Deceptive Advertising

Discussion in 'Business & Economics' started by lixluke, Jun 24, 2005.

  1. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    9,072
    Deceptive advertising. Deceptive marketing.

    It is destructive. It is everywhere. There is no escape.
    Do you think anything can ever be done to put a stop to it?
    What are some of the things you do in your own life to cope with an environment of mass deception?
     
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  3. Sauce We're Living To Die Registered Senior Member

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    Be smarter then the average Joe and think about something before you buy it.
     
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  5. -Bob- Insipid Fool Registered Senior Member

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    The only thing you can do is change your environment, it seems.

    I don't have a tv, for one. I also naturally mistrust every ad I see, and make a point not to buy the product if it is stuck in my face. Except for those products I particularly like.

    As for larger schemes of controlling the environment, the only natural solution is a society built from scratch, with a decidedly different ethos than our current one. It seems to be a necessity of capitalism that products be advertised and that companies are free to at least insinuate falsities. The real problem is society, and their willingness to be misled and reward those who mislead them (companies would refrain from all advertising, if something was done so that their business suffered instead of benefitted as a result).
     
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  7. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    "The real problem is society, and their willingness to be misled "
    ========================================
    That sounds like you are balming the victim. The problem is those that are committing the deceiving. It would not be very responsible to make the victim the cause of the problem. Those that are commiting the act are the ones that are responsible for being the cause of the problem.

    People can be cautious, and understand how capitalism works. Everything that a business does is for the profit of the business. That is the one thing that one might want to remember when walking out into the real world. Though consumers are not the cause of the problem, they can take steps to avoid being victimized when they can. They can also take steps to avoid participating in it within their own business.

    You mentioned building a society from scratch. Do you know about the new country, New Utopia? Do you think they have plans in their own country to deal with this? They seem to place high value on capitalism and health care.
     
  8. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    Humans have been lying to each other since the beginning of time ...and you expect to change that by creating some kind of law or rule? ....LOL! If so, you don't know human nature very well.

    Baron Max
     
  9. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    Another expert on human nature here. Take your attacks elsewhere. You are only here to claim that I do not know human nature very well. You have no idea what I know. Frankly, your use of context regarding 'human nature' is typical docile rant.
    Come with a more logical analysis without restating typical kindergarten 'human nature' sewage.

    You claim you know anything about human nature. Please enlighten us with your expert opinion. Human nature is greed. Human nature is self interest. Is this a close enough description about your docile view about human nautre?
     
  10. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    33,264
    There are laws governing false advertising but there's always a way around any law. The best thing to do is become aware and better educated as to what you buy and from whom you buy it. Check with your local consumer protection agency or better business bureau to see if they have any information about the company you are going to do business with. Always try to get three dealers information about the product to see if the prices are about the same. Check to see how long the companies have been in business if possible. Never go for a deal you think is to good to be true because it usually isn't.
     
  11. DarkEyedBeauty Pirate. Registered Senior Member

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    730
    Be a smart consumer and encourage other people to do it. The more people that don't buy into such deceptive marketing, the less business they will have. However, that will probably only take one business down at a time...others will spring up. But people will always, things are always embellished in advertising. Until we all become perfect beings, this will exist.
     
  12. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    9,072
    I agree. Of course, I should have known that your sense would not last long before you say something completely asurd:
    It's funny how peolpe swear they are psychic and can predict the future. Most of the time their false predictions are based on their own delusion. I do not see any practical point in sealing your own fate. DEB does this in most if her posts more than anybody on this forum. I could start a collection of fakist propaganda spread by the DEB-robot. It has been embedded with false information, and promotes it fanatically wherever she goes.
     
  13. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    You will get wiser about it as you get older, take my word for it. Why do you suppose that virtually no advertising is aimed at us folks over 50? We've adapted to it. We enjoy the jokes and the music and the dancing and whatever, and we absolutely block out the product. My wife and I often discuss some really enjoyable commercials we both remember, and neither one of us has any idea what the product was, much less the company.
     
  14. -Bob- Insipid Fool Registered Senior Member

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    296
    In many cases yes, hapless victims of outright lies shouldn't be blamed for having at least an inking of trust for the world. But on the other hand, there is much advertising that is merely 'suggestive'. In this case it takes the imagination of the consumer to complete the actual lie.

    And in the case of advertising directed at children, you are correct, something needs to be done to protect them (And yes I know, the line between children and adults is vague).

    What I'm really thinking about is the proper solution; the straight fact is that if people wanted more out of their lives, or were sufficiently aware of the reality of advertising (if the consumer had more self awareness and power), then it would handily become ineffective. Not only that, but it actually might become useful.

    Our society is set up in such a way so that people are taught not to think, to have extended childhoods, so that they will be stupid enough to buy into the advertising. Consider this, and you might see my point of view. It's not natural; people are being systematically turned into hapless consumers.

    And they often don't, a lot of the time because they like the product that is being given to them; and they have nothing better to do with their lives.

    It's too bad they're stupid enough to base it on Rand's ideas; but so be it. I am a libertarian of sorts, though.

    I'm sure there will be television, and consumerism galore.
     
  15. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    9,072
    "In this case it takes the imagination of the consumer to complete the actual lie."
    ****************************************
    It is never the fault of the victim.
    Blame is always on the one that commited the deception.
    It does not matter how off guard you are or how much your desires affect your decisions. Without the criminal, the crime. Without the deceiver, there is no intention for deceit. As long as it is in the intention of a person to deceive, all blame and responsibility falls on that person which is the deceiver.


    New Utopial one of the few new country scams. People invest millions into these fake new countries.
     
  16. -Bob- Insipid Fool Registered Senior Member

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    296
    I'm talking about the literal lie, not a mere insinuation. Lets say that I have a dirty mind, and whenever I look at a woman's body I think about sex. Now an advertisement might feature a woman just for this purpose, but in such a way that it does not blatantly say, "you will have more sex if you buy this product".

    The act of deception concerns the decieved and the deciever, and the deception could not occur without either. I place the blame on the deciever in most cases. However, for people who are intelligent enough to know better (and could easily know better if they were slightly motivated), then it is also true that in a way, these people wish to be decieved. It's like the matrix or something, when a person actually prefers the fantasy to the reality.

    And, what about the case in which someone makes some interpretation of an advertisement that wasn't intended by the advertiser? Who's fault is that? How do you discover it?

    The problem is that you can't really say what the true intention is, or prove it, in these borderline cases.
     
  17. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    23,053
    I think it's interesting ...we had a thread here not too long ago about lying ...and most people found perfectly good "reasons" for lying. Most thought that, while lying is not such a good thing, there are times when it's okay to lie. So if it's okay for some, why not advertisers? See? The key is the absolutism ...if one little "white lie" is okay, what about a "little bit bigger lie"? ...and on and on?

    Baron Max
     
  18. Godless Objectivist Mind Registered Senior Member

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    4,197
    Deceptive addvertising?

    Yea I see it every Sunday, All the religious programing, the healers, the prayer hour, Oh! yes and who can forget, the never ending demanding money.
     
  19. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    23,053
    Yeah, that's what I see, too ....lies, lies and more lies everywhere, all day, all night, from everyone in the world! Lies are tearing us apart faster than anything ....and most will actually argue that "some" lies are okay. Geez!

    Baron Max
     

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