KULLIYYAH OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

MGMT 2303
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
SEMESTER 1, 2021/2022
SECTION 1

GROUP PROJECT: ADVERTISING IN DISGUISE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

PREPARED BY: TEAM 6

No. Name Matric Number

1 Alia Adriana Binti Razali 2019616

2 Nur Aqeela Hannah binti Md Isa 1917992

3 Nur Husna Nadhirah binti Aznan 1915710

4 Nur Liyana binti Jeffri 1917258

5 Nur Madihah binti Zulkifli 1917864

6 Raidah Aqilah Rosli 1919648

PREPARED FOR: DR. NURITA BINTI JUHDI

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 14 th JANUARY 2022
 TABLE OF CONTENT

No. Content Page No.

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of study 2
1.2 Objectives of study 2
1.3 Significance of study 3

2.0 Literature Review 3

3.0 Research Methodology

3.1 Respondents 5
3.2 Data collection and distribution 5
3.3 Survey form 5
3.4 Data Analysis 6

4.0 Data Analysis

4.1 Demographics 6
4.2 Survey questions 7

5.0 Discussion 13

6.0 Recommendation 14

7.0 Conclusion 15

8.0 References 16

9.0 Appendix 17

1
1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

Advertisement is a thing that is able to help promote a product or make an announcement

to the public (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). The users of advertisements are usually small and big
businesses and governments. There are various reasons for using advertisements in an
organisation especially in a business as it helps in informing the customers and creating interest
towards the products. At the same time, the business is able to build the brand and product
identity in the market. In the 21st century, the rise of digital marketing especially in social media
has enabled new methods of incorporating marketing communications. Moreover, the business
can hire a public figure such as celebrity and social media influencer to promote their brand and
product. However, clear disclosure of advertising must be obvious to the consumers as they
deserve to know the messages came from the brand itself and that the celebrities or influencers
have been paid to promote the products. The issue with advertising in disguise is that more
public figures try to hide the fact they have been sponsored in fear of disclosing the ads will
make the viewers avoid sponsored content from them. This has caused the line between
disclosed or disguised ads becoming more vague and blurred. Therefore, the public figure should
at least disclose the post as an advertisement post as viewers will use their own judgement to
differentiate within the goods and bads of the advertisement contents.

1.2 Objectives of the study

In this paper, among the objectives of the study is to assess the awareness of university
students regarding advertising in disguise. Despite social media being common among the youth
in Malaysia, the concept of disclosing or disgusting advertising and marketing through the
platforms is relatively new. The second objective is to explore the experience of the university
students in advertising in disguise. With trends on the internet continuously changing and
evolving, certain people in the same generation of age might be able to experience a new area
earlier than the others. The third objective is to analyse the attitude of university students towards
advertising in disguise. This is the most crucial part of the study as it will help illustrate the
feelings of the viewers of the ads and how it can affect the advertisement creators.

2
1.3 Significance of the study

The significance of the study is that it is important for people to know the correct way of
advertising things in life. Moreover, the viewers of the advertisement also will be able to
acknowledge and differentiate the most accurate information along with the advertisements.
Lastly, this study also will be able to awaken the public figures upon the consequences of
disguising the information of ads, especially in the perception of the viewers.

2.0 Literature Review

Advertising can be defined as any paid form of non personal communication of ideas,
products and services commonly persuasive and convincing in nature, performed by known
sponsors by utilising different media platforms (McMillan, 2016). In general, the approaches that
are frequently being used to advertise one’s product or services are through product placement
and sponsored content. Hudson (2006) stated that product placement is one of the ways of
advertising whereby well-known brand companies will advertise their goods and services in
media, aiming a large audience and most often can be seen in television shows, radios, personal
videos on Youtube or even movies. Meanwhile, the use of sponsored content involves a brand
company with a third party, commonly independent content creators on social media which
nowadays are referred to as influencers to promote certain products or services. With the rise of
social media usage among the people in this day and age, many companies are taking this
advantage to utilise the sponsored advertisement by famous people in social media due to many
reasons including cost-effectiveness, time-saving as well as being able to acquire immediate
feedback (Woods, 2016).

However, the problem that may arise from advertisements is disguised advertising.
According to Nebenzhal and Jaffe (1998), disguised advertising is when the audience of an
advertisement fails to recognise whether the advertisement shown is being sponsored or not
because of the unknown source of the message content. Nebenzhal and Jafee (1988) further
explained paid advertisements conceal the sponsorship information for the reason to attract
public attention towards the brand instead of conveying the commercial message. Based on the
study conducted by Beckert et. al. (2020), advertising disclosure comprising the name and logo
of the sponsor and labels or disclaimers like “advertisement” or “sponsored” is crucial to ensure

3
the audience are aware of the status of the advertisement. Besides, disclosure of advertisements
helps to determine the persuasive objective of the ads, though it might affect the attitudes of the
audiences towards the promoted brand products negatively.

Transparency is one of the vital characteristics of advertisement. Reijmersdal and

Rozendaal (2020) mentioned that brands or companies as well as those who advertise sponsored
advertisements like content creators, celebrities or influencers are required to be transparent in
disclosing all information about the advertisement. For example, influencers that are paid to
promote sponsored products should make a disclaimer that the products are being endorsed by
certain brands in order to ensure that the audiences are well aware. Disclosure words like
“Sponsored” or “Paid Ads” can ease readers to detect the advertisement posted by influencers
(Evans et.al., 2017). Having said that transparency is important, there are some influencers who
fail to be transparent and disclose the fact of the product endorsement because they are
concerned that disclosing the advertisement will somehow cause the readers to avoid the content.
According to Nebenzhal and Jaffe (1988), disguising advertisements has a close connection with
ethical issues. Deception in advertising can be seen as untrue claims on the content of the
advertisement. The audiences will question the truthness of the claims made by the influencers
on the products. This is because people will have doubts whether the advertisers genuinely use
the products or advertise them just for the sake of being sponsored (Woods, 2016).

On the other hand, the effect of disclosure of advertisements can also be seen through the
persuasive attitude of the readers of the advertisement towards the product brands. Beckert et. al.
(2020) mentioned that when the advertisement is disclosed as sponsored, people will react
negatively towards the advertisement. The disclosure of sponsorship of a brand will make people
less persuasive to purchase the product (Beckert, Koch, Viererbl, Denner & Peter, 2020). This is
mainly for the reason that social media advertisements are less apparent to the readers compared
to the traditional advertisements like newspaper, billboards and radios (Evans, Phua, Lim & Jun,
2017). Advertising through social media in many cases is being suggested by the user’s close
friends and families. Therefore, the advertising content might be appealing to them and
eventually improving the brand as well as the advertising attitude positively. In spite of that, the
users of social media, in some cases, feel peeved when they come across advertisements that
have persuasive purposes which can be found in many sponsored ads.

4
 With this in mind, legal guidance is very much needed to monitor the sponsored
advertisement. Based on the study conducted by Woods (2016), organisations and advertisers
should have a proper monitoring on the people paid by the advertisers such as social media
influencers, artists and famous figures. In normal circumstances, those who handle advertising
disclosure matters are the legal department of organisations and are included in the contract
between the advertisers and paid influencers. According to Hudson (2006), stricter rules and
regulations can help in preventing problems that might arise from improper disclosure of
advertisements or in product placements.

3.0 Research Methodology

3.1 Respondents

To run this study we choose university students as our respondents. We managed to get
51 respondents from different universities in Malaysia without any specific gender. Majorities of
them study in public universities such as IIUM, UKM, UM, UPSI, UITM and etc and only a few
study in private universities including University of Cyberjaya, UNIPSAS and Lincoln
University College.

3.2 Data collection and distribution

In the current situation we decided to collect the data using an online survey form as it is
an effective way to reach our target respondents from different places. To distribute the survey
form, we utilise our own Whatsapps and social media platforms such as Instagram to help in
collecting the data for this study. We spread the survey form in class Whatsapp groups and
among our friends who still pursue their studies.

3.3 Survey form

We create our online form and survey with multiple questions using Google Form to
gather information that can help us in this study. The survey form consists of two sections. The
first section is demography where we seek for basic information of our respondents such as
gender, university and level of years. The second section is the survey question section where it
consists of ten (10) questions. To ease our respondent, all of the questions that we provided are

5
closed questionnaires where it is in terms of likert scale questionnaire from 1 (strongly disagree),
2 (disagree), 3 (neutral), 4 (agree) and 5 (strongly agree) except for demography section that is
classical text question.

3.4 Data Analysis

Once we reach 50 respondents, we transfer all the data that we manage to collect to
Google Spreadsheet and make analysis on each of the questions. We transform all the data into
pie charts, bar charts and column charts to present the data to make it easier to understand. From
the chart that we provided, we can make comparisons, show the pattern and relationship between
the data.

4.0 Data Analysis

We have conducted an online survey involving students from different universities

regarding Advertising In Disguise. As a result, we have collected the responses from 51 students.
The demographic section and the survey questions section will be used to do the analysis.
4.1 Demographic

Figure 1

We have collected the survey from a total of 51 respondents from different universities in
Malaysia. Furthermore, 47 (92%) of them are female students and 4 (8%) are male students.

6
 Figure 2

31 of the respondents (60.78%) are from IIUM students and 4 of them (7.84%) are from UITM.
There are also 3 respondents (5.88%) from UTM. Besides, there are two students (4%) who are
from UPSI, IPG and USIM respectively. Other than that, only one respondent (0.02%) are from
Uoc, UMK, Mmu, LU, UNIPSAS, UKM and also USM respectively.

Figure 3

31 students (61%) are in their 2nd year of study while 15 students (29%) are in their 3rd year of
study. Then, followed by 3 (6%) and 2 (4%) students from 4th and 1st year of study.

4.2 Survey Questions

In this section, there will be a total of 10 Questions that will be analyzed. Further
explanation will be examined according to the results of the study for each question.

7
4.2.1 I am aware and know how to recognise between disclose or disguise in advertisements.

Figure 4

The data in figure 4 shows that the majority of the respondents (41.18%) were aware of
disclose or disguise of advertisements. Furthermore, 13 respondents (25.49%) were really aware
of them followed by 12 respondents (23.53%) who were neutral. The remaining 5 respondents
(9.8%) are rarely aware and none of them were not aware of the disclose or disguise of
advertisement.

4.2.2 I think that celebrities or influencers prefer to use advertisements in disguise

compared to disclose it.

Figure 5

The findings show that a total of 23 respondents (45.09%) agree that the celebrities or
influencers prefer to use advertisements in disguise compared to disclose it. Besides, there were
12 respondents (23.53%) who strongly agree which were the same amount (23.53%) of
respondents who are neutral. Meanwhile, a minority of respondents (7.84%) disagree while none
of the respondents strongly disagree about it.

8
4.2.3 I have bought items that I have seen in social media posts.

Figure 6

From the frequency data in figure 6, it shows that 22 respondents (43.14%) oftenly
bought items that have been seen in the social media posts. Besides, 13 of the respondents
(25.49%) always bought items that have been in the social media following 7 respondents
(10.73%) rarely bought them. 5 respondents (9.8%) sometimes and 4 respondents (7.84%) never
bought those items based on the social media posts.

4.2.4 I have seen posts on social media by celebrities/influencers that look like an ad
without including disclaimer.

Figure 7

The survey results in figure 7 shows that 18 respondents (35.29%) very often see posts on
social media by celebrities or influencers that look like an ad without including disclaimer.
Besides, 16 respondents (31.37%) always see it, sometimes as many as 15 respondents (29.42%)
and 2 respondents (3.92%) rarely saw posts by the celebrities and influencers on social media
that look like an ad without including disclaimer. However, 0 respondents have never seen this
kind of post.

9
4.2.5 I am easily persuaded by the advertisements from influencers/celebrities.

Figure 8

The data in figure 8 shows that 15 respondents (29.41%) agree that they are easily
persuaded by the advertisement promoted by the influencers or celebrities. However, 11
respondents (21.57%) disagree that they were easily persuaded while 9 respondents (17.65%)
strongly disagree. Respondents who strongly agree that they are easily persuaded by the
advertisement from influencers or celebrities were 6 respondents (11.76%) while 10 respondents
(19.61%) were neutral about them.

4.2.6 I prefer to not know whether what I am consuming is a paid advertisement or not.

Figure 9

Based on the data obtained in Figure 9.0, it shows that 25 respondents (49%) were neutral
regarding whether they prefer not to know whether they are consuming paid advertisement or
not. As many as 12 respondents (23.53%) agreed that they prefer not to know about the product
they consume whereas 5 respondents (9.8%) strongly agree. Respondents who stated disagreed
were also 5 respondents (9.8%) and 4 respondents (7.84%) strongly disagree.

10
4.2.7 I think it is better to be informed that the content is an ad at the beginning rather
than at the end.

Figure 10

The findings show a total of 20 respondents (39.22%) strongly agree that it is better to
inform the audience that the content is an ad at the beginning rather than at the end. As many as
18 respondents agree (35.29%) and 8 respondents (15.69%) were neutral and 5 respondents
(9.8%) strongly disagree that they should be informed while none of them disagree about it.

4.2.8 I will still support the brand even if the public figures did not disclose it as an
advertisement if the product is very high in quality.

Figure 11

From the frequency of data in figure 11, it shows that 21 (41.18%) respondents agree and
18 respondents (35.29%) strongly agree that they will still support the brand even if the public
figures did not disclose it as an advertisement if the product advertised is very high in quality.
Besides, 11 (21.57%) respondents were neutral, and 1 respondent (1.96%) disagreed. None of

11
them strongly disagree that they support the high quality product even if it was not disclosed as
an advertisement by the public figures.

4.2.9 I will unfollow celebrities and social media influencers that do not disclose the ads
they were paid for.

Figure 12

The survey results in figure 12, shows that 25 respondents (49.02%) were neutral about
whether they unfollow celebrities and social media influencers that do not disclose the ads that
they were paid for. Besides, 10 respondents disagree (19.61%), 8 respondents agree (15.69%)
and 6 respondents disagree (11.76%) about unfollowing these social media influencers and
celebrities. However, only 2 respondents (3.92%) strongly agree that they unfollow them.

4.2.10 I believe there should be legal action towards brands and public figures that produce
advertising in disguise.

Figure 13

12
 The findings show a total of 18 respondents (35.29%) were neutral about whether legal
actions should be taken towards brands and public figures that produce advertising in disguise.
16 respondents (31.37%) agree and 12 respondents (23.53%) strongly agree about whether legal
actions should be given towards the brand and public figures. However, only 3 respondents
(5.88%) strongly disagree while 2 respondents (3.92%) disagreed regarding this action taken.

5.0 Discussion

Disclosure words like “Sponsored” or “Paid Ads” can ease readers to detect the
advertisement posted by influencers (Evans et.al., 2017). This is to provide clarity to viewers
whether the products are being reviewed based on the influencer’s experience in using the
products or as instructed by the sponsor. Plus, it is a matter of ethical issues between
advertisements with disclaimer and without disclaimer. According to Nebenzhal and Jaffe
(1988), disguising advertisements has a close connection with ethical issues. From the survey we
conducted, most of the respondents can differentiate advertisements in disguise with disclosed
advertisements, but there are also people who cannot differentiate between them which means it
is an unfair treatment to certain viewers. Most of the respondents also often see posts of social
media influencers without disclaimers. Beckert et. al. (2020) mentioned that when the
advertisement is disclosed as sponsored, people will react negatively towards the advertisement.
However, from our survey we can conclude that many of them are not really bothered if the
product placement is an advertisement in disguise or paid advertisement, but they agreed that
mentioning the video or post is a paid advertisement at the beginning is better than putting
disclaimer at the end. Plus, there are also influencers or reviewers that only include the
disclaimers in a long caption under the posts which people don’t usually read. Disclosing the
post as sponsored video could actually enhance the brand’s presence in social media if the paid
reviewers are crediting the brand. It will show the brand’s effort in approaching people on social
media and gaining people’s trust on the reviewer’s review of the products. The disclosure of
sponsorship of a brand will make people less persuasive to purchase the product (Beckert, Koch,
Viererbl, Denner & Peter, 2020). Lastly, legal actions should be taken on influencers or reviewers
that do not disclose the sponsor. Based on Woods (2016), organisations and advertisers should
have a proper monitoring on the people paid by the advertisers such as social media influencers,
artists and famous figures. This is because, we found out from the survey that people are still

13
willing to buy the products whether it is being advertised in disguise or publicly disclosed. Most
of them are not taking action to report or unfollow the influencers even if they do not disclose the
paid reviews, because there are a lot of other things that they want to see from the influencers,
such as their lifestyle, fashion, house decorations, recipes, and etc. So, the sponsoring brand’s
social media manager should be aware of the compliance of the influencers with their terms and
conditions on sponsored posts or videos.

6.0 Recommendation

Advertisement is a method of communication that is able to give benefits to viewers and

public figures. Therefore, there are few recommendations that can help the viewers and public
figures to be smart users of it. The recommendations for viewers upon understanding the
advertisement in social media are that viewers should diligently spend some time in reading the
caption of the post of the public figures. This is because viewers will be able to differentiate the
advertisement post or not by reading the captions of it. Moreover, the viewers also should check
out the comments section on the advertisement post or feedback of the product from other
sources such as Shopee and official websites to double confirm the information that has been
delivered by the public figures in the post. As for the public figures, some suggestions to
improve their advertisement ads in social media are public figures and sponsored parties should
have an agreement that allows the disclosure of information in the advertisement post under the
concept that has been agreed by both parties. In addition, the public figures also should have a
proper disclosure label. They have to display the disclosure label at the beginning of
advertisement post captions such “ #Ads ” or “ #Sponsored ”. They also should keep the
information in the shortest and simplest way. They can refer to the Malaysian Communication
and Multimedia Content Code (Content Code) upon every advertisement post that needs to
advertise in social media.

14
7.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, public figures should disclose the post as an advertisement post on social
media for their viewers. This is because they should perform the ethical actions in performing
their works to show their professionalism. Moreover, viewers also have the right to believe or
ignore the information in the advertisements posted based on their own judgements to
differentiate between an authentic content or not. Therefore, the solutions that are suggested to
disclosed the informations in the advertisement are to check the comments and feedback from
other sources about the product to reconfirm the informations in the advertisements and to have a
proper disclosure label on the advertisement post caption in the most simplest and shortest way
for viewers and public figures respectively. In Islam also have been told that Muslims should be
honest and have no elements of uncertainty in every activities that happens in their life. Hence, a
good, understandable and ethical person will always know their rights and boundaries upon
living their best life along with a better society.

15
8.0 References

Beckert, J., Koch, T., Viererbl, B., Denner, N., & Peter, C. (2020). Advertising in disguise? How
disclosure and content features influence the effects of native advertising.
Communications, 45(3), 303-324.
Cornwell, S. E., & Rubin, V. L. (2017). Native advertising: Ads in disguise as editorials. In
Proceedings of the Annual Conference of CAIS/Actes du congrès annuel de l'ACSI.
Evans, N. J., Phua, J., Lim, J., & Jun, H. (2017). Disclosing Instagram influencer advertising:
The effects of disclosure language on advertising recognition, attitudes, and behavioral
intent. Journal of interactive advertising, 17(2), 138-149.
Hudson, S., & Hudson, D. (2006). Branded entertainment: a new advertising technique or
product placement in disguise?. Journal of Marketing Management, 22(5-6), 489-504.
Krouwer, S., Poels, K., & Paulussen, S. (2017). To disguise or to disclose? The influence of
disclosure recognition and brand presence on readers' responses toward native
advertisements in online news media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 17(2), 124-137.
McMillan, S. J. (2004). Internet advertising: One face or many. Internet advertising: Theory and
research, (2), 5.
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Advertisement. In Merrian-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved from
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/advertisement
Nebenzhal, I. D., & Jaffe, E. D. (1998). Ethical dimensions of advertising executions. Journal of
Business Ethics, 17(7), 805-815.
Reijmersdal, E. & Rozendaal, E. (2020). Transparency of digital native and embedded
advertising: Opportunities and challenges for regulation and education. Communications,
45(3), 378-388. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2019-0120
Wand Of Knowledge Team. (2021). Graph and Charts: Meaning and Types| Importance of
Charts. Retrieved from
https://wandofknowledge.com/graphs-and-charts-meaning-and-type-importance-of-charts
/
Woods, S. (2016). # Sponsored: The emergence of influencer marketing.
Survio (2020). Question types 5: Open-ended questions. Retrieved from
https://www.survio.com/en/blog/question-types-5-open-ended-questions/

16
9.0 Appendix

17
18
19
20
21
22