The International Congress of Applied Social Communication (CICSA) was founded as a forum to debate all social problems that fall within the frame of reference of applied communication. On this occasion, the focus will be misleading advertising, as a form of illegitimate advertising that affects competitors and consumers.
The School is not only involved in the Congress as a sponsor because its Scientific Committee boasts the participation of Dr. Ana García-Arranz, a Professor of Communication, lecturer on the Master in Marketing and Commercial Management, and the Director of EAE Business School's Strategic Research Center.
"One of the forms of communication that has always had the greatest impact on society at all levels is advertising", explains Dr. Ana García-Arranz with respect to the Congress, which is intended to be a discussion forum on the presence, regulation, self-regulation, management and social and media responsibility of advertising from the perspective of different disciplines and perspectives.
The event is organized by the research group methaodos.org, the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and the Institute of Computational Social Sciences. As well as EAE Business School, the Congress's other partner institutions and organizations include the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, the Association of Communication Users, the Ibero-American Network of Advertising Researchers, the Foundation for Advertising Research and the social science journal 'Methaodos.revista de ciencias sociales'.
As Dr. Ana García-Arranz explained, the fact that the Congress is international is significant, both in terms of the research and the final level of the results. Firstly, for all of the lecturers who are working on their doctorate, this is really important in terms of accreditations. "It is a great boost for our researchers, an opportunity that must be grabbed by all lecturers working on this line of research". Moreover, the Scientific Committee is comprised of various professors and researchers from different universities and institutions at a global level and its ultimate aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.
Titles, abstracts and keywords will be published via the platform 'methaodos.congresos', with the deadline for submitting proposals on 15th May 2017. From that point, the Scientific Committee will review and test the communications to ensure that they "take into account all of the dimensions and implications of the reality of analysis from all perspectives".
The Congress will be held on the 28th and 29th September in the Law and Social Science Department of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Not only speakers and lecturers are invited to attend but also students from different universities. As a lecturer on the Master in Marketing and Commercial Management, Dr. Ana García-Arranz advises her students to attend in order to learn and form part of the discussion forum. "At the end of the day, they are issues that very related with ethics, everyday practice, setting limits and respect for consumers and competitors".
To fight this misleading advertising, the challenge involves striking a balance between regulation and the ethical and social responsibility of companies and advertisers, although the Director of the School's Research Center adds that it also involves "eliminating short-term vision and asking ourselves at both an ethical and strategic level whether there is any point selling consumers false expectations at a time when what really matters is not attracting customers but rather generating their loyalty".
