Purpose – This article aims to stimulate discussion of how the advertising of brands affects the product category by creating generic demand. Design/methodology/approach – The article outlines the author's personal viewpoint. Findings – Although greater emphasis has been given to generic...

The misguided effort to change the smoking behavior of college students using the same anti‐smoking messages created for young teens apparently stems from the misplaced marketing belief that ads designed to prevent young teens from smoking can also effectively encourage college‐student...

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to question the misplaced efforts to curb alcohol abuse through “responsible” drinking messages from the alcohol industry, asking how responsible this strategy really is. Design/methodology/approach – This article cites published research that...

Purpose – This article aims to address the nature of vulnerability and the basis for protecting certain audiences from targeted goods and services. It aims to evaluate the need for protection as well as marketers' defense that protection merely patronizes audiences. Design/methodology/approach...

Notes that research has shown that advertising efforts to promote social causes rarely reach meaningful levels of effectiveness. Points out that while the media provide the right emotional climate for advertising messages that encourage consumption, it follows that the media provide the wrong...