by Ray Langley

Created on: June 03, 2010

How Deceptive Advertising hurts Business

 Deceptive Advertising has many ugly heads in the market place, and is typically an earmark of a business that has failed and seeks to recuperate revenue in a final push for customers. These deceptions draw consumers into sales or purchases that were not appealing, except for where the deception has misled them. The recourse to correct this deception is usually a greater effort and expense then the consumer is willing to become involved. Deceptive advertising has such as adverse effect on a market that the government created regulations designed to impugn a company’s ability to advertise its products and services falsely.  

 Regardless if the deception is with hidden fees (as in Air travel, auto financing, and home mortgages), the manipulation or measurements and standards (computer storage use metric vs. accepted megabyte standard), or the use of “fillers” in food products to increase the product weight, these deceptions hurt the over all market confidence, decreasing the revenue of legitimate business.  “Caveat emptor” Latin for “Let the Buyer Beware” (Wikipedia), is a sentiment that proves that deceptive advertising is not new to the sale of goods and services, but a problem as old as time. Only as recent, as the 1900’s were laws created to protect the consumer.

 Deceptive Advertising has hurt the legitimate business by reducing patronage and the overall confidence in products. Consumer confidence can make or break a market, and as the rate of deceptive advertising raises the repeat consumer declines. This break in the consumer/business relationship can go unnoticed longer the larger the market. Car sales, finance payment plans, service agreements often have “disclosure” statements, which in very small print outline the additional charges or limitations that are not apparent to the purchase of the product or service. Even with the government watchdog, consumers are ultimately responsible for making wise choices in the purchases of goods and services.

 Businesses that flourish on deceptive advertising are typically failing or “fly-by-night” industries, seeking to draw in revenue, without a concern for the over all damage to the consumer. Zygna (social network gaming Mafia Wars, Farmville) CEO Mark Pincus admitted at a conference that he did “I did every horrible thing in the book…,” to bring in revenue, which was not limited to exposing consumers to computer applications which, if were not viruses, were very close (http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-ma rk-pinkus-faceboo/). Deceptive Advertising Hurts Business, by hurting the consumer. Consumer confidence and market reliability are a truly co-dependent relationship, which rely on one another to exist, when one is affected the other is sure to follow.

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