“2008: the year of the skeptical consumer”

This is how Advertising Standards Canada describes 2008. Advertising Standards Canada is an agency which is responsible for regulating advertising. They concluded that there was an increase in misleading ads over the years 2006 and 2007. This evolution was followed by an increase in consumer suspicion. There are 2 different sorts of suspicion. The first one is healthy suspicion, where consumers will scrutinize ads more carefully. The other one is a more problematic form of suspicion, which is called defensive suspicion. Studies show us that consumers who feel misled by an ad become not only suspicious of ads of the same advertiser, but also of similar ads of other advertisers. The consumer will see all marketeers as being the same. To solve this problem there is a need for advertising regulation (corrective advertising) to ensure fair competition which will hopefully increase consumer confidence.
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Lynn De Winter

Car designers against the law

Car designers aren't very particular with the law with regard to environment and advertising. They want to promote their product by involving the environment in their publicity. Car designers are obliged to inform their consumers about the fuel consumption and the CO2-emission of the car, they don't always do this legal.

Mostly, this information is impossible to read. Normally 20 per cent of the car publicity must be reserved for these details. This is mentionned in the European directive. It's a very important rule for the European Union. To observe this rule you can always lodge a complaint against it.

Emmy D'Haeye

Is it smart to apply with an incorrect CV?

“No less than 70% of applicants write lies in their Curriculum Vitae”, that is the conclusion of an investigation by Hirescores.com. This ameliorating publicity is a kind of corrective advertising for yourself: applicants give wrong information to their (future) employer. They want to camouflage their flaws to get the job. Despite the fact that they have a lot of working experience, some applicants lie about it because they fear more qualified candidates.
However, people, who apply with a misleading application letter, have to bear in mind that this can have disagreeable consequences. If it is revealed, the applicant will immediately get the sack.

People who want some information concerning the writing of a good CV, go to the following link for some tips. http://www.tiptopjob.com/displaycontent/sectionid/15/contentid/56_how_do_i_write_a_good_cv

Maggelien De Smul

Source : http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=JOBAT_1939
Picture : http://www.exclusivecvs.com/Images/writing%201.jpg

Yaz, the super birth control pill ?

Yaz is the best selling birth control pill in the United States. Bayer brought Yaz on the market with ads that promised women much more than a reliable form of contraception. Yaz could cure pimples and premenstrual syndrome. The FDA and the attorneys generals of 27 states found that the ads for Yaz were deceptive. Yaz does not cure acne or premenstrual syndrome and should not be taken just for those two reasons. The FDA punished Bayer for this quite severely. Bayer has to run a new and corrected campaign and for the next six years all  ads for Yaz have to be screened.

Click this link for the deceptive ad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCg1q0h1PP0



Kirsten Gabrio
article :
http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/pr/article.jsp?content=20080821_144337_22360

Europe can stop misleading ringtone ads

One and a half year ago, the European Commission started its action against misleading advertising of ringtones, wallpapers and mobile phone services on the internet. The commission scrutinized 554 websites of the 27 European Union countries, Norway and Iceland. The investigation was a big success. At least 301 websites gave evidence of intrusion on the EU-consumer’s laws. The websites showed signs of unclear prices, dubious information and misleading advertising in general. In total, 54 websites were closed completely, 159 ones were corrected and the other 70% were cleared out. In Belgium, 18 out of the 28 websites breached the consumers’ laws. The European Commission also fined 9 societies for a total of 2 million euros.
European Consumer Protection Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, said he is satisfied that the action against misleading ringtone advertisements was such a success.

Maggelien De Smul
Source : http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20091117_044&word=misleidende+reclame
Picture : http://www.technologygear.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ringtones.jpg

'Volt'

‘Volt’ is a Belgian television programme on national television which is presented by Kobe Ilsen and Martine Tanghe. Each week Kobe chooses a random television commercial to test whether this advertisement lives up to the expectations it creates. This way he helps consumers to make a difference between false and true information. The presenter repeats the whole commercial to the letter assisted by scientists, professors, test subjects (the consumers themselves),…. The conclusion, after watching some tests, is that there are a lot of statements that have nothing to do with the product/service and just play with the emotions of the consumers, hoping that people will use it faster. The ‘Duracell’ commercial is one example of an ad which was tested and where the result was negative.

Lynn De Winter

Watchdog protects private investors

Belgium is in need of a better financial supervision, because privates are easy convinced of risky financial products. Consumer protection is very important that is why watchdog CBFA (Commissie voor het Bank-, financie- en assurantiewezen) will get a lot of extra power. The bank commission will get a right of veto on all financial advertising, so they can keep the banks under control. They will impose specific conditions to the financial institutions and when it is necessary the watchdog will withdraw the products from the market.

There is some talk of an advisory committee to involve the savers in their own protection.

Emmy D'Haeye

Complaint against Media Markt

Sp.a member of parliament Hans Bonte has lodged a complaint against the campaign of Media Markt.

Media Markt has put in his publicity brochure big record low prices, for instance a notebook for just 0,85euro a day. Bonte says that it's a trick to palm a credit card with the logo of Media Markt on their clients. Thanks to these current prizes people think they can pay off interest-free, but that is the misleading part of the campaign, because on the credit card you must pay an interest of 16 per cent.

Media Markt assures that they follow the rules.

Emmy D'Haeye

Corrective advertising hurts

A study of 3 Canadians was able to show that forcing companies to correct their adverts is bad for that particular industry. The study came after a poll which revealed that only 11% of the consumers trust ads. According to the 3 Canadians corrective advertising should protect the integrity of the industry. But the study proved the reversed effect. Luckily Darke , Ashworth and Ritchie came up with a few remedies for this effect in their study: “Damage from Corrective Advertising: Causes and Cures”. They also highlighted that companies are using more innovative ways of advertising. They also pointed out that regulators mustn’t forget to praise good, genuine adverts.


kirsten gabrio

source : http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/pr/article.jsp?content=20080821_144337_22360

What about science in advertising?

M. Taelman and J.P. De Greve have studied 282 advertising messages appearing on television and in newspapers. More than 60 % of them had a scientific reference, more than 75% of those were misleading.They only studied the categories self-medication without prescription, wellbeing products (f.e. cosmetics), washing-powders, food and cleaning products. For example ‘Minarine Becel Pro-Activ’. This product is supposed to be cholesterol reductive however, it only works if you combine the product with healthy food, otherwise it has no results.




Taelman and De Greve concluded that there is a lot of wrong and misleading information out there, but they also mentioned that some commercials are entirely true.


Lynn De Winter

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The ASA bans ads for Vitaminwater

Coco-cola brought out three misleading ads for Vitaminwater. These ads used the following sentences : 'more muscles than brussels' and 'keep perky when you're feeling murky'. The ASA banned these ads because they could mislead consumers. They made the consumers belief they could get as strong als Jeanclaude Van Damme or that the water is good for your health. The ads for Vitaminwater make it look like a very healthy water with the added nutrients. But the ASA pointed out that the water holds a quarter of the daily amount of sugar and it does not make you as strong as the muscles from Brussels. Consumers are therefore warned to think before they drink Vitaminwater. The water isn't a miracle drink but more a flashy soda with some addes nutrients.

Kirsten Gabrio

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/cocacolas-vitamin-drink-ad-misleading-1798719.html

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/rss/943809/ASA-bans-three-Coca-Colas-ads-Glaceau-Vitaminwater/

Protect youth against advertising

The Flemish Minister of Education Pascal Smet wants to protect young people against the dangers of publicity. The minister wants education to put efforts against misleading advertising because young people don’t know the dangers of advertising yet . He says that youth are overrun with information and that they have to learn the difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy advertisements. Young persons are a lot easier to convince of something than adults and that is why the minister wants to protect these easy preys of advertisers. Smet would like to change the final levels so that young people can judge advertising critically by the end of their secondary education.

Maggelien De Smul

Source: http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=J02H5DR6
Picture: http://www.hln.be/static/FOTO/pe/8/6/1/media_xl_1456396.jpg