Social Psychological (Mis)Representations in Television Advertising

As a result of the FTC's more aggressive approach to regulating advertising, there has been a noticeable reduction in the amount of blatant lies in advertisements. More subtle forms of deceit are still a problem, however. This paper examines a special form of subtly deceptive advertising termed the social‐psychological representation. A case is developed from available conceptual and empirical evidence to show how this apparently innocuous advertising method can deceive advertising receivers. Results are presented from a content analysis of television commercials which reveal that social‐psychological representations are used extensively in national advertising.