Brian,
I think coercion is probably a misnomer. It suggests use of force or
the threat of use of force, and if we use it we'll confuse matters
with truly oppressive political and institutional strategies... I'd
prefer terms like "appeal," "suggest," even "deceive," "falsify," or
"manipulate" if you want to thematize the negative.
The most logical approach would be to distinguish, as linguists and
semioticians do, between information and form, or between the content
its expression. We can then say that there's a falsification occurring
in each: the content is false (advertising is a lie); the form is
manipulative (aesthetically pleasing, sexually suggestive, appeals to
lifestyle, etc).
We then have the two axes of "designing the false": one is to
deliberately mislead using content and information (what is said, how,
and what's not said); the other is to use familiar design languages,
images, signs, stories, etc to misrepresent and to appeal to the
customer's senses. The former engages the customer's knowledge; the
latter engages the customer's style.
Ethical questions could then be raised with each: is it right to use
information to mislead? is it right to use design to appeal to the
senses or to be suggestive?
Keep in mind that advertising, while it lies, is up front and above
board about lying -- so the consumer is complicit in the whole system
of buying into brand strategies, advertisements, and so on. The
consumer has the right to buy or not. (In political matters it's
different -- taxes have been paid on basis of a representative
political system and social contract).
adrian
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On Jul 27, 2009, at 9:26 AM, Brian Mila wrote:
"Influencing behavior is not the same thing as coercing behavior."
Where do you draw the line between influencing and coercing? Do you
even draw the line at all? Product advertisements have been made for
hundreds of years, with the intent of maximum persuasion to buy the
product (coercing?). Is that wrong? What about when it happens in
political commercials? Is it wrong then? Do we as designers need to
adopt a code of ethics like other professions have done?
Brian
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