The New Wave of Advocacy of Financial Recklessness in Advertising
in which desperation about the economy starts to set in
Posted Jun 24, 01:17 am in business, business models, consumerism, economics, ethics, human nature
The poor economy has hit a lot of people very hard. As such, there’s been a glut of commercials on daytime television extolling the virtues of various cost-saving products. But one in particular that I’ve seen lately has been striking in its unbridled pomposity. This commercial features a nicely-dressed, middle-aged, middle-class couple talking tough about their finances. The wife reveals, in a rather distressed manner, that their monthly paycheck is “spent before we even get it.” Her husband adds that they decided that they needed to make serious cuts to their monthly expenses. “That’s why,” the woman says shortly before her husband sits in a nice leather chair opposite a a rather large, late-model flat panel television, “we switched from [a certain brand of satellite television network] to [another brand of satellite television network].” Huh?
Commercials like this trouble me. Obviously, the goal of some marketers is to get people to fork over money for things they don’t necessarily need. However, the mechanism employed by this commercial is to encourage financial recklessness by actively reinforcing the idea that certain luxuries are actually necessities. This demarcation of necessity/luxury is being increasingly blurred by advertisers, many of whom are now attempting to leverage latent consumer concerns about financial security to get them to actually spend more! By buying this [unnecessary] product, you’re actually demonstrating good financial judgment. Objectively, this assertion is not true; yet commercials like this one create an illusory social consensus about the wisdom of certain ill-advised consumer behaviors. After all, why would that nice couple on TV lie to us?
This trend is not limited to premium television channels. Many cell phone commercials seem to suggest something similar about “saving” money through consumption, as do many home internet services. No doubt, these services are extremely convenient, but for most people they are far from necessary, particularly if you are concerned about losing your house or climbing out from under a mountain of debt, both of which are probably much bigger concerns. The auto company Hyundai began running ads encouraging consumers to buy their cars, stating that they would allow a consumer to return the vehicle if their income stream was interrupted in any way. Ford and other car companies soon followed suit with similar programs. The question remains as to whether it is a wise idea for anyone who is concerned about the future of their income stream to purchase a car in the first place; after all, shouldn’t such people be trying to save money for future financial straits for when they potentially lose their jobs?
This brings us to rather salient questions about marketing ethics. Marketers are already considered pretty low on the food chain in terms of ethics, but in the midst of a global financial crisis, advocacy by companies of personal financial indiscretion is still a very ugly sight to behold. We should recall that lifestyles of excess were at the root of the sub-prime crisis, and we might be concerned by the idea of consumers being egged on by industry to continue doing it. We can’t legislate morality, but as consumers we can certainly question the ethical standards of companies whose competitive business model rely heavily on their customers’ bad judgment. But to be fair, we also can’t discount the role of the consumer either; surely consumers must take some responsibility for their own financial well-being.*
Troubling as it may be, I see this as simply a continuation of what has always been going on in marketing communications: companies try to promote certain beliefs, consumers hear it and form a dialogue with it. The ideas that consumers find convenient and/or believable stick; those that do not, fall by the wayside. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s somewhat democratic. But like democracies, sometimes it’s the stupid ideas that win out in the end.
* We tend to think of the U.S. economic system as being largely modeled on free market economics, which is in many ways built on the idea of consumers making informed choices, companies responding to market needs, and companies competing with each other to provide needed goods and services. Shift all the responsibility on any one party, and the equation starts to break down.
Maybe ethical standards in marketing will improve now that Oprah is involved.
http://www.adotas.com/2009/08/oprah-is-coming-after-bad-internet-marketers/
— Bartleby · Aug 22, 02:14 pm · #