Research
Proposal
Cami
Robison
Advertising controls what Americans
want to bring into their home, purchase for their kids, feed their families,
and most people don't even realize it. Many documentaries are being made to
analyze how advertising companies play our emotions and appeal to consumers to
make us more inclined to buy something, even if it is unhealthy for us.
Advertising agencies are using deceiving tactics and are determined to suck
consumer’s dry of money without considering the long term effects and health
for their customers. This project will look at the pros and cons of advertising
and how it is being used today to lure people into buying products. What
methods of appeal are being used to make consumers more inclined to buy a
product? How are advertisements affecting people negatively? What is the effect
of advertising on our youth and is that the intentions of advertising agencies?
Advertising agencies are steering consumers into making bad purchases and are
steering Americans towards unhealthy habits and lifestyles.
Sources
reviewed so far include "Generic Product Advertising, Spillovers, and
Market Concentration" by George Norman, from Journal of Agricultural Economics. This article provides evidence
that products that are in high demand are not necessarily high quality products,
but are products that are being more advertised and beating out better products
with less advertisement. Similarly, "Generic and Brand Advertising Strategies
in a Dynamic Duopoly" by Frank Bass explains how advertising generic
products and then over advertising a brand name product puts the products in
demand and then makes consumers want to buy the name brand product which is
viewed as higher quality. Todd Schmitt wrote an article called "Decomposing
the Variation in Generic Advertising Response over Time" explaining that
if you track sales history back over the years it shows that sales were through
the roof when advertising was large on a certain product. He states that
advertising controls how and what consumers spend their money on. "Advertising Competition under Consumer
Inertia" by Bibek, Banerjee looks into how consumers put their trust into
an item depending on the level of advertising, and are more likely to make a
second purchase and become a long term costumer even if they were unhappy with
the outcome of the product. If advertisements say it is the best, consumers
believe it is the best. Gerard Tellis wrote an article called "Optimal
Data Interval for Estimating Advertising Response” that summarizes his findings
when using a linear dynamic to show the rise in sales once a product has been
advertised. Stating with support that consumers buy what they are told to buy.
An article called "Under the Radar: Smokeless Tobacco Advertising in
Magazines With Substantial Youth Readership" was written by Margret
Morrison, depicting how tobacco companies use advertising to target young kids
by placing them in magazines with high readership of teens. Similarly, Simone Pettigrew
and his colleagues wrote an article called “Introducing and Applying a new Australian
Alcohol Advertising Code” explaining how Australia has put together a review
board to look over advertisements before publishing them to bring down the
level of targeting children. Although with this they have found advertisements
are implying through context versus stating outright what they want to say. An
article called “Youth Attitudes towards Advertisements Depicting Nudity and
Alcohol: Ethical Dilemmas in Advertising.” By Dorah Dubihlela, elaborating on
the importance of advertising ethics and noting how many and almost all
advertising agencies are dishonest and manipulative. More long term customers
will be made if advertisements were honest and trustworthy rather than fooling
consumers into buying a faulty product repeatedly. “Point of Sale Tobacco
Advertising Following a National Advertising Ban” by Allison Myers is a study
showing that 62% of companies kept their tobacco advertisements on the external
of their establishment even after a nationwide ban. And 7 percent had actual
brand photos on them. Veronica Thomas wrote an article called “Conceptualizing
and Exploration of Attitude toward Advertising Disclosures and Its Impact on
Perceptions of Manipulative Intent” depicting how advertising agencies are
using all manipulation to get a positive attitude towards a product from a
consumer, regardless of the quality of the product. This was published in The Journal of consumer Affairs.
In addition to the sources I've
collected so far, I would like to collect information from documentaries on the
forms of advertising to help broaden my sources and provide a visual aid. I
have collected many peer-reviewed sources from Ebsco Host that has helped
further my argument. While Ebsco Host has provided me with many sources on
alcohol and tobacco advertising, I need to find sources that look more into the
advertising method overall, and to do this I plan to use JSTOR which seems to
provide sources on a broader level. I would love to find a source that goes
into the detail of product placement in stores to be able to reference and show
how advertisers are not just using billboards and commercials to manipulate
consumers but the placement of an item in stores as well. I plan to do some
field research by going to a grocery store and really paying attention to what
I see and what pulls me in.
This week I am going to use
different data bases to find any additional sources that may be able to
contribute to my paper. I plan to have an outline for my research paper ready
by the 21st so I can start writing within the next week. I will have my
annotated bibliography don't by the 21st as well. By week seven I will have a
rough draft put together of my paper for me to work on and elaborate and
perfect my use of sources. Also, I will have completed my literature review. by
week eight I will have my outline, rationale, and abstract ready to submit, and
have my peers and helpers in the writing lab review my paper so I can make
changes if necessary. By week ten I will have my final draft completed and
ready to submit
Cited sources
Norman, George. "Generic Product Advertising,
Spillovers, and Market Concentration." American Journal of Agricultural
Economics 90.3 (2008): 719-732. JSTOR. 5 Feb. 2014.
This article is examining the choice to advertise goods and
shows that even inefficient products are in demand over higher quality products
that are less advertised. Showing that advertisement makes the difference
between sales in a product. if consumers are told its quality it becomes a best
seller. I will use this source to show the severity of how advertising impacts
consumers.
Bass, Frank M. "Generic and Brand Advertising
Strategies in a Dynamic Duopoly." Marketing
Science 24.4 (2005): 556-568. JSTOR.
5 Feb. 2014.
This article explains the difference of advertising brand
versus generic products and how much of each is necessary. Generic advertising
must be done to spike the demand for a product and brand advertising is used to
execute the best brand to be purchased, I will use this source as an example of
how advertising companies are appealing to consumers’ needs by manipulating
them.
Schmit, Todd M. "Decomposing the Variation in Generic
Advertising Response over Time."
American Journal of Agricultural Economics 86.1 (2004): 139-153. JSTOR. 6 Feb. 2014.
This article has tracked food spending patterns over the
last few years and has found that it all changes according to focus of
advertisement, switching the demand for different brands of cheeses depending
on the brand most advertised that year. I will use this to explain how these patterns
are showing that advertising agencies are controlling consumers.
Banerjee, Bibek. "Advertising Competition under
Consumer Inertia" Marketing Science
22.1 (2003): 131-144. JSTOR. 6 Feb.
2014.
This article looks into the likelihood of a consumer to
repeat a purchase even if unhappy with results or a raised price solely based
on the advertising of the product. This is done by persuading the buyer that
the brand has value. I plan to use this source to demonstrate how consumers
aren't aware that they are being manipulated.
Tellis, Gerard J. "Optimal Data Interval for Estimating
Advertising Response." Marketing
Science 25.3 (2006): 217-229. JSTOR.
7 Feb. 2014.
This article finds data that links sales with current and
past advertising showing the rise in sales once advertised. a linear dynamic is
used to ensure the accuracy of the data. I will use this source to show
statistical support to my claim towards advertisements.
Morrison, Margret A. "Under the Radar: Smokeless
Tobacco Advertising in Magazines With Substantial Youth Readership" American Journal of Public Health 98.3
(2008): 543-584. JSTOR. 7 Feb. 2014.
This article explores the placement of vapor cigarette ads
in magazines with a high youth readership. The placement of these ads is to
target young kids to form lifelong tobacco customers. I will use this to my
argument of placement of ads as a way of manipulating consumers.
Pettigrew, Simone, Johnson, Rebecca, Daube, Mike.
“Introducing and Applying a new Australian Alcohol Advertising Code.” Journal of Public Affairs 13.1 (2013):
72-83. EBSCO HOST. 7 Feb. 2014.
This article explains that a review board has been made for
Advertisements in Australia to try and help censor the different targets of ads
depicting alcohol, tobacco, and more unhealthy products. They are finding that
advertising agencies are becoming sneakier in publishing ads that imply certain
things but do not say them outright. Advertisements are beginning to focus on
context so they cannot be bashed for their content. I will use this in my paper
to show how people don’t catch the way advertisements target young kids.
Dubihlela, Dorah. “Youth Attitudes towards Advertisements
Depicting Nudity and Alcohol: Ethical Dilemmas in Advertising.” South African Journal of Phycology 41.2
(2011): 207-217. EBSCO HOST. 8 Feb.
2014.
This article discusses the importance of advertising ethics
and building a business people can trust. Majority of businesses have no
morality and are giant money making agencies that aren’t concerned about
obtaining a long term customer through honesty and quality product, but by
depicting inappropriate context for alcohol and nudity to target kids into
forming habits at a young age. I will use this source in my paper to support my
claim of unhealthy companies attempting and succeeding to lure kids into
unhealthy addictions.
Myers, Allison E. “Point of Sale Tobacco Advertising
Following a National Advertising Ban.” Public
Health 13.5 (2013): 534-540. EBSCO
HOST. 8 Feb. 2014.
This article reviews a study of Tobacco advertising after a
national ban on advertising. It shows that 62% of retail outlets still
displayed tobacco advertisements on their exterior store. I will use this
source to provide statistical evidence towards my claim.
Thomas, Veronica L. “Conceptualizing and Exploration of
Attitude toward Advertising Disclosures and Its Impact on Perceptions of
Manipulative Intent.” The Journal of
Consumer Affairs 10.1 (2013): 564-587. EBSCO
HOST. 8 Feb. 2014.
This article explains how advertising disclosures are meant
to manipulate consumers into a certain attitude to change their perception of a
product. It includes diagrams and statistics on the matter although it has been
studied little. This source looks into the depth of advertising disclosures. I
will use this source to demonstrate the manipulative intent of advertising
agencies and also use evidence to support my claim.
