Advertising has always been associated with the manipulation of information for commercial purposes to achieve greater acceptance and success among the masses. In this industry, it is about creating needs in the consumer and then satisfying them and this is a communication strategy. It is about enhancing the positive values and virtues of a product or brand and minimizing its faults or defects. This makes all sense, but what if for one day we could find the downsides of their products in the slogans of our favorite brands? What effect would it have on its popularity and our purchase decision? These mashups speak for themselves!
This is the question that has been asked since viral recess and that they have answered through some quite impressive mashups with brands such as Netflix, Activia, Crayola, Lego, Monopoly, Linkedin or Victoria's Secret. Beyond the comic component that these proposals have, they also invite reflection and I take the opportunity to launch a somewhat controversial question: Do you think it would be possible to advertise without resorting to manipulation? I personally think that it would not be possible. Any act of communication involves a selection of information, so manipulation is implicit in communication and of course even more so within persuasive speeches. If we try to convince the viewer why they have to join our team or why they have to consume our products, from minute zero we will have made a selection of information that is clearly based on the positive values and the advantages (often relative) that the potential consumer will get with us.
