When does an advert become deceptive?

[Claireschen Hesten]

43 minutes ago, Anna Nova said:

What is DAZ?  Never even heard of it before reading this thread.

What i used to use DAZ for was creating poses/animations you can also use it to do renders where clothing for SL is often modelled on their figures to create ad's instead of using a model & studio in SL 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

23 hours ago, Orwar said:

When does an advert become deceptive? [...] Thoughts?

When it's not possible to make the product in-world look the same as it does in the ad. Then it's literally not what the ad promised you would get.

This is most deceiving with reflective, refracting, and translucent materials (metals, gems, jewelry in general), but also for different kinds of shading, such as subsurface scattering, caustics and back-scattering (wax-like objects, liquids, white objects in a colored environment). Most of these ads you are referring to have been made through a process called ray-tracing, which deals with all these kinds of lighting and shading effects. This way of generating images is fundamentally different from how the looks of such products are generated through a gaming engine (until SL adopts GPU ray tracing, somewhere ten years from now).

But then again, the consumer has the final word. They may fall for it once, and then choose to either not buy anything from that store anymore because they're disappointed, or accept the differences between advertising and (virtual) reality. Up to now, many fashion companies in SL seem to have gotten away with it. We can only guess what their losses or gains are though such practices. It seems that the average consumer has learned to live with the deception or simply didn't notice or didn't care.

On the creator's side, I imagine it's also a display of technological and professional prowess. 'Behold, how cool I can make these things I sell look in an ad.' And many faithful store fans probably even want to share in this new kind of cool. 'Look what I'm wearing. It's from that store with the cool ads.' Some merchant started it and others followed. It seems ray-traced ads have become a fashion statement in SL marketing and fashion circles.

My personal opinion? I would never do such a thing. I'm not interested in cool or fashionable or squeezing the last buck out of a customers' purse. I only like to make things and if others happen to like them too, then that's fine. I definitely advocate for advertisements based on in-world screen captures only, and I'd be reluctant to buy anything that's advertised with a ray-traced image.

[Update] Then again: deceptive 80s computer game ads. Totally cool!

Edited April 15, 2021 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Eddy Vortex]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

Morphing is sticking your SL face on a RL body for a truly creepy picture.

I've seen some shi......

</ PTSD flashbacks>

 

[Janet Voxel]

10 minutes ago, Eddy Vortex said:

I've seen some shi......

</ PTSD flashbacks>

 

I can’t unsee it!!! STAHP!!!!

 

 

[Gabriele Graves]

5 hours ago, Anna Nova said:

What is DAZ?  Never even heard of it before reading this thread.

DAZ3D is a commercial 3D modelling package in a similar way to Blender, etc.  It used to be free if you made an account.  I had a very limited play with it once upon a time but haven't looked at it for a long time so I don't know whether it is still free.

[Nalates Urriah]

6 hours ago, Anna Nova said:

What is DAZ?  Never even heard of it before reading this thread.

People who buy things without a demo are called imbeciles.

P.s. What's a morph?

The idea of Morph varies with the context in which it is used. The basic concept is generally a smooth change from one thing to another. Like this video. The video is image or face morphing.

The SL Classic avatar does facial animation via a 3D model morphing process. There are a limited number of expressions as they have to be preprogrammed into the viewers. Mesh faces change expression by an animation process and facial expressions are unlimited as animations are user created. But, mesh faces smoothly change, morph, from one expression to another. So, the difference in how the word is used is whether one is talking about the technical process or how it appears.

A caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. Werewolves... vampires... The Hulk... they can be said to morph. So, sort of morph = change... but with some nuances.

[Rat Luv]

5 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

[Update] Then again: deceptive 80s computer game ads. Totally cool!

Reminds me of "winter wonderland" shock stories in the UK every Xmas 

We didn't get so many last year because of Covid, but usually there's some media outrage over a rip-off "wonderland" every Xmas with some member of the public saying their kids were in tears and they want to sue...

 

 

 

 

 

[Paul Hexem]

10 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

Reminds me of "winter wonderland" shock stories in the UK every Xmas 

We didn't get so many last year because of Covid, but usually there's some media outrage over a rip-off "wonderland" every Xmas with some member of the public saying their kids were in tears and they want to sue...

 

 

 

 

 

Lapland.

Oh. So many jokes I'm not making right now...

[Rat Luv]

41 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

Lapland.

Oh. So many jokes I'm not making right now...

I think I know what you mean, but I don't want to say in case I'm wrong, lol.

[Eddy Vortex]

4 hours ago, Rat Luv said:

Reminds me of "winter wonderland" shock stories in the UK every Xmas 

We didn't get so many last year because of Covid, but usually there's some media outrage over a rip-off "wonderland" every Xmas with some member of the public saying their kids were in tears and they want to sue...

 

If I had to pay money to see that, I'd want to sue too. Not even fairy lights? That poor animal looks so depressed.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Eddy Vortex

[Rat Luv]

29 minutes ago, Eddy Vortex said:

If I had to pay money to see that, I'd want to sue too. Not even fairy lights? That poor animal looks so depressed.

I didn't mean to make light of animal abuse 😟 It was one of the first pics that came up, and I probably shouldn't have used it. I just meant the UK  ripoff winter wonderland scams where families pay £50 to visit a place that looks like Lapland on the advertising, but is actually just a car park with a barbie doll nativity scene and a Santa smoking a cigarette 🤔

 

[Eddy Vortex]

56 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

I didn't mean to make light of animal abuse 😟 It was one of the first pics that came up, and I probably shouldn't have used it. I just meant the UK  ripoff winter wonderland scams where families pay £50 to visit a place that looks like Lapland on the advertising, but is actually just a car park with a barbie doll nativity scene and a Santa smoking a cigarette 🤔

 

I know it wasn't your intention.  If anything, this is just accurate reporting of what really goes on behind the gates. That picture, among other things, shows exactly why that supposed attraction should be shamed for it with that admission price. Oh, and someone should call PETA on them.

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Eddy Vortex

[Solar Legion]

"When does an advert become deceptive?"

For many/most modern Ads: Is it an Ad? It is deceptive in some way.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

23 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

For many/most modern Ads: Is it an Ad? It is deceptive in some way.

Yes, this, pretty much. Ads have one function, really, and only one: to make someone money. How deceptive they are probably mostly depends upon the ethical code of the advertiser.

And they work. I am entirely conscious of how misleading are ads that show clothing on Daz or similar avatars, but I am also self-aware enough to know that, at some level, I am responding positively to such things. They look "professional," and the product looks good. It does require something like effort to combat that positive impression.

[Solar Legion]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yes, this, pretty much. Ads have one function, really, and only one: to make someone money. How deceptive they are probably mostly depends upon the ethical code of the advertiser.

And they work. I am entirely conscious of how misleading are ads that show clothing on Daz or similar avatars, but I am also self-aware enough to know that, at some level, I am responding positively to such things. They look "professional," and the product looks good. It does require something like effort to combat that positive impression.

Heh, I was being somewhat cheeky and broadening the scope to all Ads, not just ones for Second Life related products.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Solar Legion said:

Heh, I was being somewhat cheeky and broadening the scope to all Ads, not just ones for Second Life related products.

And you were right! That is literally why they exist!

[Anna Nova]

3 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yes, this, pretty much. Ads have one function, really, and only one: to make someone money. How deceptive they are probably mostly depends upon the ethical code of the advertiser.

And they work. I am entirely conscious of how misleading are ads that show clothing on Daz or similar avatars, but I am also self-aware enough to know that, at some level, I am responding positively to such things. They look "professional," and the product looks good. It does require something like effort to combat that positive impression.

While I agree with you completely, the ORIGINAL intent of advertising was to make potential buyers aware of your product in a large market-space.  In a perfect market there are so many suppliers of every good and service that competition brings the price that can be charged to the correct competitive price - the price that the market bears.  But we do not have perfect markets in modern State-Policed-Pseudo-Competitive-Capitalism.  It's a market distorted my many things, and the biggest one is monopolies and oligopolies- try buying a non-android, non-apple cellphone.

SecondLife, as a market, is less policed than almost any other, and should be a perfect market, but for some reason it isn't.  I'm not sure why.  It's an interesting topic.  Perhaps buyer-distrust of advertising-untruths has a part to play in it.

[Ceka Cianci]

I just look at it like this.. if it's not of this world, then it's a good chance It's gonna be a let down when i try it.. So to save time I just keep looking elsewhere..

I mean if it's something that seems more original than something I've seen before, I'll give it a try.. But if it's just a fancy looking version of something that is a dime a dozen in SL, I'm gonna keep on keeping on..

[Coffee Pancake]

Do a lot of shopping.

I absolutely refuse to even demo something if the box picture wasn't rendered in Second Life.

• It shows the creator has contempt for the SL render engine, the very engine they are supposed to be making content specifically for.
• It shows the creator isn't active in SL and is just here to dump final render content of dubious source and cash out the L$.
• It implies the product doesn't fit the targeted SL bodies correctly and their business model is based entirely around impulse shopping.

That makes them a parasite. At least they are easy to spot.

[Janet Voxel]

I'd just like to put out there that there are a couple of events and a couple body makers that strongly suggest potential applicants use DAZ for their ads.