Buyers need informative and 'honest' ads
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Wearing a sexy dress in the privacy of her bedroom, artist Krisdayanti holds a sanitary napkin and caresses the softness of its surface with her fingers.
"It's safe and comfortable," she says before standing up, as if trying to demonstrate that the napkin does not affect her appearance.
That is just one of the television commercials which, according to Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) executive director Zumrotin K. Susilo, contribute to consumer dependency on a certain product.
"It's hard for women not to use sanitary napkins nowadays. The ads make them believe there is no other option for those having a period besides using napkins," Zumrotin told The Jakarta Post.
The persuasive power of advertising also sways people to change many of their daily habits, such as drinking water out of their own wells.
"Just look at people's tendency to drink mineral water, that's also the result of ads," Zumrotin remarked.
The most significant impact of ads, she said, was their role in changing consumer behavior and, at times, trapping people in a baffling buying patterns.
"Ads make people buy unnecessary products and spend more money than is necessary," Zumrotin said.
Communication expert Muhammad Budyatna agreed, adding that many ads induce people to buy unnecessary products as a mere image booster.
He pointed to the habit of dining at certain advertised restaurants for the sake of image alone.
Advertisements, he argued, shifted people's preference from eating at Ayam Goreng (fried chicken) Suharti to Kentucky Fried Chicken, and from shopping at traditional markets to supermarkets.
"People here tend to be rather irrational and emotional in spending their money. As a result, they spend more than they have to," Budyatna, dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences, told the Post.
He lamented the failure of most advertisements to reveal the true quality of the products advertised.
Ethics
Zumrotin said that YLKI was not adverse to the presence of ads and understands that ads play a great role in generating product sales. "The problem is, how to make a responsible and ethical ad," she said
She observed that some advertising agencies produce misleading commercials.
For instance, she said, there is an ad which uses a doctor to advertise a particular brand of medicine. "This ad is unethical because it will mislead people, who assume that the medicine must be effective because it's being advertised by a doctor," Zumrotin said.
Budyatna said some ads tend to exaggerate product benefits.
"I bought a Magic Mop for Rp 127,000 (US$36.20) after watching it advertised on TV, but after using it, I found out that the product didn't work as shown," he said.
Theoretically, he argued, advertisements should help people in making the right decision before buying products.
"Ads should make people wise in their decisions and buy things which are really necessary," Budyatna said.
Zumrotin urged consumers to increase their knowledge on advertised products before purchasing them.
She recounted a case where a consumer complained that the advertised medicine he bought failed to cure his diseases.
The advertisement claimed that the medicine could heal an array of illnesses, from diabetes to skin disease.
"If the consumer was more knowledgeable, he would have known that there's no such medicine which can cure all diseases," Zumrotin said.
Control
Zumrotin blamed the luster of misleading ads on weak control by both the government and the association of Indonesian advertising companies.
She cited an ad for a revitalizing tonic, which claimed it could cure a fever, as one which passed through the government's control.
The tonic, she said, was registered as a food product, which means its ad did not have to pass through the Ministry of Health's. But, in its ads, the tonic claimed to have a curing effect, she added.
"The ministry should take action immediately after watching the tonic's ad, which is not advertised as a food product but as a healing formula," Zumrotin said.
Unfortunately, the ministry has done nothing so far, she said, adding that it was the consumers who suffer and can do nothing due to their weak legal position because the law does not protect consumers.
Advertising agencies, she said, should not only think of generating profits from the sales of their clients' products, but should also consider creating informative, communicative and educative ads.
"I know agencies have limited funds to air a complete ad due to the high cost of air time, but don't mislead people by only highlighting the 'good' things about products," Zumrotin said.
Budyatna suggested that local advertising agencies learn from their foreign counterparts, such as ads for Marlboro and Coca Cola.
"Those ads are easier to understand," Budyatna said. Most locally produced ads, he said, lack creativity and could not be accepted by people from all social levels.