The morally problematic deceptive and associative advertisment : intent for an analysis

Résumé du document

In our current society of communication, the weightage of image is undeniable. Advertising is one of the most significant vehicles of such a trend. It could be even considered the cause of the current transformations to consume and to conceive goods. Indeed, according to the analysis of the authors Leiss and Kline, the function of goods has changed. From being initially satisfiers of needs or wants, goods have become 'communicators of meanings'. Advertising is regarded most of time as responsible for this evolution and sometimes morally problematic because of its process of mental association between 'non-market desires' and marketed products in the consumer's mind. Moreover, according to the analysis of Waide in his text 'The making of self and world in advertising', people exposed to associative advertising 'are buying more but enjoy less' and are not encouraged to 'cultivate non-market virtues'. But what about the freedom of choice of the consumer, his free will? What about the potential positive fallouts of advertising, even if it is associative advertising, in terms of global welfare induced by a bigger consumption?

Extraits

[...] In other words, this ad puts on display women in the more sexist way (through prostitution which embodies the higher level of subordination of women) but the tone and the focus of the ad make the advertising practices on display acceptable contrary to the intentions on display in the former advertisement. Mixing the persuasion theory (by making the owners of such a car people with humor) and the information theory in a suggestive way (the car is shown and its non pollutant virtues supposed known), this ad plays on irony. This breaks the traditional schemes of car advertisement relying on the image of virility. [...]

[...] Manipulative advertisement restricts personal autonomy by imposing rational” choice in the consumer's mind. The restriction of personal autonomy is noteworthy to such an extent that the consumer's freedom is neglected by the orientation of his choice. The consumer is not according to Kant's criterion of freedom and autonomy. So the Kantian framework seems fitted to evaluate what is morally problematic in associative advertising. By undermining the cultivation of non market values and by promoting a “hedonistic lifestyle” for the consumer, some practices also run counter the Virtue Ethics. [...]

[...] Moreover, this ad is morally problematic because of the disrepute implicitly thrown on women on the one hand: she becomes an object attracted thanks to another (the perfume). On the other hand, women are conceived as a mean to an end: the satisfaction of the male desire. And this contradicts the Kantian principle according to which everybody as to so that always treats others as an end and never as a means to an end”. Not only the marketer uses non-market desires of his clients as a mean to enhance the sell of his product but he also implicitly incites them to conceive women in an instrumentalized way. [...]

[...] This ad is a clear illustration of the persuasive theory of advertisement. Indeed, the implicit association of a non market desire with a marketed product relies on the kind of lifestyle associated with the owning of the car. The man, with visibly a high standard of living, an attractive look (which seduces an attractive woman), seems to have everything except mental evasion. The BMW is supposed to bring this part of dream. What is morally problematic here is related to two levels of analysis; first, in a Kantian view, inciting to treat the other as a mean to a physical satisfaction is not the moral way to respect their individuality and rationality. [...]

[...] According to the Kantian view, this is morally problematic to call to women in such a way. Indeed, it denies their own rationality and capacity of autonomy; the way they lead their existence is made according to imposed male reference. It is like they have no proper existence in themselves, which makes them chose a product implicitly presented as a way to come up to latent and dull social construction of beauty. The study of this corpus enables us to analyze the problematic dimensions of associative advertising through the Kantian framework: the utilization of the other as a mean to an end (as in advertiser's intentions as in conceptions induced in the consumer's mind) makes some advertising practices not morally sound. [...]