Has the prevalence of false ads led people to become jaded?

Yes

1 of 16

by Aaron Thomas

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Jaded? Jwt the largest advertising agency brand in the United States, and the forth largest full-service network in the world conducted a random on-line survey of 966 Americans 18 years and older, with a 50/50 balance of male/female ratio, on behalf of Adweek, from Sept 5-12."Survey results indicate that Americans' view of the advertising profession could use an overhaul. In terms of respect for profession, only 14% of the sample say their fellow Americans respect ad people, besting national politicians' (10%) and car salesmen' (5%) " (AdWeek). OK, I'd have to say jaded is accurate. At least they're beating the politicians right? The ubiquitous nature of American advertising is such that it pervades nearly every aspect of daily life. Everywhere we look there are messages. The majority of these messages are designed to sell us something. Amid these messages dishonesty has become the norm.

To understand the impact of false advertising it is necessary to first define the term. Then we must look through the lens created by our definition and examine the constant barrage of messages and their consequences.

Definition: "False advertising is, in essence, exactly what the name implies: the passing off of goods or services (yours or a competitor's ) as something or someone's they are not. It is the usurpation of good will and sales by unfair means. False advertising is prohibited and actionable under federal law and by various state statutes which prohibit deceptive trade practices and unfair competition."
(James B. Astrachan, False Advertising Primer Astrachan Gunst Thomas 2006).

With definition in hand we can proceed to the examination of the myriad of messages we are assaulted with during the conduct of our daily lives. This is a good place to point out that Astrachan's "Usurpations of good will" can take place in one of two ways. First it can happen explicitly. That simply means that the advertiser is unabashedly lying to us. The second way that can happen is implicitly. This one is a little harder to put your finger on. It simply means that the advertiser is implying something that isn't exactly true. Both forms of dishonesty are common. The former is currently running rampant on the largely unregulated Internet. The latter has become the status quo of television advertising.

The out and out lying really needs no explanation. Being dishonest for profit is certainly nothing new to anyone. Nearly everyone (religious or not) remembers the story of the snake in the garden of Eden pitching that delicious shiny red apple to a woman named Eve. That snake probably looked a lot like one of the car salesmen mentioned at the top of the story. Just in case those examples have somehow fallen on the uninitiated I'll go back to politician mentioned earlier as well. If nothing else our politician should clearly illustrate the fact. People lie for money.

It's the really the second form of dishonesty that's becoming prevalent in the more traditional mainstream media. Implying, but not exactly telling us things that aren't true about products and services has become the norm. Nearly every commercial on broadcast television is appended by a sentence (at least) to several paragraphs (in extreme cases) of little white fine print. As often as not that fine print is the advertiser's way of heading off a law suit by telling us that what we've just seen isn't exactly true. I'll never forget my first remembered example of this. While slogging out the commercials between scenes of G.I. Joe after school one afternoon I ran across and advertisement for the "Cricket," doll. Cricket came skipping and singing down a yellow brick road surrounded by flowers on either side. I'd barely noticed the commercial. I was busy pouring the milk for my Oreo cookies. My brother tapped me on the shoulder and directed my attention to the screen. "Get this!" he chuckled, barely able to stifle his laughter long enough to point out what almost already had him in stitches. Little white letters, half hidden in a garden of little white flowers at the bottom of the screen proclaimed to all with the extraordinary vision of a fifth grader, "Doll does not walk!"

Twenty something years later I still remember that commercial. What was funny at the time has changed into a permanent sign of the times. Now, rarely does a commercial pass without those little white letters telling us that something the commercial depicts isn't exactly the truth. Jaded? I think maybe we passed jaded some miles back. Numbed is probably more accurate these days. We've been numbed to the point that we don't even see the dishonesty as abnormal. We've been numbed to the point that we don't strain our eyes trying to read those little white letters. We don't know what parts of what we're seeing on the screen are true. The results depicted in dramatization may or may not be typical. Either way we are all pretty sure of one thing. The doll still doesn't walk.

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