Strategic Communication or Strategic Manipulation?

Jenna Kissinger

jk960418@ohio.edu

The new age of marketing and adverting driven by technology advancements and social media has created endless lucrative opportunities for people all over the world.  Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram started as unassuming social networking sites that gave people the ability to connect instantaneously on a global scale. 

https://www.businessmagazinegainesville.com/why-we-must-pay-social-media-influencers/

The public has a direct line to celebrities, politicians, and corporations at the touch of their fingertips that has given people unprecedented opportunities to share information.  Although this is an amazing advantage of social media and mobile communication, it seems advertisers and public relations professionals have lost sight of their ethical duties to the public during the excitement.  Once the potential for profitability was revealed, sectors of advertising like influencer marketing gained popularity. 

The Public Relations Society of America and The American Advertising Federation provide ethical guidelines that aim to protect the integrity and trust of the public in terms of strategic communication.  The ethical codes they propose are not unreasonable, because they focus on fundamentals of communicating ethically with the public.  They prioritize the best interests of the public and stress the necessity for truth and transparency.  I think the codes work in the grand scheme of things, but they are ultimately not being followed as closely as they could be.

https://culturainteractive.com/blog/finding-the-right-social-media-influencers-for-your-business/

The fourth PRSA principle asserts, “Advertisers should clearly disclose all material conditions, such as payment or receipt of a free product, affecting endorsements in social and traditional channels, as well as the identity of endorsers, all in the interest of full disclosure and transparency”.  

Instagram is an image-based platform that has become an avenue for the marketing and promotion of products, services, personas, etc.  Influencers post endorsement content with some brief "fine print" disclosing the promotional nature of the post.  

It is required that these posts include the hashtag "#ad", but is that enough?  If a picture is worth 1,000 words, I wonder how many captions are overlooked leading to misinformed consumers.  I find it hard to trust promotional posts regardless of if they are labeled as such.   

Some influencers subject their posts to extreme editing practices, which create a misleading narrative around the ad.  This is a dangerous precedent to set as it obstructs transparency.  These are ethical conflicts that simply did not exist until recently, and it has been difficult for advertisers and consumers alike to navigate the appropriate way to engage. 

I can recall one of the first times I realized I was being targeted with ads based on my recent online search history and shopping habits.  I had been shopping for a pair of brand name shoes on a department store's website, and the next morning I noticed a flood of ads for other shoes and products from that brand draped around my Facebook page. 

The targeting felt invasive, and I believe this tactic dehumanizes the public by reducing them to naïve sales opportunities.  This goes against the codes of ethics, because it compromises the public’s privacy and trust. The AAF code of ethics addresses this while mentioning advertisers use this method because it is cost effective.  Are cost effective efforts worth compromising the public's trust?  

The good news is proactive measures are being taken to improve the public’s engagement experience online.  My hope is new policies and legal measures can be instituted to help streamline advertising practices and remind advertisers of the importance of doing the right thing as opposed to the most profitable thing.