Negative Aspects Of Online Advertising
Online advertising is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it has given many businesses the ability to grow their business. On the other hand, advertising can be quite invasive and cause an individual some unwanted emotional distress.
This paper discusses how online advertising may harm the consumer's emotional well-being by exposing them to negative advertisements which can lead to poor moods, depression and stress. The paper also goes on to explore some solutions that might help reduce this effect by encouraging healthy habits of digital consumption like minimizing screen time, limiting exposure and avoiding ad blockers while still showing ads in a responsible manner as they are not always targeting serious problems such as substance abuse or violence but rather using humour or sarcasm to encourage certain behaviour.
Online advertising is effective for companies as it provides them with the ability to easily reach their audience by targeting specific demographics, displaying ads in front of relevant content and providing a seamless experience which is free of clutter (Mathews & Leibowitz, 2015). Research has shown that online ads are more effective at drawing someone's attention than TV or print (Mathews & Leibowitz, 2015). Due to their high level of effectiveness and targeted nature, more companies are shifting ad spending from TV and newspapers to be more focused on the internet (Berkowitz, 2010). These factors will continue to work in favour of online advertising as the amount of Internet users continue to rise while they decline in traditional news media.
Although this is a positive thing for companies and the industry at large, there may be a negative side effect. The research finds that people tend to develop negative emotions that they experience as a result of advertising. These negative emotions have been called 'annoyance', 'disgust', 'boredom' and 'insecurity' (Sellers, 2015). These feelings are known as the cognitive dissonance theory, which states that consciously you believe something to be true when in reality it is not. According to Paul Vitz (2013), "the theory suggests that if one feels uneasy about a belief, one can look at the evidence and decide to revise it". In this way, advertising could be causing a person to believe something untrue. For instance, a person might see an ad for cosmetic surgery and think, "I don't look like that. If I do it, I'll be happier". This is what Vitz refers to as a psychological dissonance (p. 969).
Although many perceive the ads in question as being negative they are often actually the opposite; they tend to be the types of ads that contribute to positive emotions such as thinking of yourself as attractive, positive feelings towards your body or other examples of self-improvement (Vitz) (p. 969). However, due to the psychological theories surrounding the theory of cognitive dissonance this can actually lead to negative emotions.
Online advertising is a large source of revenue for companies and has been making a greater impact on how a consumer views brands (Berkowitz, 2010). For example, more people view videos on YouTube than they do television commercials (Mathews & Leibowitz, 2015). This is because digital ads have the ability to reach an audience in real time as opposed to TV ads which are generally scheduled for specific times. This means that ad campaigns are not only able to be more targeted at specific demographics, but they can also track metrics as well (Mathews & Leibowitz, 2015). Multivariate testing or M-Testing is a way to assess the effectiveness of online advertising. By using multiple ads to comprehend viewers' reaction in greater detail, M-Testing offers a more precise assessment of advertisement performance.
This method has been shown to be effective in showing which marketing campaigns work the most efficiently and offer the best results (Berkowitz, 2010). M-Testing is what allows companies to measure and analyze this data, track trends and even develop creative campaigns in real time (Berkowitz, 2010). This gives the company a better understanding of what the audience wants to see and how they want to be spoken to. When this data is collected, it can lead to more effective in-store advertising, mass media advertising and allow some campaigns to work better than others (Berkowitz, 2010).
The problem with M-testing is that it is not always a good representation of your target market as it tends to focus on a specific demographic which may not represent the average consumer. Therefore, there is always a risk that the results are skewed. There are many other pitfalls in online advertising as well; for example, advertisers face resistance from consumers who turn off their devices and even install ad blockers (Berkowitz, 2010). This is because online advertising can often be invasive and trigger an object while it is unwanted.
After looking at the positives and negatives of online advertising it is important to research how company's are trying to address some of the negative parts of online advertising through regulation, education, parental controls and even requiring consumers to participate in order to receive free content (Mathews & Leibowitz, 2015).
By monitoring each individual's computer history from page views, ad servers can see what ads are most interesting or relevant to an individual (McKinsey & Company). If viewing habits are personalised for each individual then it increases the chance a person is interested in that ad (McKinsey & Company). If companies are able to personalise their ads then the risk of one person not being interested in their product is low, as opposed to a mass audience (Mathews & Leibowitz, 2015). This can be a revolutionary new way of advertising, with the potential to increase brand loyalty and ultimately sales (McKinsey & Company).
The regulations surrounding online advertising have already been developed by the FTC and this has assisted in preventing false or misleading advertising. The FTC also has guidelines on how online companies should protect consumers during online transactions; these include verifying information such as names, addresses and phone numbers that customers input into their accounts. Online advertising also requires permission from all parties involved before using any information and data about them for marketing purposes.
Regulation is not always necessary however; some online companies have tried to eliminate negative advertising through education and the use of parental controls. For instance, Clear Channel (a radio broadcasting corporation) introduced the first blocking technology for online ads in 2003 (Mathews & Leibowitz, 2015). Their ad blocking software was created to block advertisements on all websites that were targeted by a specific keyword search. This was an innovative response to a problem familiar to many: too many advertisements. The website AdChoices was founded as a way for consumers to view and manage the types of ads they are exposed to through their day-to-day use of the internet (Berkowitz, 2010).
Conclusion:
The theory of cognitive dissonance was first developed in the 1950s by two psychologists named Leon Festinger, who came up with the idea, and Stanley Schachter, who proposed a modification to the original theory. It provided a mechanism through which attitudes and behaviours could be modified. The theory of cognitive dissonance is one of the more traditional theories in social psychology because it has been around for decades and has helped shape how we understand human behaviour. The theory is based on three assumptions: the existence of cognitive dissonance, its unpleasantness, and the tendency to reduce it.