Dentex Case

This is manipulation of individual’s decision through psychological appeal which exploits instincts, personal motivator, conformity, anxieties and low self-esteem to guide behaviour (Marketing-promotion and placement, Power Point Slides). Their strategy also included targeting older consumers who care about safety by endorsing the Rento by authority figures. These ads included actors as mechanics and engineers to endorse the Rento by giving it a thumps up and trusting their children with the car ((Dentex Corporation, PDF document). This act is considered as deception of consumers because consumers tends to be convinced by the ad and buy the unsafe car that they would not have bought otherwise.

The utilitarian analysis shows that the affected audience are the company employees and the customers. Through the manipulative advertising the employees will be able to reach their marketing and sales target that will be beneficial for the profitability of the company. Whereas the targeted customer who are manipulated spend their money on the Rento, they bear the risk of accidents and like Mrs. Ray and her son, they suffer from injury and death. The company is solely responsible for this kind of advertising and the consequences. The pros of this act will be the company sales and profit whereas the cons will be the risk of young crowd driving the accident prone car. Thus from the utilitarian perspective the deceiving promotional activities are wrong