Manipulation in Marketing, Advertising, Propaganda, and Public Relations

Abstract

Many practices in marketing, advertising, and public relations, presented in Chapter 6, have the intent to persuade and manipulate the public opinion from the onset of their endeavors. I lay out marketing communications strategies and dissect the anatomy of the ad revenue model. I review key ideas in advertising standards and self-regulation policies that do not allow misleading ads. Advertising techniques in marketing campaigns and political propaganda abound in truth-bending, but regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission distinguish between puffery and materially harmful misleading ads. Digital media users may be constantly bombarded with ads—puffed-up, borderline deceptive, emotionally suggestive, or plainly misleading— and they may grow weary, distrustful, and resistant to ads. Advertisers get more creative with variants of covert advertising exemplified in Chap. 6 with native ads, sponsored links, or branded content. I discuss the elusive concept of virality, and explore what makes us vulnerable to viral conspiracy theories. Masters of persuasion may exploit human biases and logical fallacies including the bandwagon appeal, glittering generalities, and bait and switch, to name a few. Propagandists, advertisers, and public relations experts know when and how to appeal to emotions or individuality, use wit and humor, or finetune who delivers the message as a relatable credible source. More AI countermeasures and stricter regulation are needed to curb the existing ad revenue model and unscrupulous financing that instigates the spread of mis- and disinformation. AI-based technologies such as spambots, paybots, autolikers, and other inauthentic accounts are farmed out to create hype and social engagement by propagating falsehoods, clickbait, provocations, misleading, or otherwise inaccurate messages. Policymakers and legislators are broadly encouraged to focus on regulating algorithmic transparency, platform accountability, digital advertising, and data privacy, while avoiding crude measures of controlling and criminalizing digital content or stifling free speech. The ultimate goal is to reestablish trust in the basic institutions of a democratic society by bolstering facts and combatting the systematic efforts at devaluing truth. Professional manipulators, propagandists, and their unscrupulous technologies— at the service of few "deep pockets— require more public oversight of their unscrupulous disinformation campaigns that misuse commerical and public discousre to manipulate the general public.  Establishing a global regulatory framework and venues for enforcement may be key to addressing the problem across nations, cultures, and language boundaries. Nation-wide educational efforts in digital literacy should meanwhile instruct digital media users in recognizing manipulative techniques to resist the powers of propaganda and advertising.

Propaganda “regiment[s] the public mind every bit as much as an army regiments the bodies of its soldiers.”

(Bernays, 1928, p. 25).

Virality has become the holy grail of digital marketing

(Akpinar & Berger, 2017, p. 318)

* Cui bono?

^*This phrase in Classical Latin translates into English as “Who benefits?” or “To whom is it a benefit?”