Consumers are wising up as skeptical clouds shroud the advertising industry. Stephanie Whitelock investigates.

Screenshot of Dove's 'Real Beauty' campaign.

Research by Dr Brent Coker at the University of Melbourne recently revealed that more than 70 per cent of people find advertising ‘sinister’ and ‘deviant’ if they dislike the company promoting the product.

The study also found that online consumer review website and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are helping consumers to become more aware of the manipulative qualities of advertising.

More importantly, they act as an avenue for consumers to share their own views about a product and react to advertising.

“Corporations can no longer afford to pull the wool over consumers’ eyes’,” says Dr Coker.

“Negative buzz transfers almost instantly, reaching millions of people online.”

In other words, social media keeps advertisers honest.

Sydney-based marketing communications professional, Frances Derricourt, says, “I think the mix between social media and advertising is a good thing.”

“It breaks down traditional marketing barriers and makes sure that marketers actually have to engage with their audience instead of broadcasting messages to them.”

The process has become more democratic, says Sonia Palmisano, head of special sales for an international publishing company.

“If an ad is really good, or a product or service is interesting, people will share the ad, comment on it or forward it on.”

“If it works for them, an advertiser can reap the benefits of social media, but if it works against them – oh boy!” she says.

To test the effect advertising had on people who disliked companies, The study used three groups who were shown three identical advertisements for a mobile phone – one without a sponsor or logo, one sponsored by a disliked brand, and one sponsored by a liked brand.

The group who watched the ad with the disliked brand “resented the company for trying to convince them they were good, when people really didn’t like the company in the first place,” Dr Coker says.

“For a company that is already on the radar of consumers, this means that extremely well-crafted and expensive advertisements can evoke sinister attribution in consumers.”

But when the same ad was watched by another group without any branding, audience perceptions were three times more positive.

“For companies I already dislike and think are bad, whatever they do won’t win me over,” says Pamela Eldridge, a senior media advisor in the finance industry.

“For me, I think advertising works when I’m neutral on something.

“I can be persuaded to buy a product if the ad is clever, enticing and seems genuine in its claims.”

But are people really seeing past the smoke and mirrors of advertising?

“Brands are a very powerful thing and the idea that’s there’s absolute consumer awareness is ridiculous,” says Hamish McDougall, a Sydney-based advertising industry creative.

“A show like The Gruen Transfer doesn’t make you any less susceptible to the influence of advertising just because you understand what’s going on.”

The Dove ‘Real Beauty’ advertising campaign was a case where consumer attitudes and advertising intersected to great effect.

Its mission statement was, “The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a global effort that is intended to serve as a starting point for societal change and act as a catalyst for widening the perception of women’s beauty.”

Using real curvy women as models and tagging their campaign with the slogan, ‘Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does’, Dove persuaded female consumers that by purchasing their products they were taking part in a backlash against beauty industry advertising.

“It’s important to put this advertising campaign in context,” says Todd Sampson, advertising executive and panelist on The Gruen Transfer.

“It was a marketing strategy to make people like Dove more so they would buy more products. What I don’t like about that ad campaign is that society has given it a kind of moral high ground when really Dove is just part of Unilever.”

Even though female consumers understood how the beauty advertising industry operated, they were still drawn in by the marketing, and most community-generated online blogs applauded the campaign.

“Advertising is still extremely powerful,” says McDougall.

“At the end of the day, consumers absorb a lot of unconscious branding and that influences their buying decisions.

“If brands had nothing to do with it then all companies would have to offer a competitive product and prices and they don’t.”