Ethics in Advertising

Ethics means a set of moral principles which govern a persons behavior or how the activity is conducted. And advertising means a mode of communication between a seller and a buyer.

Thus ethics in advertising means a set of well defined principles which govern the ways of communication taking place between the se and the buyer. Ethics is the most important feature of the advertising industry. Though there are many benefits of advertising but then there are s points which dont match the ethical norms of advertising. An ethical ad is the one which doesnt lie, doesnt make fake or false claims and is in the limit of decency .

Nowadays, ads are more exaggerated and a lot of puffing is used. It seems like the advertisers lack knowledge of ethical norms and principles. T just dont understand and are unable to decide what is correct and what is wrong.

The main area of interest for advertisers is to increase their sales, gain more and more customers, and increase the demand for the product by presenting a well decorated, puffed and colorful ad. They claim that their product is the best, having unique qualities than the competitors, more cost effective, and more beneficial. But most of these ads are found to be false, misleading customers and unethical. The best example of these types of ads is the one which shows evening snacks for the kids, they use coloring and gluing to make the product look glossy and attractive to the consumers who are watching the ads on television and convince them to buy the product without giving a second thought. Ethics in Advertising is directly related to the purpose of advertising and the nature of advertising . Sometimes exaggerating the ad becomes necessary to prove the benefit of the product. For e.g. a sanitary napkin ad which shows that when the napkin was dropped in a river by some girls, the napkin soaked whole water of the river. Thus, the purpose of advertising was only to inform women about the product quality. Obviously, every woman knows that this cannot practically happen but the ad was accepted. This doesnt show that the ad was unethical. Ethics also depends on what we believe. If the advertisers make the ads on the belief that the customers will understand, persuade them to think, and then act on their ads, then this will lead to positive results and the ad may not be called unethical. But at the same time, if advertisers believe that they can fool their customers by showing any impractical things like just clicking fingers will make your home or office fully furnished or just buying a lottery ticket will make you a millionaire, then this is not going to work out for them and will be called as unethical. Recently, the Vetican issued an article which says ads should follow three moral principles - Truthfulness, Social Responsibility and Upholding Human Dignity. Generally, big companies never lie as they have to prove their points to various ad regulating bodies. Truth is always said but not completely. Sometimes its better not to reveal the whole truth in the ad but at times truth has to be shown for betterment. Pharmaceutical Advertising - they help creating awareness, but one catchy point here is that the advertisers show what the medicine can cure but never talk about the side effects of that same thing or the risks involved in intake of it. Children - children are the major sellers of the ads and the product. They have the power to convince the buyers. But when advertisers are using children in their ad, they should remember not to show them alone doing there work on their own like brushing teeth, playing with toys, or infants holding their own milk bottles as everyone knows that no one will leave their kids unattended while doing all these activities. So showing parents also involved in all activities or things being advertised will be more logical. Alcohol - till today, there hasnt come any liquor ad which shows anyone drinking the original liquor. They use mineral water and sodas in their advertisements with their brand name. These types of ads are called surrogate ads. These type of ads are totally unethical when liquor ads are totally banned. Even if there are no advertisements for alcohol, people will continue drinking.

Cigarettes and Tobacco - these products should be never advertised as consumption of these things is directly and badly responsible for cancer and other severe health issues. These as are already banned in countries like India, Norway, Thailand, Finland and Singapore. Ads for social causes - these types of ads are ethical and are accepted by the people. But ads like condoms and contraceptive pills should be limited, as these are sometimes unethical, and are more likely to loose morality and decency at places where there is no educational knowledge about all these products.

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Ethical Principles especially relevant to Advertising

General
Principles of the moral order must be applied to the domain of media Human freedom has a purpose: making an authentic moral response. All attempts to inform and persuade must respect the purposes of human freedom if they are to be moral. Morally good advertising therefore is that advertising that seeks to move people to choose and act rationally in morally good ways; morally evil advertising seeks to move people to do evil deeds that are self-destructive and destructive of authentic community Means and techniques of advertising must also be considered: manipulative, exploitative, corrupt and corrupting methods of persuasion and motivation

Three Specific Moral Principles

RESPECT TRUTHFULNESS (deception objection) Never directly intend to deceive Never use simply untrue advertising Do not distort the truth by implying things that are not so or withholding relevant facts "Puffery" is acceptable where it is consonant with recognized and accepted rhetorical and symbolic practice RESPECT THE DIGNITY OF EACH HUMAN PERSON (attacks autonomy objection) Do not exploit our "lower inclinations" to compromise our capacity to reflect or decide either through its content or through its impact: using appeals to lust, vanity, envy and greed, and other human weakness. Give special care to the weak and vulnerable: children, young people, the elderly, the poor, and the culturally disadvantaged RESPECT SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES (promotes consumption, empties communication, objections) Example: Concern for the ecologyadvertising should not favor a lavish lifestyle which wastes resources and despoils the environment Example: Advertising should not reduce human progress to acquiring material goods and cultivating a lavish lifestyle

Cause-related marketing
Speaking of feelings, 80% of Americans say they feel better about companies that are aligned with social issues. Two thirds of us say we'd be inclined to switch to a brand that we identify with a good cause. It's why American Express put on the Tribeca Film Festival in lower Manhattan to help bring people back to the area after September 11th. Wal-Mart focuses on community efforts of their associates and stores. General Mills' "Spoonfuls of Hope" campaign features Lance Armstrong promoting cancer research. Johnson & Johnson - always at the top of polls as a socially responsible company -- has been running a campaign to help promote nursing as a career:

Does the extra business and good will these companies stand to gain compromise the good that the causes do? What are the ethics of enlightened self-interest? Not long ago a major advertiser donated a quarter-million dollars in food aid to Bosnians in the wake of the war there. By all accounts, the aid did a lot of good. Later, the company spent over a million dollars to advertise their good deed to American audiences. What decision would you have made?

Tobacco Advertising
Ronald Reagan once appeared in ads touting the health benefits of a cigarette brand. Times have changed. Now the space in which tobacco can be promoted in any form is growing more restricted every day. And tobacco isn't the only legal - and potentially lethal - product that poses ethical, not to mention public policy questions for us. Ad agencies and individual advertising people make their own decisions about categories like tobacco and guns. Many say, "No, thanks" to working on certain businesses. But would you turn down the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese assignment because another division of the same corporation makes Marlboros? That's a tougher question.

Alcohol
There are hundreds of beer commercials on the air, but not one of them shows somebody actually drinking the beer. Does that make them more ethical? And although there's the same amount of the same chemical in a can of Bud and a shot of Jack Daniels, you don't see hard liquor advertised on television. In the case of alcohol, advertisers themselves have made these "ethical" choices. But do they make rational sense? The Mothers Against Drunk Driving

(MADD) probably don't make the same distinction between beer and bourbon that advertisers do. Incidentally, advertising people working for free because they believe in the cause create MADD's ads. Ad folk like to work pro bono for nonprofits and good causes. Public service campaigns, including anti-smoking messages, got over $1.5 billion dollars in free media last year. Altogether, they'd be the fifth largest advertiser. The ethical issue isn't the alcohol in the product, it's the brand name on the bottle (Smirnoff Ice). When I say the word "Smirnoff", what do you think of? - you're not alone. A rival company says this commercial is misleading you because there's no vodka in Smirnoff Ice. It's a malt beverage. Does the name "Smirnoff" mean "vodka" or is it just a name? Many of you are in the target audience. Are you being fooled here? And if you thought Smirnoff Ice contained vodka, did you also think it contained ice? You don't have to take time from your studies to decide this case. As we speak, it's being examined by the ATF (Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms). Case study Protein milk products

As you may be aware of by now Im a fan of natural eating i.e. nothing artificial. The reason being, a natural diet keeps the body and mind in its best possible state for day to day energy and long term health more so than the stereotypical western diet of out of the box food. So I had to write about Maxinutritions latest campaign when I saw it. Theyre promoting their new protein milk to everyone, not just gym goers (Which has traditionally been the case) I want to caveat my up and coming words with, I dont have a problem with this type of product just the amount brands encourage us to consume. Anything that is not natural is often packed with sugars and chemicals which will have a negative long term effect on the consumers health (Click here to find Maxinutritions protein milk ingredients). So with Maxinutrition using ad copy like Only computers get to crash and Teachers dont stop at the bell its clearly obvious theyre suggesting the power of their drink to give them energy. When in fact a very healthy diet will decrease your chances of crashing. There are also various quick fix natural foods that can eat to get the boost Maxinutrition is promising. My point being if a consumer needs an energy boost or hit of protein there is nothing wrong with buying the above product however its not ethical to promote it in a way that would encourage regular consumption. Westerners have awful diets (as a whole) we shouldnt be further supporting that truth in our adverts.