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Thought Paper Week 12: Unethical Advertisement

Mai-Lani Pridgen

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology

MEBA 380: Consumer Behavior Lab

Dr. Nathaniel Ashby

August 12, 2020

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Thought Paper Week 12: Unethical Advertisement

Bloomingdale’s… Okay with Date Rape?

In 2015, an advertisement from Bloomingdale’s holiday catalog received extreme

backlash, as the internet criticized the company’s lack of awareness towards rape culture

(Paquette, 2015). Figure 1 shows an image of a woman laughing, not paying attention to the man

standing next to her, who is perceived to be staring at her suspiciously. The caption on the image

reads: “Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking” (Paquette, 2015). Thankfully,

this advertisement was targeted towards a mature consumer market; as the millennial customer is

the primary focus for Bloomingdale (Palmieri, 2015). The controversial advertisement targets

several aspects for the human decision-making process: Perception, Emotion, Culture & Society.

It is assumed that Bloomingdale’s intention was to not offend consumers, but that is exactly the

response the company received; Hence, the message that the advertisement was trying to send,

was not effective in their favor.

Why is it Unethical?

Perspective

At first glance, the typical millennial consumer would perceive the aim of the

advertisement as unethical. In support of this claim, a study published by Alison Crossley (2018)

dives into the perceptions of millennial activists and the topic of unfinished gender revolution

(rape culture). The millennial, feminist participants in this study were anguished by the topic of

rape culture, as they shared their personal experiences with this issue, and associated it with a

series of social injustices towards women (Crossley, 2018). Although this might not have been

the intention of Bloomingdale, the context of their advertisement subconsciously exploited

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consumers’ association with rape culture, which engaged the sense of perception that influenced

consumer behavior to respond negatively (Krishna, 2012).

Emotion

The negative association the ad portrays correlates with the negative emotional arousal

(response) the ad also created in consumers. According to Charash and McKay (2002), the

negative emotion of disgust, tends to catch consumer attention drastically. More than likely, this

advertisement caused a decline in consumer engagement/respect for Bloomingdale. Research

shows that unhappy customers fail to return, and angry ones try to ruin the business (Joireman,

Gregoire, Devezer & Tripp, 2013). Carretie (2014) even argues that emotional distractors (in this

case, emotions of anger/disgust towards the ad), has a greater chance of capturing the attention of

consumers than anything else. This claim makes perfect sense, considering that within the first

48 hours of the magazine’s release, there had been 3,868 comments on social media channels

negatively responding to the ad (Vranica, 2015).

Culture and Society

Cognitive approach and style are completely different across all cultures (Kastanakis &

Voyer, 2014). In today’s progressive American culture, rape is taken very seriously and can be

accompanied with severe consequences, as the concept of individualism for women becomes

more prominent (Filipovic, 2008). While America continues to move towards a progressive

culture, women are being catapulted into individualistic cultures, which influences an inflated

self-view of an individual (Kitayama & Uchida, 2003). To combat the unintentional (or

intentional) narrative of Bloomingdales’ advertisement, many of the angry consumers used the

values of progressive American culture as a popular way to influence the behavior of the

company (Culter et al., 1997).

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How to Avoid This Same Mistake?

Whenever companies “miss the mark” like Bloomingdales, consumers expect some form

of reinforcement provided to them. In this case, a genuine and sincere apology is likely to be

expected from a company. According to Keh and Lee (2006), timing of the reinforcement

matters; angry or frustrated customers prefer an immediate response, versus satisfied customers

that are okay with delayed rewards. A formal apology is the first step to mitigating past failures

from repeating themselves. Instead of educating the consumer, especially in this case, it is best

for the company to educate themselves on why certain advertisements are deemed unethical.

Imagery, and the context of the imagery, evokes emotion (Small & Verrochi, 2009). Once a

company like Bloomingdales understands the severity of their advertisement and the negative

emotional response it creates, it is best to tread carefully with the context of future

advertisements. A policy may not be effective in this case, because we have the right to freedom

of speech in America. However, it is still important for companies to be aware of society’s idea

of what is generally accepted as ethical or unethical.

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References

Carretie, L. (2014). Exogenous (automatic) attention to emotional stimuli: a review. National

Library of Medicine. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24683062/

Charash, M., McKay, D. (2002). Attention bias for disgust. National Library of Medicine.

Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12396210/

cognition: a conceptual framework. Journal of Business Research. Retrieved from:

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/50048/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_share

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%20culture%20perception_2014.pdf

Crosslet, A.D (2018). Finding Feminism: Millennial Activists and the Unfinished Gender

Revolution. New York University Press. Retrieved from:

https://books.google.com/books?

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%20and%20rape%20culture&f=false

Cutler et al. (1997). Advertiser's relative reliance on collectivism-individualism appeals: a cross-

cultural study. Journal of International Consumer Marketing. Retrieved from:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J046v09n03_04

Filipovic, J. (2008). Offensive Feminism: The Conservative Gender Norms That Perpetuate Rape

Culture, and How Feminists Can Fight Back. N/A. Retrieved from:

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%20feminism%2C%20in%20Friedman%2C%20Yes%20means%20yes%202008.pdf
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Joireman, J., Gregoire, Y., Devezer, B., Tripp, T.M. (2013). When do customers offer firms a

“second chance” following a double deviation? The impact of inferred firm motives on

customer revenge and reconciliation. Journal of Retailing. Retrieved from:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022435913000237

Kastanakis, M., Voyer, B.G. (2013). The effect of culture on perception and

Keh, H.T., Lee, Y.H. (2006). Do reward programs build loyalty for services? : The moderating

effect of satisfaction on type and timing of rewards. Journal of Retailing. Retrieved from:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022435906000194

Krishna, A. (2011). An integrative review of sensory marketing: Engaging the senses to affect

perception, judgment and behavior. Ross School of Business. Retrieved from:

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/142108/jcpy332.pdf?

sequence=1

Palmieri, J.E. (2015). Bloomingdale’s, Hudson’s Bay Focus on Millennials. WWD. Retrieved

from: https://wwd.com/business-news/retail/bloomingdales-hudsons-bay-millennials-

10202894/

Paquette, D. (2015). What A Creepy Bloomingdale’s Ad Tells Us About America’s

Understanding of Rape. The Washington Post. Retrieved from:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/12/what-a-creepy-

bloomingdales-ad-tells-us-about-americas-understanding-of-rape/

Small, D.A., Verrochi, N.M. (2009). The Face of Need: Facial Emotion Expression on Charity

Advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research. Retrieved from:

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Vranica, S. (2015). Bloomingdale’s Holiday Ad Draws Backlash for Appearing to Promote Date

Rape. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bloomingdales-holiday-ad-draws-backlash-for-appearing-

to-promote-date-rape-1447349483