One of the elements that is deemed important in creating an effective ad would be trustworthiness. As copywriters our job is to convince the audience to get the reactions that we want. So gaining their trust is crucial in making an ad effective.
Exaggerating on facts may be acceptable, but making things up is definitely not. That is what most people call "false advertising" and it makes people angry. It can also effect a company's image badly. A lie can be told and believed as long as no one questions it, but eventually after being told to so many people someone will definitely start getting curious and try to verify the truth. The people have the power to boycott a company and slander its name until the inevitable death of it. There are also consumer laws that will impose hefty fines. In the end, the one who gets into the most trouble would be the copywriter who lied in the first place.
Ethical ads should also avoid from being too suggestive, especially in a conservative country like Malaysia. People will get offended, report the ad and depending how bad it gets, a fine will be imposed or if it is really bad, someone will get arrested under the Sedition Act. Those are definitely the last things we want. Remember MyTaxi's breast cancer awareness ad in 2015? So many people were offended that the ad was forced to be taken down. The company also had to issue a public apology for it, but that did not stop their image from being permanently tarnished.
In the end, it is about understanding where the masses draw the line and cater to that accordingly. After all, it is all about gaining their trust and not about satisfying our selfish desires.
By,
Lim Jia Xin
0325831
Personally, what i deem most eye-opening regarding ethical approaches to copywriting is to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. These are equally important. False statement and stereotype shouldn’t be apply or be taken advantage in advertising nor stating competitor’s products flaw just to make your product looks better. By stating the truth and be ethical may not be easy in order to create an effective copywriting. However, as a copywriter, words plays an important roles from headline to body copy to visuals. Headline shouldn’t be misleading or overly exaggerates if there’s no evidence or testimonials to support, body copy should be relevant and informative to the audience and visuals should be creative and appropriate.
ReplyDeleteWritten by,
Felicia Thor Xin Yi
0327777
Unfortunately, people nowadays are relatively like things that can entertain them very much. Advertiser is trying so hard to be fun in copywriting in order to get attention and reaction from audiences but somehow they made mistakes, by exaggeration on facts.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, every copywriter should have learn to produce a good copywriting that would lead to a good result by imposing the ethical approaches that mentioned by Felicia, legal, decent, honest and truthful in creative way. This might the only way to advertise while still gaining credible for the brand/ company. It is important for a brand/ company as it can affect the business cycle directly.
For certain product like laundry detergent, they might need to get support from clinical test in order to emphasize the advantages of product. People would love to see it.
by,
ng zhee jing
0326957
I agree on the fact that an ad should not claim something that is not true to the audience. It may effect the product or brands imagine if someone finds out the truth about it and it will literally damage the brand's image. Onces it have already been damaged its will always be forever. All the copywriters should be truthful and gain trust from the consumers. A good body copy and headline will help to pump up the ad to a whole different level.
ReplyDeleteBy
Renerajs D/O Selvarajoo @ Rajoo
0327807