Dispatches: social media fooling and celebrity endorsements

Hello,

So last night i watched dispatches on channel 4 which often highlights unlawful/unethical treatment whether that be of consumers, staff, general public or animals. The programme is always worth a watch but last night was particularly interesting, especially if you have an interest in marketing/advertising or celebrities. The show was titled 'celebs, brands and fake fans' and explained how companies can sometimes hype their own products by paying for Facebook likes, twitter followers or YouTube hits. This false popularity can often lead consumers to purchase products they believe are popular when as a matter of fact this following has been created by an IT hacker in Bangladesh.

The programme also had a focus on celebrity endorsements on twitter and that celebs have been promoting products without revealing to fans they have been paid to do so and breaking the asa code. The sad reality is that whilst these marketing agencies or departments have been putting all the best efforts to create a buzz around their products has actually back fired with the revelations on the show. The only way to create a natural, genuine hype or buzz about a product is to sell a product which is of good quality, provide a good service or to create something interesting and then word of mouth will be your best friend! Companies should have learnt by now that consumers DON'T LIKE BEING LIED TO!!

However I do believe that giving products to celebrities free gifts and asking them to review or recommend them is an excellent form of marketing and isn't unethical if the celebs actually give their own opinion of their own free will.

A lot of companies have started to use this method not only with celebrities but with bloggers- a lot of which I read. Recently I was reading a fashion blog which recommended the website sheinside.com and featured some clothing items off there which the blogger loved..... Paid? I don't know...

So I decided to go ahead and buy the top as it did look lovely on the blog. My top arrived about a month later.... And it was faulty! When I tried to contact the website I realised they are based in china and provide terrible customer service and most of the responses to my numerous emails have been worded in terrible English! Not good and now I am let with faulty clothes and no refund! 

My point is, bloggers and other endorsers may recommend products even when they aren't great! Do t trust everything you read.

And you will be happy to know everything in my blog is my own opinion!!

Steph

Ethics

Personalised advertising online can be an excellent tool for advertisers; a. to reach their target audience directly b. not to waste money advertising to the wrong consumers and c. to measure the effectiveness of the adverts by monitoring clicks.

However, adding to my previous blog post on the use of cookies, there are much stronger ethical concerns which I have noticed recently (mainly from Yahoo and Facebook).

So when I was booking flights to Malaga recently, I was clearly searching for a good deal and using Google searches to do so. I clicked on to various 'money saving' comparison sites. Then once I had booked the flights, for the next 2 weeks I was bombarded with adverts such as "hotels in Malaga" "car rental in the Costa del Sol" etc.
Clearly this is effective advertising and the companies behind the adverts are reaching their target audience (i.e. me).

On the other hand, I was also searching to buy a juice diet book and some raspberry ketones (big slimming movement before Costa del Sol....) and was again using google, amazon etc to search for these and checking out celebrity body results from using the diet regimes.
Now everytime I click on to my facebook timeline or on the side of a website I see photos of skinny celebrities, flat stomached women and 'quick-fix' diet plans.
This is driving me mad as it's making my self-image = 0 and my motivation to get thin = 100. I am quite a receptive person but also have a level of self-control HOWEVER surely someone suffering from an eating disorder making the same kind of searches as me, or more specific weight loss searches would also be bombarded with the same types of advertising (considering their cookies settings were similar etc.) but imagine the effect this would have on them!?

Showing skinny celebrities is one ethical consideration however displaying them to an unconfident, potentially vulnerable target audience is an entirely different ethical consideration!
I think companies should consider the effect it has on their stakeholders- particularly the vunerable ones.

The media can't be blamed for everything.