Advertising
By now, you’ve probably heard about Subway’s former spokesperson, Jared Fogle, being in trouble for distributing child pornography and paying for sex acts with minors. It’s any brand’s worst nightmare.
Funny thing, it’s not just the “big guys” that use celebrity spokespeople in their marketing campaigns. Smaller businesses and nonprofits do it, too. Continue reading
There’s nothing like stating the obvious. Why would any business use misleading advertising at all - especially when it has a good reputation or is trying to build it?
There’s a good lesson here for small to medium businesses whose brand reputations could potentially implode if they practiced business this way. Case in point… American Express.
First, let me say that I have been very brand loyal to Amex for many years. It was the only credit card company that gave me credit when I relocated from Canada to the US. Who knew that credit bureaus don’t share information over borders? One can have a stellar credit rating but has to start from scratch when relocating. Ouch.
So, here’s the promotional email I received from Starwood on July 14, 2015:
Your benefits are getting even better. Learn more > Continue reading
For many years, advertisers thought that using sex or violent themes could influence consumer purchasing. Well, guess what? It ain’t necessarily so!
A new study by the American Psychological Association (APA) says that violent and sexual media content may impair advertising’s effectiveness and ultimately deter purchasing. (Well, there goes the marketing neighborhood.)
We found almost no evidence that violent and sexual programs and ads increased advertising effectiveness,” said Brad J. Bushman, PhD, professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University, and a co-author on the study, which appeared in the journal Psychological Bulletin®. “In general, we found violent and sexual programs, and ads with violent or sexual content decreased advertising.”
