Ethics in Advertising and Types of Instincts

Developed by Dinesh Poorun

© 2013 UWS College. This work is copyright and cannot be used without the

permission of UWS College

Advertising

• Advertisers have come under attack for influencing people to spend money to chase an often unrealistic aspiration.

• In fact advertisers have increasingly turned to psychologists to find out how to hit the right buttons in people in order to make them buy products and services.

• Is this right? Are audiences vulnerable or discerning?

Appeals to instincts and emotions

• Television commercials and magazine advertisements aim to create the feeling that an instinct can be satisfied or an emotion soothed through the use of a sponsor’s product.

Acquisitive Instinct

• The acquisitive instinct causes us to save, collect and hoard all kinds of possessions.

• From this instinct we get a satisfying feeling of ownership.

Sexual Instinct

• The sexual instinct is most strongly catered to in television advertisements. Sex appeal is used to sell almost any product.

Herd Instinct

• The herd instinct draws people together and makes them want to be part of a group or crowd.

• Eg McDonalds stress the family aspect of togetherness while Coke and Pepsi stress peer togetherness and acceptance.

Love Instinct

• Love is the most important human emotion. Lover’s shown using a product, associates the feeling of love with the product.

Maternal Love

• Maternal love is another important emotion. According to some advertisements a mother can only show true love by using these products.

• In a sense you are making a parent guilty if they don’t use the product. Infant formula is an example of this. How ethical is this?

Fear

• Fears are also exploited in advertising. People are frightened of loneliness and rejection.

Fear

• Sometimes Advertisers make us believe that if we don’t use a product our lives will be immeasurably worse.

The demographics of social class.

• Women are the most sought after group by advertisers, even more important is the spending power across genders.

• Advertisers have devised a scale according to spending power.

Quintile Groups

• A households are successful upper professionals like doctor and lawyers. Only 2 percent of the population are in this category.

• B households are below the top but are still well off. University lecturers, pharmacists and directors of small companies are included here. These households comprise 11 percent of population

Quintile Groups

• C households are lower middle class and make up 23 percent of the population. Tradespeople, and various white collar workers are included in this group.

• D households are general clerical staff, apprentices and semi skilled workers

Quintile Groups

• E households are manual workers, labourers, factory workers, truck drivers etc.

• FG households are people receiving welfare payments, including unemployed and retired pensioners.

Attitudes and beliefs

• The Stanford Research Institute’s Values and Lifestyles Programme (VALS) has organised peoples attitudes and beliefs into five groupings. (Stewart and Kowaltzke, p159, 1997)

5 groupings

• 1. Belongers are traditional, conservative and conformist, Advertisers may show family values.

• 2. Emulators are young people searching for identity. Advertisers may show aspirational images, heroes and heroines.

5 groupings

• 3. Emulator-achievers are successful, enjoy acquiring things and buy brand names. Advertisers focus on success and taste.

• 4. Socially conscious achievers believe inner peace and the environment are more important than financial success.

• 5. Needs directed are survivors on incomes that allow only needs and not wants to be fulfilled.