By: Pouneh Aghababazadeh, Melody Hsia, Yalan
(Mary) Luo, &Tian (Jason) Tan
Marketing is an important and vital part of any
successful company, business, or organization that wants to generate revenue.
Any product that a company wants to market must go through a process that
includes new product development, product enhancement, sales, distribution, and
pricing. Though each step of the process is crucial, advertising and promotion
are probably the most significant, since it is the only way in which a product
may be broadcasted and shown to the public. With this option, however, many
businesses may choose to alter their product advertisement in an effort to
trick the consumer audience into purchasing their product. This kind of fraud
and deception in the advertising world is unfortunately extremely common, with
detrimental effects- to the business and the consumer.
Fake advertising can be found from small to
large scale businesses, and even to educational institutions. Even from humble
and community-driven business opportunities like the farmer’s markets, a recent
article reported that farmers had been lying about where their produce was
grown and if it was harvested with or without pesticides. One of the farmers
tried selling broccoli that he had purchased from a wholesale producer and then
claiming that he had grown it organically himself. “Lampman asked
Uriostegui to show him where he was growing broccoli, but all the farmer could
show him was a patch of dry dirt” (nytimes.com). Many farmers may also claim
that their produce was grown without pesticide methods, but when asked how,
they had no viable response. These farmers attempted to tack on information
about their products that they knew consumers would be attracted to.
Marketing scams may often include exaggerating
or overly praising the ability of a product. One of the main drugstore Beauty
businesses, Rimmel, was also recently filed with marketing fraud due to a
decepting mascara ad.”According to the complaint ... the company’s ‘grow lash
claim is false, misleading, and reasonably likely to deceive the public’”
(lexology.com). These makeup advertisers also attempted the same thing the
farmers did- attempting to convince consumers of a false misconception of their
product.
Even education institutions like colleges and
universities often falsely advertise accreditations and opportunities in an
effort to lure students into attendance. Recruitment officers may give off a
“false sense of their future career prospects” and may even “cost
taxpayers money when an inordinate number of such students default on their
student loans” (myquitamlawsuit.com).
Fraud and deception are rampant in society today and are present in a variety of different scale operations. These advertising scams are detrimental to a company or establishment’s reputation and jeopardizes producer-consumer trust. Advertisement and promotion are key components in marketing as well as business as a whole- that place significant effects on revenue.
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