Advertising



There are many different types of advertising that we use. Some include, informative advertising, and misleading or deceptive advertising.
Informative advertising provides the potential buyer with useful information about the product.If you are trying to sell medications they show the purpose of the drug and side effects.
Misleading or deceptive Advertising intentionally deceives or confuses the consumer. An example of this is when they say studies show the superiority of the product, but realistically they do not exist.

Advertising Tricks and Techniques (P.186)

Weasel words
They create and illusion of a promise, but permit the adviser to "weasel out" of the deal.
Example: "Loose up to 30 pounds a month" (Wont a loss of zero pounds be in this range?)"

Attention grabbers
These are phrases or words that are powerful when advertising. They grab the listener or viewers attention quickly.
Example: "All Natural" "Money-back guarantee"

Visual Image
This is a time-tested method of promoting products. They can also enhance imagery by linking it with a auditory cue, like those commerical that have picture, but also have a song with it.


Comedy
A lot of the time advertisers like to add humor to their ads. This way it grabs your attention and you remember it. Also it is more likely that you will tell someone else about it.

 

Marketing to Children

Many children learn from about various information from what they see from the media.

When children see advertisements on commercial or even in shows, most of the time they tell their parents about it because it is something they want. On the children channels, people always put advertisements of toys, food, and clothing sales. According to the text it states "A large number of television ads are targeted to children are for food, candy, presweetened cereal, soft drinks, and fast food. A tiny minority of these commerical promote healthy foods (P.197)." Movies are often used to promote products. Toys that are associated with movies are stuffed with children's meals and fast food restaurants.

Marketing contributes to many problems facing children today

• Marketing directly to children is a factor in the childhood obesity epidemic.
• Marketing also encourages eating disorders, precocious sexuality, youth violence and family stress and contributes to children’s diminished capability to play creatively.
• As young children are developing their gender identities, they are flooded with ads for products promoting sexualized stereotypes. There are 40,000 Disney Princess items on the market today.
• Violent movies, like Spiderman and Transformers, market toys that promote violence to boys.

http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/resource/marketing-children-overview

 

This video is really interesting! Ever wonder why food looks so good on television? This video shows how they make it look better than it is in person.

Consumer Protection




US Food and Drug Administration
http://www.fda.gov/

"The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and sexuality of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nations food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation"

US Enviornmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/
"They protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment-air, water, and land- upon which life depends."

US Department of Agriculture
http://www.usda.gov/
"Provide leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science and efficient management"


Reflection Question

After watching both videos and reading the lecture material located here, how will the information help you to protect yourself and become a better consumer in the future?

I have learned that advertisements make the product better than what it is. Often they use catchy phases, so it is important to understand and think about the things they say. When an advertisement grabs my interest I will research it more than what the information provided. Sometime the product states information that provides brief information that only lists the positives of the product. It is recommended that we should avoid unnecessary health expenses. Also as a consumer I have learned many different ways to help keep myself safe and healthy in the future.

Participation

One thing I learned in this session that I may be able to use in the future is the different ways businesses preform advertisements. This will be used in the future because I am really interested in weight loss. So those pills that have say "Lose up to 30 pounds" I learned that that could also mean 0 pounds. They use words that get you to buy their product. Now I know the phrases they use to get people's attention.

 

The semester is quickly coming to a close. I want you to look at all of your grades in discussions, quizzes and journals and reflect on the following:
I did awesome on all of the discussions and journals!

What did you find the most difficult about this course? I found the quizzes the most difficult because I couldn't reflect on it. Multiple choice questions are always the most difficult for me.  

What did you enjoy the most about this course? I of course enjoyed the learning journals. This is because I could reflect on what I learned. Also I could use my creativity on these as well.

If you feel that everything has gone well, what is it that helped you to achieve success?

I feel like taking this online course was a great choice. I love that I could do the assignments when I had time. Also reading the text book helped me achieve my success.