A two-faced market

Baylee DeMuth
bd575016@ohio.edu

Sometimes I'll be talking with a friend about wanting a new pair of jeans, or how I tried an interesting drink over the weekend, and not even five minutes later, an ad for American Eagle jeans and Tennessee Moonshine comes across my timeline. I don't know how it happens, but it proves to me that ads are everywhere, whether we know it or not.

With the majority of consumers using social media, it's no surprise to see ads carefully placed within Instagram stories and Facebook timelines. But how do we know when we're about to click on a fraudulent ad? Most of the time, we don't, and after reading about how digital ad fraud is rampant throughout the ad industry, it doesn't seem like many big advertising companies are doing much to stop it. Understandably, it costs a lot of money to to invest in fraud-detection, but that shouldn't mean big companies just turn the other cheek and not deal with the problem. Aren't they concerned that consumers are getting false messages about their products? It seems counter-productive to invest all this money in making your company look good with advertisements, only for those advertisements to be manipulated by fraudulent activity that reflects poorly on your company. But unfortunately, that's the sad truth in many ads.

Cartoon poking fun at ad fraud. SOURCE: marketoonist.com

I often come across the question of truth in advertising especially when I see drug commercials play out on my screen. While some commercials disclose that the people being represented in the commercial are paid actors, others do not. To me, that seems misleading. How accurate of a representation is this actor or actress portraying? Are they romanticizing the causes of different symptoms? In some ads, the people distinctly say they've had experience with a certain drug or product, but the way they talk about it seems almost unbelievable. I find it hard to trust certain ads, and that's where ethical issues of transparency play a large role. Nevertheless, there are companies out there that do advertise with real and authentic people, which is a marketing tool I think would benefit many companies, ultimately leading to more trust in a certain brand or message.

Despite certain steps different advertising companies have taken to be more truthful, it's a system that will always be corrupt, but that doesn't mean consumers can't be watching out for those fraudulent ads. As a consumer, we should be constantly looking out for ads that seem sketchy to avoid computer viruses and scams. It's sad that so many advertisements are misleading and do not correctly and truthfully represent what is actually being advertised, but if people just take the time to really check out an ad, fraudulent activity on the consumer's end can be lessened. While it might seem hard to believe, not all ads are fake, so it's important for us as consumers to find truthful ads by knowing what we're clicking on and reading thoroughly what's being advertised. It's a tricky market to tackle, but one we face every day.