False Advertising and Other Fine Hobbies.
Advertisements are everywhere. They line the walls in supermarkets and bus stop benches. Television advertisements play for nearly ten minutes in gaps between television show segments, so would you believe that cable television had so few commercials in the past that it was feared that TV would be taken over by advertisers?
It feels like all of these blog posts are connected in some way or another. Just like in cable news bias, you have to worry about what version of the truth you're getting when it comes to advertisements. Will this juice from the nectar of an extinct fruit only indigenous to three trees in the African savanna really increase my IQ by 6.2 points? "You're our 1,000,000th visitor! Click here for $1000!"
What markets do you find false advertising and a lack of ethics? My mind wanders directly towards the video game industry. If you check the dictionary under 'empty promises', you'll find many of the video game industry's most notorious development companies. I would argue that the video game market is the most susceptible to false advertising and misinformation, and getting away with it.
Think about it like this, when a new product is marketed, like smart speaker, and the product releases but burst into flames after being used for more than two hours, some kind of compensation is coming back to the victim of a charred tabletop. No one will market, "Our speakers are the fastest to burst into flames," because that's not a marketable quality, but marketing that the speakers won't burst into flames should be a given! When purchasing any sort of product, the only 'given' of the product is that is should be that it works! It's not necessarily false advertising, but you could call it that.
 |
| An example of advertising (right) vs. the final product (left). |
Now video games are different. Beats by Dre will be buying me a new coffee table if it erupts into flames, but video game developers aren't obliged to dish out any cash for an incomplete product. Take for example 'No Man's Sky' and the internet's list of everything missing from the game that was promised to the consumers. No one knew what the game would be lacking because very few people get to test the game before release. Video game demos are at an all time low, being swapped out for private and open betas, which in turn will lead to less scrutiny as those who play in private and closed access betas are those most interested in the game.
Back to 'No Man's Sky'. The internet was on fire the days after the release of the game, and the game's lead developer, Sean Murray, and Hello Games have been quiet for nearly two years to games journalists. After purchasing a game, you're stuck with it. Of course, you can refund it at a lesser price which is a waste of money, but you better be fast. If the game doesn't perform well, such as 'No Man's Sky' or 'Fallout 76' and the price drops, you're getting even less. Your best bet is to get what you can out of playing the game.
Now let's correlate this to the real world and other products. Imagine if products were advertised in the same way video games were? You get to see a 30 second clip of the product three years before the release. Two years before release you get to see a short, 2 minute trailer. Finally, the year before release, you get to see the product in action, doing what it was intended to do perfectly (with manipulation from the creators). The product is now released and everything you were promised is absent. The trailer you saw two years ago is dated and doesn't represent the actual product anymore. New specifications required that things be changed. Would you like a refund? Too bad, the price has dropped already and because you took the plastic off the box, you're only getting $40 back from the $100 you spent. Harsh, right?
You have to keep an honest eye out for dishonesty or things that are too good to be true. Don't expect everything to work perfectly, much less how it was intended.
Comments
Post a Comment