities before buy the advertised products, for instance the luxury products.

Government should implement strict rules to regulate the upcoming advertisements to ensure that

they will give information, and not just attractive video or photos to manipulate consumers’

minds. From Islamic perspective, advertisers and marketers should be honest in their business, so

that they will receive blessed from Allah SWT. Furthermore, honesty is the best policy, and

customers prefer to go with the brand that gives them satisfaction based on the true information,

and not the brand that manipulates them.

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References

Beauchamp, T. L. (1984). Manipulative Advertising. Business and Professional Ethics Journal

3. Retrieved from http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29711

Kotler, P.,Armstrong, G., Swee, H. A., Siew, M. L., et al. (2009). Principles of Marketing: A

Global Perspective (pp. 400-401). Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia.

Nelson, P. (Jul. – Aug., 1974). Advertising as Information. The Journal of Political Economy,

82, 729-754. Retrieved from http://time.dufe.edu.cn/jingjiwencong/waiwenziliao

/20031148365645706.pdf

Phillips, M. J. (1997). Ethics and Manipulation in Advertising: Answering a Flawed Indictment

(p.2). United States of America: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Richins, M. L. (1991). Social Comparison and the Idealized Images of Advertising. The Journal

of Consumer Research. Retrieved on 7th October 2010 from http://www.jstor.org/pss/

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