Is Deception A Selling Point?

This article is about advertising to generate sales via deception, manipulating available product data to create a selling point.

I happen to be a music fan from my childhood in the sixties. I still have some of the vinyl records which belonged to my brother when I was a kid.

With the advancement of technology and the emergence of CDs, I developed a desire to have all my favorites of yesteryear on compact disks.

Here I make reference to one particular incident which was actually another of the many opportunities that came my way to add to my collection of CDs.

The story revolves around a purchase I made at a reputed CD shop in the city. The sleeve of the CD contained a picture of a particular musical group which happened to be a favorite of mine.

The caption on top read "The very best of" ... followed by the name of the band. Looking at the picture I was able to recognize the leader of the band as well as the other members.

The list of tracks printed on the sleeve mentioned all their number one hits.This was indeed a selling point, all their number one hits squeezed into one compact disk.

There was just one copy. So I picked it off the shelf, and safely clutching it in my hand, lest somebody else notices it and wants to grab it, continued to look around viewing the other CDs on display.

The price was marked $6.00. It contained eighteen tracks and included two of my favorites.

I would have gladly paid that $6.00 even if it had contained only these two tracks and nothing else.

I have done such things in the past, like purchasing a cassette tape although it contained only one track which happened to be a favorite of mine. Many people do.

That one particular track on that cassette tape becomes a selling point. Drawing attention to that particular track is certainly not deception.

I then walked up to the cashier, pulled out my credit card and handed it over to him along with the CD.

While he scanned the bar code and punched in my credit card details, I said to him how fortunate I thought I was to grab that last available copy.

He confirmed that I was indeed fortunate.

My CD player at that time was not in working order. It needed to be repaired.

So, as I reached home I put on my earphones and inserted the disk into my computer's drive.

On my computer the band sounded somewhat different. I kept on skipping tracks.

Since they sounded different, I thought some of those tracks may be older versions of popular songs which were recorded before the band gained fame.

But, none of those tracks sounded similar to the original versions that I was used to hearing.

I put away the disk hoping to play it on my CD-player once I get it repaired.

When my CD-player was finally put right, I gave this CD another spin and listened to the tracks once more via my two high wattage speakers.

This time to my utter disappointment I realized without any doubt at all, that this was not the band that I wanted to listen to.

A thought came into my mind. Have I been a victim of some kind of deception? Well, one more look at the picture of the band that was on the sleeve of the CD dispelled all doubts that this was indeed the band whose music I wanted.

However, their music sounded different. The music was definitely not generated by the band whose music I wanted. It was not them at all. It was some other group playing the very same music, and they were sounding very much alike too.

Having been exposed to all types of music from my very young days, and having had many favorite artists, it was my experience that told me that this was certainly not the musical group I had hoped it would be. Then what about the picture? Well, the picture was probably used as a selling point.

Once more I carefully examined the cover of the CD and the flip side of it.

It was then that I spotted a cleverly worded statement which was hidden within the introductory phrases. It went like this ... "This collection contains faithful renditions of ... So that's it! "faithful renditions."

However, the picture of the five members of the group was an original. Of course the picture was deliberately placed there to deceive the buyer.

The picture was indeed the deception, the very point which induces the buyer to make his decision, the most important selling point from the point of view of the producer of the CD.

In a court of law, the declaration would be that he who intends purchasing this CD is supposed to read the text on the cover and properly interpret the term "faithful renditions," and then make his decision.

This is how the law works. The law has loopholes, exploitable by anyone. Loopholes, almost as if to say "come on, give it a shot!"

The understanding is that the law is for the benefit of man. In a case like this, it is "that" man, the producer of that CD who deliberately put a deceptive picture on his product to induce a purchase.

He benefits since the loophole in the law is in his favor.

Deception in advertising is on the rise, especially with technology supporting the creation of graphics, and pictures which can replace words, using clever psychology, giving impressions that create favorable conditions for the seller.

In this case it was only a picture that gave a false impression of the product it represented, clearly creating the much needed selling point.

Information products sold online all have disclaimers that clearly state that the results may vary from individual to individual depending on certain factors that they refer to.

This is often the case in work at home programs. The points of ethics displayed in these cases happen to be, the attention of the viewer is drawn to the disclaimer, putting the onus on the viewer.

He already knows about the risks involved in purchasing the product. Further, there is also a refund promised if the buyer is not fully satisfied with the product.

There is also a period of time within which the buyer is entitled to a refund with no questions asked if he requests for his money back.

However in my case the product I purchased was a tangible one, and purchased from a store. The conditions that governed drawing attraction to the product could certainly not be termed ethical.

Even though I was the victim, the fault is mine, as I should have read the text on the sleeve and properly understood it before purchasing.

There was no deception here at all. The text clearly referred to all the tracks as "faithful renditions."

The fact here is the picture that appeared on the sleeve of the CD was the picture of the band that recorded the original versions of all the tracks that were listed on the sleeve.

This picture was the selling point and also the deception that generates sales. I simply didn't read what could be called the "disclaimer." So the fault is mine. As often it is the victim who is at fault. That's the way the law works.

... concluded