Group Discussion Contest 19th July to 26th July 2011

Another topic that I am sure will open the Pandora's Box.

Well, Certainly most advertisements today are very misleading but I won't go to the extreme of saying that they are another form of brainwashing. I think a lot depends on the user taste and preference and how much of the impact it has.

I mean just imagine if there were no ads how would you know about a product be it good or bad. Ads gives the knowledge about which companies produces the product.

Though I agree that initially a company which is spending heavily on ads and has catchy ads will garner huge response but if the product is not what is mention in the ad, it won't sustain.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISEMENT IS STILL THE MOST TRUSTED FORM OF ADVERTISEMENT.

People who have bought the products will speak negatively and won't recommend it to family and friends.

I have worked for an ad company too (only for 4 months) and there are many parameters that they look for in an ad. Also, advertisements are closely monitored and public response is garnered.

For example, Remember the cadbury ad of "Kuch meetha he khana aaj pehli taarik he", that was a huge hit and cadbury wanted to capitalize on that and so it launched many similar ads with the same tag line of "kuch meetha he khana aaj pehli taarik he"

But then, nestle came out with an ad mocking cadbury's tagline and instantly cadbury's ad was a flop, so they dropped that ad altogether from their campaign and you will hardly see that ad on TV now. It is now replaced by "Kuch Meetha Ho jaye"

So this proves that a consumer response is taken into account.

Also, I would want to share the psychology as to how the ads are made. The ads are mostly made by taking the consumer behaviour in mind.


1. You will only the see the mockery of one brand by another in case of FMCG and low priced goods. The focus of the ads is not what the product offers but on how one brand is better than another. So you will see companies mocking each other tag lines and stuff like that. When a good is cheap, consumer takes decision fast and he only buys those products which he/she is aware of. So major focus is on impact.

For example, if you want to buy a popcorn from a supermarket store what product you will buy. I am sure most of you will say ACT-II popcorn because thats the only brand we remember. Now think about the Act-II popcorn ad, what benefit did the ad show nothing except that it gets ready in 2 minutes, which is the normal time for any popcorn. But still out of the numerous brand, you will give preference to Act II as your sub conscious mind recognize that brand.

And this is the case with almost any food products and cheaply priced products.

2. On the other hand, if you look at high priced luxury products the focus is always on the feature of the products. You won't see any television ads making fun of other television brand. The only focus is feature. They will show all the feature of their product which the other brand don't have.

Here, the brand recalling is not that important, the features are more important as consumer are going to spend a lot of money and they will think and research a lot before buying. No one is going to just see one ads of a sony televison and buy sony tv. Will you buy, I bet you won't.

So such ads are only to make consumer aware of the features and price, so that it help them in the decision making process.


So to sum it all, ads are made on consumer buying behaviour. Since the decision making process is fast for cheaply priced products, more weightage is given to the impact and brand recall value. And for highly priced luxury products where the decison making process takes time and is not completely dependent on the ad, more focus is given to feature so that the ad helps in the decision making.

So I don't think that advertisements are a brain washer but yea today many advertisements are misleading and consumer should not make any decison based on ads. Should check the facts.

Also, I would want everyone to see this ad. Perfect example of how a Ad should be and also testifies what I said above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38

This ad shows the future of glass technology and just notice that every possible features are nicely showed and blended. This is the kind of ad that is a rare combination of high impact, brand value recall and influencer of decision even in the high end market.

Lol, Kalyani see what you have done...the previous post's word count is 807. I don't know how many will read that post. Also, this is my longest post. Anyways, my average post is around 200 words. I should keep a check on myself.

Anyways, thanks for such a thought provoking topic. You totally made me feel like I am back to my old job again.

And yea, feel free to delete it if you think it is irrelevant. I have no issues.

Hmm! Arun has started off as a duck takes to water! It's an exhaustive one! I would first thank Kalyani for bringing up this great topic which looks promising enough to elicit a cross-section of views on an overwhelming scale on the topic.

As to my own views on advertisement I don't believe that it's either an unmitigated blessing or a comple disaster. In a living and vibrant democracy we must accept that producers ,manfacturers and providers of services have as much a right to spread knowledge abouts their wares as the consumers to be aware of their rights to put these advertisements under scanners to apprise themselves about their postion vis-a-vis these advertisemnts. If we take a completely negative view on advertisments and paint them as mainly responsible for creating consumerist societies, we may run the risk of throwing the baby with the bathwater! I would make my submissions in a graduated manner on the development of advertisement,its progression, the legal development and so on in my next posts.

Any brand company who wants to launch its product creates an add which is of such type that describes the qualities of product and ts price.Not only by quality of add but also the product's quality attracts more costumers towards the product.So by viewing add and the qualities of product ,its price and the name of brand costumer decides whether to buy the product or not.

Wow! The discussion has got a great start! :)

No Arun, I am not deleting anything from your post, but try to post a little shorter arguments so that you can save the best examples to counter others' arguments! :) Just remember not to open the box all at once and too quickly, open it slowly!! :laugh:

Kalyani, I was talking of deleting my post below the argument. I read the rules that say no irrelevant posts. And as to shorter posts I think for this topic 800 words is the minimum. And though you are right that I should not open all my cards at once but trust me I havn't. ;)

And also, since I am not participating in discussion to win it, I follow a Blitz Kreig strategy (A very effective strategy, even if you want to win it but suited to a few).

Basically, in blitz kreig strategy a person just put forth all his views arguments and examples in a discussion to establish himself as authority on the topic. If he is successful to do that, 80% of participants won't make an argument against him (It is subliminal reaction of the brain)

Also, blitz kreig strategy are best suited for those who have an open mind and they have thoroughly thought of the topic before they take stance. Flexibility and presence of mind is very important in this.

Anyways, I hope this advice may be helpful to atleast a few.

And yea, Kalyani I have 35 pages of notes as to how advertisement affects buying behavior of consumer and what consumers look for in an ad. I would certainly want to see a lot of questions coming up here.

And yea, to every participants, don't participate to win, participate to make a mark and gain knowledge.

Really a good topic to discuss.

Years ago in a Malayalam monthly I wrote an essay on this.What it forced me to write it was a discussion between two children of age 6 or 7 just outside.They were betting on something.One told if you win I will give you a Pepsi Mega Bottle!!!!

Look how much that advertisement of Pepsi had brainwashed this child?He thinks it is the highest thing in the world to drink!

Nowadays companies look only to catch the market.So they need catching advertisements.When it is heard the customer should feel that it is to be owned.Unfortunately the brains of all customers are more vulnerable to brain washing in these days!!

Before we discuss if advertisement is another form of brainwashing or otherwise,we need to address the very logical point at the very outset- what is advertisement , how society looks at it and what are our expectations from it?

To me this nothing but another mode of communication.What advertisement seeks to communicate is nothing but contents in a space allowed by our society.Human mind is ever hungry for knowledge and we are all ever seeking validation of our own auto-suggestions,our innate knowledge with that of the external world of which advertisement is just one of sources and resources.

So what advertisement basically seeks to communicate is all about information and knowledge to a larger audience and let us call it 'universe'! Now the next question which should logically follow is that how verifiable this source is?

If we presume that the target group of any advertisement is an educated well-informed and enlightented group of our populace who are endowed with critical faculties of differentiation to isolate truths for untruths -do you think it would be rational to reach a conclusion as the title of this thread captures!! I would continue in my next post.

I absolutely love this topic.. :laugh:

Okay so let me start off...advertisement does have major elements of brainwashing in it...anyone remember the Dairy Milk fiasco? There was news and facts about the chocolate being infected with worms with even pictures provided, but then the promotion people did a very good job by roping in Amitabh Bachchan as their brand ambassador and BAM! What happens?...Dairy Milk is still the most popular brand of chocolate in India. Everyone(well almost) has forgotten about the incident that could very well have closed things off for dairy milk in the Indian market. I think the incident speaks for itself.

Having said that I have to give a huge KUDOS to the dairy milk promotion people. They really did come out very strongly out of this. Totally unharmed and that really needs a good head upon your neck. I do believe any advertisement would not sell if it did not have elements of brainwashing in it, no matter of what intensity.

Wow!! Looks like Arun is on a roll here :laugh:
Well, I do think that many (maybe not all) advertisers today do use it as a form of brainwashing consumers.
I do remember advertisements in the past however, that did not follow this strategy. Then again, are we just talking about advertisements on Television?
Well, one section of the telly ads that I HATE is of cosmetics. Some of the ads have brainwashed our youngsters(and not so youngsters!) into believing that beauty is essential to be successful in life. They have made our modern generation faddish!
Then, there's the internet with all its numerous "get rich overnight" ads which brainwashes people into believing that the internet is a place to find easy money!
Even the newspapers (I'm not sure about the national newspapers) are not far behind. Our local newspapers always carry some advertisement or the other by persons who claim to have "miracle cures" for diseases that cannot be cured by any doctor!

Fact is A LOT of advertisements are aimed at brainwashing the people. They might not always succeed in doing so, but they do try very hard indeed!!

Thanks for complimenting Kimberly and I am grateful that you raised the point of whether we speaking of only TV ads or not.

Well as far as my understanding goes, we talking of every form of advertisement. So TV and print ads are covered too.

And though you are right about certain ads being totally misleading, but I would not put every ad in the same category. I think only "How to Make your Skin fair" and Make Money On The Internet" are the type of ads that try to mislead and brainwash you to the maximum. The rest ads can be easily spotted if you look at it carefully.

Also, Print ads can never be as potentially brianwashing as their television counter parts for the following reasons:

The print ads are not moving. And we pay more attention to things which are static. For example, you will pay fine detail to a statue, painting etc. So a print ads mostly only highlights the benefit statement and the detail of the products.

Like if a company is keeping a 80% sale, then it's print version will see 80% written in huge fonts so that the first thing you will notice is that there is a 80% sale. The rest of the details are written normally.

And on the other hand, television ads uses the principles on which magician works. I mean no magic can be performed when everything is still. Thats why you will see magician talking a lot, creating humor and moving their hands all the time. This is done so that your attention is divided and you see what they want you to see.

To conclude with, I believe that an advertisements goal should be to inform people that a certain products exists and these are it's features and also consumers should take care that they check the facts before believing any advertisements blindly.

Advertising is tool used to communicate about the product and to pitch it in the consumer's mind in such a manner that it sells.I can call this a "persuasive form of communication".And correctly as mentioned above,there is alot of misleading and overdoing while brands are advertised.

Nowadays some brands have forgotten what the message n advertisements should be.Instead of talking about their brand,the whole message happens to be to contradict their rival brands.

Take the example of Sprite ads for Mountain Dew, The Pepsi- Cola ad wars and as rightly said by Arun, the FMCG brands get into it rather than other segment brands.But do they brainwash?

I choose to believe their method of persuasion may be different and does create clutter to confuse but not brainwash.

Advertising is an umbrella of so many modes and requires different mediums like paper,TV,radio and people as well to communicate the message.Its main aim is to woo the consumers to pick their brand over other choices available.

On a lighter note I think they might "brain-jam" you rather than "brain-wash" with sometimes mind boggling and brainless concepts.

It is previous saying that advertising is a form of brain washing. But now-a-days, it is not so because due to lack of time people hardly get any time to survey or spend on the new market or better product existing in the market. Advertising plays an important role in letting about the merits of the product especially among its competitors product. This helps in making right purchase of the product.

The other part of the same is brain washing. It is often true, that the frequent advertisement seen or shown in any media attracts your attention and makes us feel to buy the product irrespective of its features etc. This is nothing but the another form of brain washing which can be controlled by making or studing the features of the product it reflects.

People generally get attracted by advertisement making it to rule one's mind and it slows turns into a habit of brain washing towards a particular product.

The theme of the GD is whether advertisements brainwash the consumers Obviously, advertisement is a commercial activity aimed at motivating the consumers to buy product of a particular brand. I hope nobody will deny this reality. If so, the logical conclusion is that advertisements aim at brainwashing the consumers to buy a particular branded product in preference to others.

Well, Arun is right when he says that print ads are less likely to brainwash rather than television and TV ads.
My point is that there is a fine line between what IS and what SHOULD be. You are also right when you say that "an advertisements goal should be to inform people that a certain products exists and these are it's features". But, not all advertisements do that! Because it is a competitive world we live in and (UNFORTUNATELY) this competition can sometime get unhealthy. Even the ads which state the features do tend to exaggerate those features.
Say an advert for a "skin cream" states that it has fairness enhancers. That's enough. They don't have to go on to portray that the cream will make you whiter than snow in 7 days time blah blah...!! And, that you need to be fair to be successful!!
But yes - not ALL advertisements are aimed at brainwashing the people. But, even the few that are brainwashing, can have so many repercussions. That's because they choose the soft targets - skin colour, weight, beauty, health etc. are sensitive areas; these are the things that people are willing to try almost ANYthing for!
Manas could also be right when he says that nowadays people hardly get time to actually research the products, as a result of which advertising has more brainwashing potential of late.

Advertisements are the mirror of the product. Through advertisement the customer get know about the new products of various brands and also can know about the features n qualities of products.

It is no use covering the brainwashing object of advertisements by saying that these are informative. Objective information can be provided by independent bodies and not the advertisers of products. Print media may be less effective but in spirit this is no different. Consumers need to be cautious and not be misled by advertisers' claims.

You hit the nail in the coffin Kimberly. I think the cosmetics ads are the one that can be termed as misleading and almost to the point of brain washing. But I still don't think that they cab brainwash you completely. At the most they can compel you to try. And if you don't see the benefits, you will definitely switch.

And since we are talkin specifically of cosmetics, the companies aim that people buy their product once. They don't care if they dump it the second time. You may ask why a company is doing this? Well the indian cosmetic market is one of the huge market and it is still not tapped completely. The market is operating at only 27% of it's strength. So most of the cosmetic companies are looking to tap the market as of now.

The kind of ads you see now will stop after a few years when more market is tapped and it reaches a saturation point.


See the case of mobile phones now, just to tap the Indian market which is one of the largest, they went to as low as 1 paise per minute but since the market is now almost saturated, the rates have started to increase again. Tata Docomo has already said that new subscribers will have to pay 2 paise per second after one year and they have also increased the STD call and msg rates. many other telecom operators have done that in many circles and are planning to do that in many other circles too.

And yea, advertisement are meant to selling one's product but advertisement should be done subtly and should always be backed by the quality and features.

Consumers don't want to be sold to. Any attempt to luring customers into buying a not so good product will have serious repercussions in the future for the brand. Also we should keep in mind that with changing times, the way a advertisement should be communicated are also changing and companies should keep that in mind.

Advertisements are undoubtedly essential for the creation of awareness and promotion.As rightly mentioned by Shruti,there are cases like Dairy Milk,not only that, even Pepsi and Coco-Cola had to change their strategy of advertising when they were viewed harshly in the public eye.

The point of having a brand image heavily relies on the way it is advertised.I agree that it has a huge element that persuades the customer to an extremely large extent,our mind allows some advertisements to take control.We relate to the tunes,dance to the beats and also add the punchlines to the witty conversations we have.

But due to consumer awareness that is rising,people don't succumb that easily to what advertisements say these days,They tend to scrutinize and then decide.
Probably that's why I can say its brainwashing all together,but yes,it does have the power to persuade and if I may its rather a coercive persuasion. Which means,it has the capacity to alter you decisions.

Undoubtedly, the advertiser aims at building loyalty for particular brand. This is a glaring and undeniable fact. It is different that product is quality product and worth buying. It is different that the product is really good and suitable. But these do not affect the basic purpose of advertising, which is impress consumers' mind with particular brand. This is what means brainwashing.