Advertising and Promotion

Ethics are moral principles and values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group (Belch 731). It’s no surprise that some commercials and/or advertisements are ethically questionable at best. For this blog, I will explore 3 different advertisements and analyze their lack of ideally ethical consideration. The first ad is Reebok’s    “Cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout”     poster. This is a perfect example of advertising as offensive or in bad taste (Belch 734). It's a controversial ad which was originally intended to motivate gym goers in a German Gym. Instead, it produced a detrimental stigma for Reebok and was quickly removed from display as a result of widespread complaints. One letter sent from Cheaterville.com (a site that publicizes cheating partners) in response to this poster read: " This form of advertising shows a dishonest and disrespectful attitude towards women and your company should be ashamed to have even placed this ad in

Marketing is all about testing the effectiveness of different means, methods, and styles of advertising. Pretests are measures taken before an advertising campaign is implemented (Belch 609). There are two categories of pretesting: laboratory methods and field methods. In laboratory test, people are brought to a particular location where they are shown ads and/or commercials (Belch 610). Laboratory methods of pretesting consist of consumer juries, portfolio tests, physiological measures, theater tests, rough tests, concept tests, readability tests, and comprehension and reaction tests (Belch 609). Consumer Juries (Belch 613) - uses consumers representative of the target market to evaluate the probable success of an ad. Consumer juries may be asked to rate a selection of layouts or copy versions presented in pasteups on separate sheets. Portfolio Tests (Belch 615) - a laboratory methodology designed to expose a group of respondents to a portfolio consisting o both control and tes

Recently, advertisers have been making more use of consumer generated commercials. These consumer generated commercials are usually produced on social media sites such as YouTube and Bebo. For example, Doritos' "Crash the Superbowl VIII" promotion which asked Doritos consumers to compete in making the best Doritos commercial for the 2014 Superbowl. The maker of the winning commercial received $1 million and time on the set of The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Though this is a very innovative and growing means of advertising, it has its advantages and disadvantages. A couple of the advantages of consumer generated advertising are creativity and exposure.  Consumer generated commercials make it easier for companies to get creative with advertising their products. Advertising firms only have so many employees with a limited amount of ideas. Ideas generated by inside and outside advertising firms are more finite than those generated by millions of consumers.  Com

Numerous home-shopping channels have recently started offering a variety of upscale products.   For example, in 2010 HSN started carrying the Sally Hershberger line of hair care products (Belch 486).   Home-shopping channels, such as QVC, Shop@homeTV, and Shop NBC have also added higher end products to their inventory like jewelry and high quality kitchenware.   However, home-shopping channels becoming more upscale has gives the industry its advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages are gaining prestige among consumers making people aspire to purchase from home-shopping channels and broadening the target market.   When people see upscale products being sold on home-shopping channels such as QVC and Shop NBC, these channels will automatically gain a reputation for being “higher end”.   People aspire to be a part of the high class, upper income social status, or at least give off the impression of being so.   This will encourage more people to utilize and purchase from home-shop

"Publicity refers to the generation of news about a person, product, or service that appears in broadcast or print media" (Belch 584).  Many say that any publicity is good publicity.  However, what about publicity that truly is not all that "good" in nature?  This comes into play specifically when it comes to people. Exhibit A: Jeff Skilling One example of bad publicity is in the case of the energy company Enron and its former president Jeff Skilling.  Enron’s bankruptcy in 2001, after allegations of substantial accounting fraud, wiped out $78 billion in stock market value.   This also led to the collapse of Arthur Andersen and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.   A class action settlement of $7.185 billion was the largest in history.   Former President/CEO Jeff Skilling is serving a 24-year sentence as a result. (Forbes) Jeff Skilling’s responsibility for Enron’s accounting fraud got huge publicity in the early to mid 2000s.   It was widely

As new means of entertainment are being created to bypass and/or limit the consumption of TV advertisements, the strength of using TV advertising is becoming more and more debatable. However, TV advertising still has its advantages and limitations for both major national advertisers and local companies.  The advantages to TV advertising are:  Creativity and Impact:  The interaction of sight and sound offers tremendous creative flexibility and makes possible dramatic, lifelike representations of products and services. TV commercials can be used to convey a mood or image for a brand as well as to develop emotional or entertaining appeals that help make a dull product appear interesting. (Belch 365)  Coverage and Cost Effectiveness:  Nearly everyone, regardless of age, sex, income, or educational level, watches at least some TV. "According to Nielson Media Research estimates, nearly 280 million people age 2 or older live in the nation's 114.9 million TV Households, near

During times of economical downturns, many companies compromise their advertising and promotion. However, this is not always the best strategy to pursue. A great deal of managers fail to realize the value of advertising and promotion. When dealing with a recession the best defense is a good offense. "Most firms tend to cut back on advertising during a recession, reducing noise and increasing the effectiveness of advertising of the firm that advertises" (Belch 233). Companies expect sales to inevitably decrease during a recession so they do not put forth much effort to increase or even maintain advertising an advertising budget. Since this is the most common mind set for companies during a recession, going against this would give a daring company the chance to stand out. Advertising during a recession will assure a lack of competition and/or distractions (several other advertisements).  "Not cutting back on advertising during a recession could increase sales during