Consumers are bombarded with information and one of the challenges of marketing is “getting noticed”. On page 63 of your text book, six factors that enhance a consumer’s attention are discussed. For this assignment you will find a product or service that has gone to the extreme to “get noticed” and write an essay discussing each of the six factors associated with your product/service of choice.

The essay must be a minimum of 2 pages; double-spaced. You must use APA formatting which includes Aerial or Times New Roman, 12 point font, a title, an introduction, many headings, and a conclusion.

 

Unethical Advertisement by Paddy Power

Introduction

Each and every advertisement is aimed at getting the undivided attention of the consumers. Unfortunately some of the advertisement would go to any extent to attract consumers towards themselves. Research suggests that businesses unethical advertisement has been used to create a better consumer perception about certain products and services (Suguna & Chinnadorai, 2015). Babin & Harris (2015, p. 63) have identified six factors i.e. intensity of stimuli, contrast, movement, surprising stimuli, size of stimuli and involvement that are used in advertisement to enhance the attention of the consumers.

In this paper, I would discuss an advertisement stunt by bookmaker Paddy Power, that caused an outrage in the general public in Ireland and the advertisement had to be censured (Walker, 2015). I would discuss the phenomenon of “getting noticed” in the advertisement in the light of the six factors that I mentioned earlier.

The Advertisement

It is pertinent to mention the context and the content of the advertisement by Paddy Power. As you can see in Figure 1, Paddy Power sent a lorry from Dover to the French port with the slogan “Immigrants, jump in the back! (But only if you’re good at sports).” Many people took it offensive and complained about the slogan to be against the war effected refugees from Syria who are trying to get into Europe to save their lives. I would like to discuss this advertisement in the light of the six attention seeking factor pointed out by Babin & Harris (2015, p. 63).

Intensity of Stimuli

A consumer would respond to a stronger stimuli in an advertisement. This would call to the involuntary attention of the consumer. Paddy Power has produced a high intensity Stimuli with the content of the advertisement that do attract the attention of the consumers as there are many people who are against immigrants as they believe that they are a burden on the hosting economy. But Paddy Power had such an intensity in their advertisement they it enraged many human rights activists and a big chunk of the general public.
Contrast

Paddy Power put a while tennis player, Andy Murray in front and put some black athletes in the back trying to create a contrasting image that would appeal to the attention of the consumers. This contrast has been called as the use of color of the skin and race for commercial gains (Walker, 2015).

Movement

Movement has been utilized effectively. The advertisement was place on a moving lorry which is a good example of utilizing movement in advertisement.

Surprising Stimuli

The advertisement has definitely used a surprising stimuli. For some, it was a bold step to highlight the issue of immigration and for others it was a cheap stunt. Both in favor and against were surprised.

Size of Stimuli

The advertisement was placed on a huge lorry. The size of the lorry was enough to attract the attention of people who would see it moving on the road.

Involvement

As I said earlier, many people were emotionally involved by the advertisement. Some were happy about it while other were disappointed by its content and the message it passed on to the consumers.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude my discussion by stressing the importance of ethical and moral standards while advertising to consumers. In my opinion, Paddy Power did not fulfil their corporate duties and went beyond the ethics of advertising in getting the attraction of consumers. Scientific knowledge should be utilized in the field of advertisement but advertisers should know their boundaries. Legal authorities should make sure that advertisement is not used to spread messages of hate and discrimination.

 

References

Babin, B. & Harris, E. CB7, 7th Edition.

Suguna, T., & Chinnadorai, K. M. (2015). A study on unethical aspects of advertising: customer perception. EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies,     5(2), 52-59.

Walker, P. (2015). Paddy Power’s ‘Immigrants, jump in the back’ lorry stunt to be censured. the     Guardian. Retrieved 25 September 2016, from   https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/07/paddy-power-immigrants-jump-in-the-         back-lorry-stunt-to-be-censured