Honest vs Labored Advertising
According to the American Advertising Federation, advertising is a type of communication that influences or changes an individual's behavior without their knowledge in order to increase the business value of the product, service, or idea presented. The profession is carried out by an advertiser with an intent to influence consumers who are motivated by a need, such as wanting a new car. An advertisement appeals to emotions such as vanity and envy, leading people to want what has not been available before. Often times companies pay for advertising through advertisements in publications and/or broadcast media including television commercials.
This blog post discusses honest vs labored advertising and talks about all the different ads from around the world that demonstrate this difference.
Honest advertising is straightforward, clear and without any hidden agendas. It makes information available to the customer so they can make an informed decision as to whether they would like to buy the product or service being advertised. It does not make false claims about the product, service or idea; rather it points out their positives and puts them in perspective by drawing attention to their negatives or limitations. Honest advertising does not sing its own praises. Rather it points out what people will gain from buying it and ways in which it can be bought. Honest advertising is universal because all people are motivated by a need; this need is what drives honest advertising as each person has different needs, but essentially needs are all that drive people's actions when making a purchase decision.
In contrast, labored advertising is exaggerated and tries to persuade people to buy the product, service or idea. Product benefits are overstated in order for the company selling them to sell more of them. The intent is to make the consumer feel inadequate for not owning what it is being advertised because the consumer would be better off if he or she did own it. Labored advertising uses sex appeal, peer pressure and other "tricks" to get more people to buy from them. This type of advertising may be used by a company that produces poor quality products and needs to convince other people that their products are worth buying despite their inferior quality. Labored advertising is not honest because it makes false claims about the product, service or idea in order to convince people to buy it, as well as deceiving the consumer into thinking that buying the product that is being advertised is worth doing.
Another factor in honest vs labored advertising is whether or not the product, service or idea being advertised is a necessity. In other words, whether or not people need the item that they are trying to sell and can be done without if necessary. For example, a company wanting to sell their products will use honest advertising when they are in an industry where even one sale could be worth millions of dollars to them. On the other side, a company wanting to sell their products may use labored advertising when they are in an industry where sales do not make a big difference. In this type of advertising, companies often use exaggeration and/or put down their competitors in order to motivate consumers to buy from them instead of from a competitor.
This blog post also talks about how honest vs labored advertising applies to advertisements from around the world. Each country around the world has different ways on how they advertise and have different values that play into their decision making. For example, Thailand uses honest advertising because it does not want its people to get ripped off by foreign companies that offer goods for half the cost as Thai-owned companies. In contrast, Sweden uses labored advertising to sell its goods because the economy is doing well and does not need to use dishonest practices in order for them to be successful.
The following is a series of advertisements from around the world that have been showcased by Honest advertisement vs Labored adverstising as an example of honest vs labored advertising. These advertisements are from countries including Denmark, Switzerland and Thailand. All three of these countries use honest advertising because they would rather tell the consumer the truth about their product while not having to exaggerate it. In addition, honest advertising is universal because all people are motivated by needs, even if they are different needs. Next, the blog post discusses how honesty applies to different types of advertisements from different countries and how it plays a role in how their economy works. All of these countries use honest advertising because they want their consumers to make informed decisions about whether or not the product is worth buying.
This blog post also talks about the role that honesty plays in the economy and how having honest advertisements greatly helps if a country wants to have quality products and services being produced in their country whether or not there is enough money to back them up. To learn more about this post, as well as other topics such as advertising ethics, visit Adil's Blog.
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