Deception in Advertising

Infographic explaining deceptive marketing techniques.

English writer John Ruskin's opinion of deception parallels the advertising industry's use of deception quite well. When marketers engage in deceptive advertising, they are lying to the consumer without the use of words. While the EPA and FTC protect consumers from fraud in advertising (Bonsu, 2020), the infographic to the left demonstrates the many ways advertisers can legally, although not ethically, create misleading advertisements. While deceptive advertising is certainly a detriment to the consumer, it can also be incredibly costly to the business that engage in it. This article from Business Insider offers eighteen costly instances when business paid a large price for misrepresentation in marketing: 18 False Advertising Scandals (businessinsider.com).

While food marketers walk a fine line between art and deception, this video below demonstrates ten tricks that food marketers use to make their food appear to be much more appealing in print and on video than it actually is on our plates.

(Deceptive Advertising, n.d.)

The two videos below provide excellent examples of historic deception in advertising from 1949 and 1961. Both make fraudulent claims about the health benefits of their products.

In the 1940s, as lung cancer rates were climbing in The United States, the tobacco industry began to use doctors to promote their product to dissuade the public from associating smoking with cancer (Little, 2020).

In the 1960s, women were still told by marketers that they were expected to be slender. Coca Cola was not an exception to this marketing strategy. To market their sugar-laden product, they compared it to half of a grapefruit, used the word "wholesome" to describe its flavoring, and insisted it was useful in remaining slender. In reality, the opposite is true. Soda is the leading cause of obesity in The United States (NBC, 2006).

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Updated 18 July 2022