Isabelle Caro, 27, is an anorexic weighing just 12lbs is displayed on
Milan billboards as the city celebrates its fashion week.
Shockvertising (aka shock advertising) is a controversial method of advertising aimed at purposely offending and/or startling consumers. The reasoning behind this?: to “gain attention, encourage cognitive processing, and have an immediate impact on behavior” (Dahl, 2003). There are many different ways that advertisers ‘shock’ their consumers. This includes things like profanity, using disgusting images, religious taboos, vulgarity, sexual references, violations to societal norms, and morally offensive content just to name a few. Shockvertising has been used around the world for many years but recently is being questioned as to whether or not it is a productive and ethical method of advertising.
Shockvertising has been deemed immoral by many, especially as the years pass because the advertisements are becoming more and more offensive. It is looked down upon because many believe that shocking the public is not a good way to get a brand, idea, or issue noticed. Although it has been looked down upon over the years, it has been proven to be an extremely effective way of gaining an audience’s attention.
Why do it?
The big question is: why do it? Yes, it is an effective way to gain attention, but there is also the chance that you could lose your audience because you are catching their attention in a way that offends them; it could give your products/ideas a bad image.
When it comes down to it, people are exposed to thousands of advertisements a day. These people don’t necessarily pay any mind to every single one, but they are definitely there. So how do you get your audience to actually notice your ad out of the 3000 they are exposed to in a day? You make your ad stand out in a way that will get them to notice it, which in most cases means exposing them to material that is not usually seen as social acceptable. The hard part comes when trying to find that fine line between what people find to be productive shocking and what some may just see as flat out offensive. (Offensive but Effective?)
A Few Examples
United Colors of Benetton:
Benetton first began their advertising with the goal of building up their personnel from all over the world. They did this by picturing young people from all different cultures dressed in their outrageously colorful clothing to show unity. Benetton emphasize the value of fellowship and cultural tolerance.
In later years, Benetton changed their advertising. They began presenting themselves with real world topics that went much wider than just black and white. They began using topics like war, AIDs, and pollution (just to name a few) as the focus of their advertising. They tried to make exciting emotions to the public by linking these topics to more real world subjects such as violence, death, sex and racism. The goal of this advertising is to increase the readers and the audiences to react in their ads. Superette
In 2009 a New Zealand fashion outlet Superette wanted to make the point that if you are actually going to be caught dead in something, it would probably be better if you were wearing something truly stylish. They came up with the unique campaign “be caught dead in it” which pictured ‘dead’ models in stylish/up-to-date fashions who had met their violent death. Some of the ads are extremely gory and gained a lot of attention from the public. Superette’s ads are featured on billboards, newspapers, and fashion magazines everywhere.
Get Unhooked From Smoking
The UK Government’s national Department of Health started the “Get Unhooked” campaign in 2007. The photographs contained 4 different adults with fish hooks through their mouths showing their addiction to cigarettes, also providing a statistic about smoking and a phone number for help. “The ads psychologically make a lot of sense because they set up the trigger – the addiction of smoking – but then provide a solution: a phone number and website that will give details of NHS smoking cessation services” (Get Unhooked from Smoking in the UK). The ad draws people’s attention in by the disturbing image of a person with a hook stuck through their mouth. This was an extremely effective way of advertising. Conclusion:
Shock ads will never fail to create controversy. Regardless of the intent or the issue at hand, there will be parts of society who will always find this tactic to be unacceptable and low.
Resources:Shockvertising: A Poke In The Brain
http://www.aiga.org/shockvertising-a-poke-in-the-brain/
Shock Advertising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_advertising#.22Get_Unhooked.22_Anti-smoking_Ads
Get Unhooked from Smoking UK:http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2007/get-unhooked-2/
Does it Pay to Shock?
http://data.adic.co.kr/lit/publication/tmp/A9001219/A9001219.pdf
Offensive but Effective?http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=84
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