Is Advertising Ethical?

Advertisements are ethical. Their job is to sell & convince consumers to purchase. Sometimes falsity is needed in order to ensure this.

R.I.P Attention Span

It is not news to our society that we are exposed to tons of thousands of advertisements per day. And I think it's safe to say that we don't notice or pay attention to every advertisement we see...but is this really because of the amount of advertisements we're daily bombarded with? Is the abundance of advertisements were exposed to cause our attention spans to shorten? Or are certain advertisements just not striking enough for us, causing us to mute them out? 

It has been said that the average attention span in the past ten years has dropped from 12 minutes to 5 minutes. As a person who struggles to pay attention to things for more than 10 minutes, I definitely agree with this statistic. But, do I feel that advertising specifically affects the attention span of our society? Hm...not exactly. 

I think there is more to blame than advertising. I believe that social media, more than anything, has a much bigger effect on our attention span. We are constantly connected to the web, whether it be by cellphones, laptops, tablets, etc, we are always distracted by something other than what is going on around us. I myself, have noticed a major change with my attention span, due to the different social media outlets that are available to us. I find it extremely difficult to concentrate on the task that I need to get done, without tuning out and getting distracted by some sort of social media website. I think it's safe to say that we all check either our e-mail, text messages, Facebook, Vine, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, etc, at least once every few hours. 

"Growing evidence shows that social media, among other Internet-age phenomena, is actually rewiring our brains, creating shorter attention spans than ever before. Depending on what you believe, it may also be making us stupid and/or causing the end of the golden age of blogging."

What I'm really trying to get across here is that I think that all these social media outlets, and these mobile devices, have really caused our generation to tune ourselves out to a lot of things that were once more appreciated in life. Even in simple conversations with friends, I find myself, and others, tuning out what other individuals are saying to us, as we are distracted by text messages, or social media sites on our mobile phone. I think that social media has a huge impact on how much time we  give to certain things. With advertising, we most likely won't pay attention to an advertisement unless we find it relevant to our life or interests. And because of this, the advertisement industry really needs to push it's amount of campaigns published, in order to make us pay attention. They constantly need to come up with more compelling and dynamic ideas to make us stop,  and actually take our time to appreciate, and absorb them. 

On the web, we also are exposed to tons of advertisements. But, we are so used to them being there, that we normally just tune them our of our mind. Unless the advertisement pertains to our interest, we normally don't care for them. Even with pop up advertisements, we are so accustomed to them appearing on our screen, that we normally don't care what they have to say, and we just exit them to continue on with whatever else we were doing. Because of this lack of attention we give to advertisements now, there needs to be a larger abundance of them in order for us to acknowledge what they're trying to sell/tell us. 

Overall, I feel that advertising is becoming less appreciated due to the fact that we're all so attached to our mobile devices & social media outlets. We're constantly planting our faces into our phones, rather than enjoying and appreciate the things around us. I feel that the amount of advertisements that brands produce is going to need to get higher & more dynamic, in order for future generations to pay attention seeing as social media & technology is only expanding more and more. 

I found this neat/intersting infographic on the topic of social media & attention spans: Click here to see!

Is Shockvertising Really Effective?

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In today's modern society, we are exposed to tons of thousands of advertisements each day, but how many of these ads do we really remember? It is becoming harder and harder for brands to grab our societies attention, as we are now exposed to various different ads per day (via web, cellphone, television, radio, etc) and it's impossible for us to remember what each and every message is trying to tell us. So with this, it seems it has become very popular for brands to take the risk of using shock advertising in order to grab our attention and stick with us. 

What is shock advertising exactly?

Shock advertising is described as the intention of offending, startling, or intriguing the viewer by challenging what would typically be accepted socially, morally and religiously in our society. Typically this method is used to promote safe sex, discourage drug use, violence, or animal cruelty. It is an advertising method used in order to potentially change our behaviour or view on things. Shock advertising can be very impactful, but it is often criticized as it uses such an unethical way of grabbing attention. Most shock advertising includes the use of bloody, gory images, sexually suggestive references, profanity, and other moral offensiveness in general. 

But, there is definitely no denying that these advertisements get attention and force people to remember them. This is the advertisements main goal. Although, just because these advertisements are memorable, doesn't mean that they're effective in the right way. There are some negative side effects that can come along with shocking the public, and this can totally ruin the brands opportunity of selling their merchandise. 

So...what exactly can be so bad about shocking our society? 

Well, one reason is, even though these ads may arise interest the moment they are seen, they often will become less effective the second or third time they are noticed, as the viewer will expect the shock, and it therefor becomes less effective. The ad will never have the same amount of impact on the viewer as it did in that first moment. Another complication with shock advertising is, although these advertisements are extremely creative, not all of the population will be able to appreciate or accept them, especially if it offends their personal moral beliefs. For example...

These are advertisements for an Italian clothing firm called United Colors of Benetton. They've published an advertising campaign that includes photographs of Pope Benedict XVI kissing senior Egypitan Imam, as well as Barack Obama kissing Hugo Chavez. Benetton claimed that this Unhate campaign was aimed at fostering tolerance and global love. But, Benetton was unaware of how much controversy these advertisements would stir up, and they had to withdraw the photograph of the Pope Benedict and Egyptian imam after the Vatican denounced it as an unacceptable provocation. This ad campaign is a great example of how a shock advertisement may be acceptable and completely supported to some, where as to others it may thoroughly offend them and their religious/moral beliefs. I think this ad would be highly appreciated by the LGBT community, but to a religious person who has certain beliefs about same sex affection or relationships, this may come off as totally unacceptable. 

Now, although shockvertising has its downfalls, that doesn't mean there aren't any effective aspects to it as well. Studies say that shocking advertisements increase the attention of the audience and also benefit our memory. People are more likely to remember an advertisement which contains shocking content over a mediocre advertisement. These advertisements can cause the audience to become engaged, or potentially uncomfortable, but if it gives a positive impression, then it's well worth the risk. I think that if the brands main focus is to get publicity, then the shock factor is definitely a good approach, and will never fail to be remembered.

Conclusion? 

Personally, I believe shockvertisments have a place and a time. You wouldn't place a gory or sexually suggestive ad in a teen magazine, or somewhere where a child may be exposed to it. You also wouldn't want to place them near a church or near an area where typically people who may be offended to the certain ad will be. I believe that shock advertisement definitely has it's benefits, as there's no doubt that they leave much more impact on the public than a regular ad, but I think the subject matter needs to be appropriate. I think that certain subjects that really need to stress their view on society are able to use shock advertising because they need to have that impact in order to really get their point across. For example: 

This is a really great campaign against child abuse. Child abuse is a serious subject and it really needs impact in order to get the severity of the issue across. I think without using shock advertising for this subject, the average viewer would just walk past and not even pay attention, but because this ad shows a physical child being broken into pieces, it grabs your attention and really makes you think about it–carrying the thought with you throughout the day possibly. 

But, for an ad like this...

I think the shock advertising in this ad is really not needed. Burger king could still get their point across, and get people to buy their food without having to use suggestive imagery. I don't really understand what sex has to do with burgers at all, so I find this advertisement pretty irrelevant in general.

So like I said, shockvertising definantely can be very effective, but it needs to used on the correct subject matter, and needs to be displayed in the right place.

Is Cheating Becomming Socially Acceptable?

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Cheating. Everyone knows what it is. Although, not everyone's view on cheating is the same. For the majority of us, I'd say we can agree that cheating is immoral and unacceptable in a serious relationship. But there are some cultures in the world who actually believe that cheating is a-ok and shouldn't be looked down upon. Mormons believe that it's acceptable to have more than one wife, and in Islam it is acceptable to have up to four wives at a time. To them though, this technically wouldn't be considered cheating, as it is considered acceptable to have more than one wife at a time, but to other's who do not believe in polygamy –this would seem completely disrespectful and wrong. 

"When people are in a committed relationship, the definition of cheating is based on both parties' opinions, and both parties may redefine their understanding to match the party at an either lower or higher extreme of this definition."

Cheating sucks. I think we can all say we have experienced or known someone who's experienced being cheated on by their partner. Unfortunately, I have been cheated on once in my life, and I can definitely say that it is one of the most horrid feelings in the world, especially when you've put so much faith in a person! But is all cheating considered bad?

In my opinion, I think there are different levels of cheating. There's cheating on your math test in elementary school, cheating on a diet by sneaking a candy bar after a work out, cheating on your favourite brand by switching to a newer one, cheating at a poker game by peeking at someone else's hand, and then there's cheating on your partner...

What I'm trying to say is that I don't believe that all cheating should be considered completely immoral. Innocent cheating such as sneaking a treat while on a diet, isn't the greatest decision in the world, but it's certainly no where near as harmful as cheating on your partner. 

It seems in todays society that cheating has become somewhat more acceptable in a sense. We turn on a TV show and we are exposed to adultery all the time, we listen to the radio and hear a rapper claiming how many "b****es" he's got, we open a people's magazine and read about how so and so is cheating on so and so, we drive down the street and see an advertisement like this...

So, why are we exposed to infidelity & adultery so often? Is the media trying to convey that cheating should be considered acceptable? Or are we taking this whole infidelity thing too seriously?

I honestly believe that in advertising, they use the subject of cheating to catch the viewers attention as it can relate to most people's lives. The advertisement will most likely not fail to be recognizable and memorable since it is connecting to such a taboo and soft subject, and this will make people pay attention. That is their main goal.

Now. There is one last point I would like to make and that is that I think that there are ways of using the cheating subject in an ad, without upsetting people. For example, I think that using an example of a more innocent form of cheating would be ideal. Such as cheating on a brand by changing to a different one, or cheating on your diet, etc. These forms of cheating are less offensive, and avoid relating cheating to relationships with our partners. 

This is an example of an advertisement in which I feel conveys the cheating subject in 

a more innocent and suitable manner, without being offensive to other's. Its still funny, and actually 

pretty cute, and manages to get it's message across without using relationship infidelity. 

In conclusion, I feel that using infidelity in advertising can be suitable, it just needs to be less harsh, and contain a more innocent perspective. Adultery is such a soft subject for some people, especially those who have delt with it throughout their life, and I don't think it's a good idea for a brand or company to give off the impression that they support it.