Concern

Good
Philosophy Bad
Agenda

• Introduction
• Ethics in Advertising
• Laws & Regulations
• Case Study

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Ethics
• The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom,
habit, character or disposition.

• Ethics covers the following dilemmas:

• how to live a good life

• our rights and responsibilities

• the language of right and wrong

• moral decisions - what is good and bad?

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Advertising
Advertising is the paid, impersonal, one-way marketing of persuasive
information from an identified sponsor disseminated through channels
of mass communication to promote the adoption of goods, services or
ideas. Radio and
Newspapers Magazines television Films Stage shows
broadcasts

Wall
Websites Billboards Posters Flyers
paintings

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Advertising
In the advertising communication process there are five key players:

The Advertisers

The Advertising Agencies

The Support Organizations

The Media

The Consumers

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

What’s illegal and what’s unethical?
• Marketing communications has an obligation to perform legally and ethically, and with the social welfare in
mind.

• Advertising is routinely and legitimately attacked for many of its practices.

• Most of these criticisms come under the heading of unethical rather than illegal practices
• Advocacy – Advertising tries to persuade the audience to do something that is not correct. It is not objective or
neutral.

• Accuracy – Subtle messages trouble critics, especially when aimed at groups such as children, the elderly or the
disabled.

• Acquisitiveness – Consumers are continually persuaded that they continually need more and more new
products. However, consumers make the final decision.

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Generic Ethical Principles in Advertising
• 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

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Specific Moral Principles in Advertising
• Respect Truthfulness
• 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
• Respect The Dignity Of Each Human Person
• 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
• Example: Concern for the ecology—advertising should not favour a lavish lifestyle which wastes resources and
despoils the environment

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Criticisms Concerning The Influence of Advertising on
Society
Puffery/
Creates
fraudulation Untruthful or Offensive or in
materialistic
(metaphor of deceptive bad taste
demand
idea)

Makes people
Comparative Advertising and
buy the things Stereotype
advertising sex
not needed

Improper
Excessive
language

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Laws & Regulations
• Government Regulation
• Food and Drug Administration

• Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)

• Industry self-regulation

• Consumer activism

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Laws & Regulations
• Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)
• To Ensure the Truthfulness and Honesty of representations and claims made by Advertisements and
to safeguard against misleading Advertisements.
• To ensure that Advertisements are not offensive to generally accepted standards of Public Decency.
• To safeguard against the indiscriminate use of Advertising in situations or for the promotion of
products which are regarded as Hazardous to society or to Individuals to a degree or of a kind
which is unacceptable to society at large.
• To ensure that advertisements observe Fairness in Competition such that the Consumer’s need to be
informed on choices in the market place and the canons of generally accepted competitive behavior
in Business is both served.

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Case Study

Obscene Objectionable Misleading Sexy

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study
Case Study – Nestlé
• In early 70’s claimed to provide baby milk powder which can replace
mother’s milk as baby food.
• Claim proved to be false as
• Lacks nutrients and antibodies found in mother’s milk
• Creates addiction to babies
• High in cost
• Nestlé got banned in USA(1977), U.K.(1980) and Canada(1984).
• Current Status
• Nestlé boycott is currently coordinated by the International Nestlé Boycott
Committee
• Company practices are monitored by the International Baby Food Action Network
(IBFAN)

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

References
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml
• http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/12/15/dannon-settles-
complaints-yogurt-ads/
• http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/192384/advertising+marketing+bran
ding/Advertising+Law+in+India
• https://www.carroll.edu/msmillie/busethics/ethadvertising.htm

Introduction Ethics in Advertising Laws & Regulations Case Study

Thank You!