Park Sung

This study is concerned with the moral dilemma that stems from the digital manipulation of magazine ads to render models thinner. Exposure to the "thin ideal" has been linked to such damaging psychological responses as body dissatisfaction, loss of self-esteem, and ultimately to disordered eating behaviors. However, the artistic freedom of photo editors is a cherished value that conflicts with the concern for public health. Findings suggest that, although aware of the prevalence of digital editing, readers disapprove of its use in rendering models thinner, and judge it to be unethical and unfair. Findings are discussed with regard to the role of education in helping readers discount manipulated images.

At the heart of the ethics debate regarding healthcare service advertising is the erosion of the trust bestowed upon physicians by patients and society at large. However, no study has empirically examined the relationship between advertising and trust in the medical profession. The current study addresses this gap using a survey of adults in a U.S. state. Contrary to some ethicists’ assertions, exposure to healthcare service advertisements resulted in higher trust via a more positive attitude toward healthcare service advertising. At the same time, exposure to healthcare service advertisements was related to lower trust via a more positive attitude toward physicians who advertise: The more advertisements consumers saw, the more they liked physicians who advertised, resulting in lower trust in the medical profession. The ethics of healthcare service advertising should be understood in a broader context of access to healthcare and patient-provider relationships.

The use of e-commerce has exploded due to the impact of COVID-19. People with no experience in e-commerce prior to the COVID-19 pandemic began online shopping for their safety following the pandemic outbreak. As such, these newly joined customers have played a vital role in the rapid development of e-commerce. Maintaining these customers and increasing their repurchase intention is a core issue for e-commerce platform companies. Thus, using new e-commerce users as the participants, this study investigated the structural relationship between brand experience, brand emotional factors, brand loyalty, and repurchase intention with brand love as the mediator. Research on the multidimensional brand experience from Chinese customers’ perspective is still lacking, and our study attempts to fill this gap. A structured questionnaire and hypotheses were designed based on studies and survey of 310 respondents from China in this study. The study results show that, first, the four dimensions of brand experience have a significant positive correlation with brand emotion, with brand cognitive experience having the greatest impact on consumer brand emotion. Second, the influence of brand emotion on brand loyalty is positive and significant, and brand attachment has a stronger influence than brand love on brand loyalty. In addition, brand loyalty has a positive effect on repurchase intention. Finally, brand love plays a mediating role on the relationship between brand attachment and brand loyalty. To enhance customers’ brand attachment and love for e-commerce platforms, companies must enhance customers’ interest and curiosity in their products. And companies will improve their services to customers by introducing artificial intelligence algorithms to increase customers’ repurchase intention, which will ultimately increasing their profitability. This study contributes to the development of e-commerce platform companies.

Background In the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission declared that allowing medical providers to advertise directly to consumers would be “providing the public with truthful information about the price, quality or other aspects of their service.” However, our understanding of the advertising content is highly limited. Objective To assess whether direct-to-consumer medical service advertisements provide relevant information on access, quality and cost of care, a content analysis was conducted. Method Television and online advertisements for medical services directly targeting consumers were collected in two major urban centres in Nevada, USA, identifying 313 television advertisements and 200 non-duplicate online advertisements. Results Both television and online advertisements reliably conveyed information about the services provided and how to make an appointment. At the same time, less than half of the advertisements featured insurance information and hours of operation and less than a quarter of them contained information regarding the quality and price of care. The claims of quality were substantiated in even fewer advertisements. The scarcity of quality and cost information was more severe in television advertisements. Conclusion There is little evidence that medical service advertising, in its current form, would contribute to lower prices or improved quality of care by providing valuable information to consumers.