Misplaced marketing The social harm of public service advertising

Abstract

The power of advertising is presumed and people behind most public service advertising campaigns see advertising itself as the solution. An advertising campaign that aims to serve a social goal faces many pragmatic obstacles. Advertising professionals contribute to this problem. Just because advertising sometimes can help generate consumer interest in specific brand names does not also mean that every advertised effort will get people to make significant changes in their behavior. The Advertising Council, “dedicated to using the great resources of the advertising industry” to serve the public interest is the largest producer of public service mass communications, campaigns in the USA. Free public service work from anyone is admirable and the Advertising Council’s dedication to public service is a wonderful credit to business groups supporting it. In other countries that lack the traditions of the US Advertising Council, the advertising‐based campaigns draw on government tax funds or limited resources of a public group.

The need for new anti‐smoking advertising strategies that do not provoke smoker defiance

“…Still a larger question is how well counter-marketing messages can work at all. Rotfeld (2002) observed that advertising is often presumed to hold near-magical powers in changing problematic behavior, although it seldom does. Rotfeld (1999) also argued that many campaigns have strategically attempted to use appeals to fear, most of which were ineffective at modifying behavior because campaign creators mistakenly believed in an "optimal level of fear," despite 45 years of mixed results.…”