Abstract

The article focuses on issues of consumer information and consumer deception in advertising. A most important feature of advertising is to provide all needed consumer information regarding the product or service advertised. This is especially important for new products and products made with new materials, for which, in the early marketing stages at least, there is very little information available. It is widely alleged that the public is exposed to vast numbers of advertisements each day-as many as five hundred to fifteen hundred. If so, there is surely a direct parallel with the mail-order catalog. Most consumers pay no attention to advertisements for products and services that are of neither direct and immediate nor eventual interest to them as potential customers. This is very likely true whether the advertisement appears on television, is heard on the radio, or is seen in magazines and newspapers-unless the advertisement is entertaining as such. Thus, the essential task for advertising, to provide all needed information to the consumer, is a basic problem of careful design and programming.