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NOTICE: THIS MMERIAL MAY BE PROTECTED JBY. COPYRIGHT LAW (TITLE 17 U. S. CODE). THE REGULATING ADVERTISING RATIONALIST "Econoraie man" is not dead-- he's just gone to the FTC. ~(~ichael D. ~ernacchi The °'economic rational man" has gen- erally been considered a hardcore unemployable in the fields of contempo- rary economics and marketing. Yet, he appears to have been successfully retrained as an advertising regulator. While the economic man is the most revered standard of consumption for nineteenth-century economists and twentieth-century ]egallsts, this stan- dard has long been recognized by con- sumer behaviorists as being hopelessly incarcerated by a web of assumptions that generally prevents the existence of even the most basic perceptions of reality. Neverthdess, modem advertising regulators are "'advertising rational- ists.'" They have concerned themselves with the diminution of consumer choice or sovereignty because of the difference between rational and irrational con- sumer behavior or the imbalance of rationality and bargaining power with which the merchant and the consumer typically approach the market place. R has beta said that the "'consumer does and that "advertisements are directed more toward the irrational desires and fears of advertisees, thus increasing the irrationality of consumers." Indeed, FTC Commissioner Gerald Thaln has even claimed that the FTC has decided to protect consumers from "irrational appeals" to enable them to make more rational decisions based on more intrin- sic product information. It has even been suggested that only the "rational" or technical aspects of a product should be allowed in advertisements and that the FTC should,dictate that an ad that promotes a product without providing a rational basis for its preference is an "'unfair method of competition." FTC Commissioner Thain has even gone so far as to define a "rational pur- chase" as merely meaning that the con- sumer has a physical need, knows his need, and is willing to purchase a prod- uct if its physical need fulfillment is plainly explained. Unenlightened attackers of adve~is- ing have claimed that the relatively new medium of television is uniquely suited advertisers. It's been further posited that the inducement of mood advertis- ing, or advertising that suggests the ben- efits of fulfilling emotional needs as sex- ual attractiveness and social accept- mace, and advertising that associates a product with strongly held social values such as affluence or sophistication is patently irrational. The mood and social-value advertisements are deemed irrational because they provide insuffi- cient real attribute (price and inherent quality) information to enable the con- sumer to make a rational purchase, Advertising rationalists believe that the consumer's response is rational if it is ba-sed on inherent product character- istics and irrational if it is based on emo- tive characteristics presented by advertisers. It is vital for both our economy and society that consumer interests be bal- anced with other market-place interests to prevent our imperfectly competitive markets from further diminishing the consumer's ab~ty to raakc we.11- thought-through p~luet selections. Bat -I-105280105

Journal of Advertising Research ality is b.oth unrespen~'e to, the real consumer and irrespomible by the applying regulatory agency. Yet learned re~laror.~ l'e#~ff~ors, a, rd, ,legati~ts have abyss. This damned rationality which is so ze~ou~ly protect~ should be What is "rational" for the individual may not be deemed as such by society. The standard then becomes one which is societally ~mj~os~d, ~ther tha~ the tradi- Society need not condone behavior that is diffcre.n.t from its standards, but to University of Detroit. He has been pub- lished and reprinted in a variety of bush heSS and law Journals, and has been a frequent oontributor to, management ~o'nfe¢enees and seminm's~ .... behavior and impuIsive behavior tradi'- tlonally have been viewed as examples of irrational behavior. And, perhaps these behaviors may not be socially desirable, but who can say that it is irrational to resolve automatically the same problem in the same manner each time or to, mahe~,~n immediate decision based on few, iFan~,, comparisons when that dectsmn agi~.a~ to merit very little ~onsidera~t~ a~dit,t~e consequences of being incorroct are ,miniscule? Since it is preferable, therefore, to completely avoid the term rationality because it is often misused and misun- derstood, advertising regula_tor.s and, in particular,- the FTC's decision to hide behind this fiction because of some type of quasi-legal and/or societal acceptabil- ity of the term is both unwise and unac- ceptable. Furthermore, once advertising regulators become unconcerned with gatekeeping the "rational man" con- cept, they then will more properly be concerned with the issues of who or what agency is using the lever of socie- tal acceptability, what is the nature of their power to affeetuate the lever, and what are the rights and commensurate duties that flow from that power. In other words, the power is no longer cloaked with the inherent righteousness of protecting and perpetuating the myth of "rationality." Now, the "power" must stand naked and be legitimized solely on its own merit. Michael D. Bernaechi is an assistant professor of marketing and coordinator of marketing and J.DJM.B.A. pro- grams for the business school, and adjunct professor of law for the law school at the University of Detroit. He received his Ph.D. from Southern Illi- nois University and his J.D. from the weighing a completely accessible infinite number of alternatives, using strictly objective prod uct criteria. These erileda relate to the product's function, cost, efficiency, size, weight, and price and are designed to maximize the single goal of economic utility in a perfectly pre- dictable objective environment. Totally omitted fr~m this very narrow approach ro ~ational~t~ are.~ny.:¢.o~derg.tions of inaecess'=~l~ al~6~aa:ti¢~, ~obJe~ e cri- teria (e.g., beauty and.d, esire for emula- tion), and satisfying behavior based on a number of goals occurring in an uncer- tain and perceptionaI~ subjective environment. Traditionally, consumer behavior ha~ insisted on making the artificial distinc- tion between rationality and irrationality based on motivation. The implication is that emotive behavior based on love, fear, sex, pride, power, orego was non- rational. Rational behavior was, there- fore, based on the motive behind the behavior rather than on the thought pro- cess that spawned the belmvior. Once rationality is viewed, not by its induc- tion of motives, but by the logical pro- cess of decision making, tI~en the need to artificially judge rational behavior, by whether the needs sought to be satisfied are physical or psychological, becomes unimportant. In other words, while every need has both a physical and psy- chological aspect, every co~sumer deci- sion is based on both, E~ry need is simultaneously physical ard emotional. Therefore, rational behavior is predb eared on what appears to be the best physical-psychological alternative at thai time in the eyes of the consumer. Since the concept ofcousumer ration- ality is an individually inte~retable one, its usage in the bands of the unskilled becomes both misused and unfortunate. INDEX OF ADVERTISEaS AHF Marketing Research Inc ......... Cover II A1S; Market tonics ........ , ............. page 2 ARS (See Research Systems Corporation) Acker Retail Audits~ Inc ........... ~ ...... page 49 R. H. Bruskin Associates _. ......... ..page40 Broz~on¢ Research Compahy ~BRC) .... page 15 Burke Marketing Research Corporation Cover IV Canadian Opinion Research Lid ............ page 4 Central Marketing lnc ................. page 5 Consumer Response Corporation ....... page 50 The Data Group Incorporated .......... page 6 Dataplan Inc ......................... page 39 Ehrhart-Babic Associates, Inc ........... page Ehrhart-Bablc Data Services. Ine ........ page I Haskins Press ........................ page 21 Lionettl & Meyers Research Center, Inc.. page 43 McCollum/Spielman/& Company, Inc... page 7 Market Opinion Research .............. page 4 Multivariance Data Anglysts. Inc ........ page 39 N.E. Reid Facts, Inc. .................. page 2g National Family Opinion, Inc ........... page 22 National Retail Tracking Index, Inc. .... page i Penthouse U ......................... page 21 Perception Research Services, Inc ....... page 20 RSVP Inlerviewing Set-,'ices ............ page 48 Rabin Research Company .............. page 30 Research Information Center, inc. ...... page 3 Research Systems Corporation ........ Cover Ill The Sherman Group Inc ............... pag#: 8 Smith's Fifth Avenue .... : ............. page 20 Sup'ey Sampling. Inc .................. page 29 T.~me Letter Settee Corporation ....... page 21 Walker Research. Inc. .................page 16 Wiaooa. the. ......................... page .~2 T!05280106