Ethics in Advertisement

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The project is about a current issue of ethics in the advertisement. Advertising ethics
affects the practice of our lives, and also the practice of business, in subtle and prominent
ways. Indeed, advertising ethics concerns us all academicians, ad agency personnel,
advertisers, attorneys, consumers, media personnel, and regulators in one way or another.

Advertisement role in any organization is to clear the customer needs & wants so that the
best service can be delivered to the customers and profits can be made. But as digital
revolution came and the tensed competition increased, organizations start using unethical
practices in their marketing practices to sell their product. In this report we have tried to
determine that what kind of unethical practices that are more prevailing in our
organizational activities. For this purpose we have studied various articles covering the
importance of ethics, their social importance in marketing. A questionnaire is also
prepared to determine the various unethical practices in organizations & to the extent
they are being used.
 Ethics in Advertisement

INTRODUCTION

The importance of advertising is "steadily on the increase in modern society. Just as the
media of social communication themselves have enormous influence everywhere, so
advertising, using media as its vehicle, is a pervasive, powerful force shaping attitudes
and behavior in today's world.
The field of advertising is extremely broad and diverse. In general terms, of course, an
advertisement is simply a public notice meant to convey information and invite patronage
or some other response. As that suggests, advertising has two basic purposes:
1. To inform
2. To persuade
While these purposes are distinguishable both very often are simultaneously present.
We wish to call attention for positive contributions that advertising can and does make,
to note ethical and moral problems that advertising can and does raise, to point to moral
principles that apply to this field and finally to suggest certain steps for the consideration
of those professionally involved in advertising as well as for others in the private sector
including the public officials.
Our reason for addressing these matters is simple. In today's society, advertising has a
profound impact on how people understand life, the world and themselves, especially in
regard to their values and their ways of choosing and behaving. These are matters about
which there must be deeply and sincerely concerned.
Advertising is not the same as marketing (the complex of commercial functions involved
in transferring goods from producers and consumers) or public relations (the systematic
effort to create a favorable public impression or image' of some person, group, or entity).
In many cases, though, it is a technique or instrument employed by one or both of these.
Advertising can be very simple a local, or it can be very complex, involving sophisticated
research and multimedia campaigns that span the globe. It differs according to its
intended audience, so that, for example, advertising aimed at children raises some
technical and moral issues significantly different from those raised by advertising aimed
at competent adults.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Thus in order to determine that in our country how many organizations are following
ethical practices and how much of them are utilizing marketing activities unethically to
obtain their objectives of earning high profits.
For this purpose we have first of all studied various literature about the ethics and its role
in marketing activities, all existing literature directly or indirectly emphasize on great
importance of ethics in all kind of organizational activities.
Marketing is very important from this prospective that it is the marketing which enables a
simple man of society to buy a product utilized it, dispose it and this product has been
made from the scare resources of society, but all the unethical practices mentioned above
many a times cause him to believe on wrong things which can many times result in
serious loss to him.
Many of the industries have made written ethical code of conduct like tobacco industry in
US and also many governmental regulations are present over them but still either openly
or hiddenly these organizations are violating these codes of conducts and regulations
which shows that from ethical point of view a serious step is needed to be taken.
 Ethics in Advertisement

PROBLEM STATEMENT

“Organizations imposes context on advertising ethics all the time or not?

 Ethics in Advertisement

1. Research Design:

Research design is a plan that specifies the methods and procedures for collecting and
analyzing the needed information. The need of the research itself determines the
methodology and the design of the research. The contents of research design includes

a. Purpose of the Study

Our purpose of study is “descriptive” because in this research we are trying to find out
what, where, when, how and how much ethical practices are being followed by
organizations in their marketing? What are the reasons that cause these organizations to
ignore the ethical code of conducts in their marketing? Is there any big space in
marketing activities which is needed to be given special attention regarding ethics?

b. Types of Investigations
Our type of investigation is “analytical” because we are trying to analyze that whether in
reality advertising activities are becoming unethical day by day or not?

c. Study Settings
Nature of our research is of practical because we are doing our research in natural
environment and not in artificial environment that is not in labs.

d. Unit of Data Analysis

The unit of data analysis refers to level of aggregation of data collected during the
subsequent data analysis stage. In our research unit of analysis is “organizational”
because in this research, questionnaire is filled by various organization that are the part of
business society. The major industry from which data is taken includes
• FMCG industry especially related to beauty products, cosmetics etc
• Tobacco industry
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Health & Hygienic Products companies
• Food& Beverages Companies

Methods of Sampling
The method of sampling used in it is non probability sampling. We used technique of
random sampling for gathering data for our research. The sample size taken was near to
30 small & big organizations.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Data Collection

Both “secondary data” as well as “primary data” have been used to gather complete
information about topic.

• Primary data collection is done through questionnaires filled by the marketing

persons from different organizations.
• Secondary data is obtained by gathering information from different existing
literature resources.

Research Methodology:

Methodology refers to how we do research. It is basically the frame work of data

collection & data analysis. In this study, the data is collected from primary sources
e.g. surveys in order to perform the analysis to prove our hypothesis. The data is
collected with the help of questionnaires.

Problem Identification:

The basic motive of any business is to make profit which is done through identifying &
satisfying the human needs& wants. This work is done by the department of marketing.
But now a days the tough competition have caused the organization to pursue such
activities in promoting their product which raises many ethical questions. The product
,place, price, promotion are the basic areas of marketing in which many ethical issues like
deception in advertisement, showing materialism, hiding the hazardous effects of the
product, false comparisons with competitors, manipulation through celebrity, emotional
touch and fake claims are some of the important issues.
So we try to find in this research that whether organizations use unethical practices is
increasing day by day or not.

Sampling Methodology

a. Sample Frame:
Sampling frame is actually the collection of all the organizations from which we have to
pick the sample. Each unit of the sample frame is called sampling unit. In our study the
sample frame includes:

• Organization that uses advertisement.

 Ethics in Advertisement

b. Sample Size:
Sample size is the number of organization from which we collect data, or it is the total
number of respondents. In our study we have taken a sample of 30 organizations.

c. Sampling Method:
The sampling method we are using in our study is non probabilistic sampling. we are
choosing our respondent on the basis of random sampling.

d. Survey Method:
The data for the analysis of this study is collected through primary source, therefore the
survey used in this study is personal interview using questionnaire.

Literature review
Ethics is a collection of principles of right conduct that shape the decisions of people or
organizations make. Practicing ethics in marketing means deliberately applying standards
of fairness, or moral rights and wrongs, to marketing decision making, behavior, and
practice in the organization.
Now a days the success of organization is hidden behind obtaining the competitive
advantage. For this purpose companies should also focus on ethics as it produces a
positive image in front of the customers also ethical abuses put pressure on government
to take actions which makes people to understand that something is going wrong with the
companies.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Ethics
According to the “Nanda et.al (2009)” Ethics is defined as,
“Ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good or bad, right and wrong with moral
duty and obligation”
The word ethics is derived from the Latin word “ethos” which means character. In
literature ethics means set of rules and morals. Human being is a social animal. Rules of
nature control human beings as they control other living beings, man himself has made
certain principles to govern his individual or group behavior. These rules in the form of
behavioral standards differ across cultures and times, but their objective is mutual
cooperation and peace in the society. By ensuring security and protection of the group,
these standards help in survival of particular community and its members. These
standards of behavior are called “ethics”.
According to us, Ethics is the study of human activity whether it is right or wrong on the
basis of moral quality or standards. The analysis of these moral standards based on the
following three things:
1. Religion
2. Law
3. Social Accepted Behavior

In this definition Ethics defines two things. First, ethics refers to well-founded standards
of right and wrong that describe what humans want to do, usually in terms of rights,
obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to
those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing,
murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that join virtues
of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to
rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy.
Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent
and well-founded reasons.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. As
mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can violate from what is ethical. So it
is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to ensure that they are reasonable and
well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral
beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we and the institutions we help
to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solid-based.

Business Ethics

From the article of Tsalikis and Seaton (2006) Business Ethics is a specialized study of
moral right and wrong and it concentrates on moral standards as they apply particularly to
business policies, institutions and behavior.
In the field of Business ethics, there is variety of theories, approaches and philosophies,
each professing to offer fundamental insights look what constitute business ethics.
Ethical Issues Relate to all Functional Areas such as,
1. Finance
2. Management
3. Marketing
4. Sales
5. Production

Business ethics examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a
business environment. It applies to all fields of business conduct and is relevant to the
conduct of individuals and business organizations as a whole. Applied ethics is a field of
ethics that deals with ethical questions in many fields such as medical, technical, legal
and business ethics.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Types of Business Ethics

Business ethics can be both a normative and a descriptive discipline. As a corporate

practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia
descriptive approaches are also taken. The range and quantity of business ethical issues
reflects the degree to which business is perceived to be odds with non-economic social
values.

Discussion on ethics in business is necessary because business can become unethical, and
there are plenty of situations as in today life on unethical corporate practices. Even Adam
Smith opined that 'People of the same trade often meet together, even for merriment and
diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some
contrivance to raise prices'. Firms and corporations operate in the social and natural
environment. By virtue of existing in the social and natural environment, business is duty
bound to be accountable to the natural and social environment in which it survives.
Irrespective of the demands and pressures upon it, business by virtue of its existence is
bound to be ethical for at least two reasons: one, because whatever the business does
affects its stakeholders and two, because every juncture of action has trajectories of
ethical as well as unethical paths wherein the existence of the business is justified by
ethical alternatives it responsibly chooses. One of the conditions that brought business
ethics to the forefront is the behavior of small scale, high trust and face-to-face
enterprises and emergence of huge multinational corporate structures capable of
drastically affecting everyday lives of the masses.

Dimension of business ethics

 Ethics of finance
 Ethics of human resource management
 Ethics of sales and marketing
 Ethics of production
 Ethics in Advertisement

 Ethics of property, property rights and intellectual property rights

 Ethics and technology

Sales and marketing

Marketing Ethics is a subset of business ethics. Ethics in marketing deals with the
principles, values and ideals by which marketers and marketing institutions want to act.
Discussions of marketing ethics are focused around two major concerns: one is the
concern from political philosophy and the other is from the transaction focused business
practice. On the one side, following ideologists like Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand, it is
argued that the only ethics in marketing is maximizing profit for the shareholder. On the
other side it is argued that market is responsible to the consumers and other proximate as
well as remote stakeholders as much as, if not less, it is responsible to its shareholders.
Advertising truthfulness and honesty, fairness in pricing & distribution, and
forthrightness in selling, etc., are few among the issues debated among people concerned
about ethics of marketing practice.

One impediment in defining marketing ethics is the difficulty of pointing out the agency
responsible for the practice of ethics. Competition, rivalry among the firms, lack of
autonomy of the persons at different levels of marketing hierarchy, nature of the products
marketed, nature of the persons to whom products are marketed, the profit margin
claimed, and everything relating the marketing field does make the agency of a marketing
person just a cog in the wheel.

From the article of Armstrong, M. B. (2002), Marketing ethics is not restricted to the
field of marketing alone, rather its influence spread across all fields of life and most
importantly construction of 'socially salient identities for people' and "affect some
people's morally significant perceptions of and interactions with other people, and if they
can contribute to those perceptions or interactions going seriously wrong, these activities
have bearing on fundamental ethical questions". Marketing, especially its visual
communication, it is observed, serve as an instrument of epistemic closure. Restricting
worldviews within stereotypes of gender, class and race relationships.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Advertisement

From the articles of Hyman and Michael (1994),

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers,
readers or listeners) to take some action. It includes the name of a product or service and
how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade potential customers
to purchase or to consume that particular brand. Modern advertising developed with the
rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Commercial advertisers
often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through
branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to
associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Different types of
media can be used to deliver these messages, including traditional media such as
newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct mail; or new media such as
websites and text messages. Advertising may be placed by an advertising agency on
behalf of a company or other organization. Non-commercial advertisers that spend money
to advertise items other than a consumer product or service include political parties,
interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Non-profit
organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service
announcement.
In 2007, spending on advertising was estimated at more than $150 billion in the United
States and $385 billion worldwide. The importance of advertising is "steadily on the
increase in modern society. Just as the media of social communication themselves have
enormous influence everywhere, so advertising, using media as its vehicle, is a pervasive,
powerful force shaping attitudes and behavior in today's world.
Social advertising has been around for years, contrary to this new definition given by
Zuckerberg. It's about applying marketing and advertising principles to promote health
and social issues and bringing about positive behavior change. It's what nonprofits and
organizations like the Drug Free Partnership for America and the Center for Disease
Control have been engaging in for years.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Social Advertising represents ad formats that engage the social context of the user
viewing the ad. Whereas in traditional, non-social, advertising the ad is targeted based on
what it knows about the individual person or the individual page, in social advertising the
ad is targeted based on what it knows about the individual user's social network.
Social Advertising is the first form of advertising that systematically leverages
historically "offline" dynamics, such as peer-pressure, friend recommendations, and other
forms of social influence.
In fact, social ads as the following: “Social actions are powerful because they act as
trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people,” said Zuckerberg.
“It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcast out by companies, but increasingly
about information that is shared between friends. So we set out to use these social actions
to build a new kind of ad system.”

The fact that advertisers are looking to reach out to many social networks at once means
that they often look to Ad Networks to deliver ads across these networks through custom
applications.

Types of advertising

1. Digital advertising

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising

format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime
during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl football game in the United States is
known as the most prominent advertising event on television. The average cost of a
single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached US$3 million (as of 2009).
The majorities of television commercials feature a song or jingle that listeners soon relate
to the product. Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television
programming through computer graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank
backdrops or used to replace local billboards that are not relevant to the remote broadcast
audience. More controversially, virtual billboards may be inserted into the background
 Ethics in Advertisement

where none exist in real-life. This technique is especially used in televised sporting
events Virtual product placement is also possible. Infomercials: An infomercial is a long-
format television commercial, typically five minutes or longer. The word "infomercial"
combining the words "information" & "commercial". The main objective in an
infomercial is to create an impulse purchase, so that the consumer sees the presentation
and then immediately buys the product through the advertised toll-free telephone number
or website. Infomercials describe, display, and often demonstrate products and their
features, and commonly have testimonials from consumers and industry professionals.

Radio advertising

Radio advertising is a form of advertising via the medium of radio. Radio advertisements
are broadcast as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a
receiving device. Airtime is purchased from a station or network in exchange for airing
the commercials. While radio has the obvious limitation of being restricted to sound,
proponents of radio advertising often cite this as an advantage.

Online advertising

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for
the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples
of online advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages,
banner ads, in text ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, online classified
advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

Product placements

Covert advertising also known as guerrilla advertising is used when a product or brand is
embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use
an item of a definite brand as in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's
character John Anderson owns a phone with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top
 Ethics in Advertisement

corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo. Another example of advertising in
film is in I, Robot, where main character played by Will Smith mentions his Converse
shoes several times, calling them "classics," because the film is set far in the future. I,
Robot and Space balls also showcase futuristic cars with the Audi and Mercedes-Benz
logos clearly displayed on the front of the vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the
movie The Matrix Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac
cars were used. Similarly, product placement for Omega Watches, Ford, VAIO, BMW
and Aston Martin cars are featured in recent James Bond films, most notably Casino
Royale. In "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer", the main transport vehicle shows a
large Dodge logo on the front. Blade Runner includes some of the most obvious product
placement; the whole film stops to show a Coca-Cola billboard.

2. Physical advertising

Press advertising

Press advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper,

magazine, or trade journal. This encompasses everything from media with a very broad
readership base, such as a major national newspaper or magazine, to more narrowly
targeted media such as local newspapers and trade journals on very specialized topics. A
form of press advertising is classified advertising, which allows private individuals or
companies to purchase a small, narrowly targeted ad for a low fee advertising a product
or service. Another form of press advertising is the Display Ad, which is a larger ad (can
include art) that typically run in an article section of a newspaper.
Billboard advertising: Billboards are large structures located in public places which
display advertisements to passing pedestrians and motorists. Most often, they are located
on main roads with a large amount of passing motor and pedestrian traffic; however, they
can be placed in any location with large amounts of viewers, such as on mass transit
vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or office buildings, and in stadiums.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Mobile billboard advertising

Mobile billboards are generally vehicle mounted billboards or digital screens. These can
be on dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along routes reselected
by clients, they can also be specially equipped cargo trucks or, in some cases, large
banners strewn from planes. The billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and
others employing spotlights. Some billboard displays are static, while others change; for
example, continuously or periodically rotating among a set of advertisements. Mobile
displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout the world,
including: Target advertising, one-day, and long-term campaigns, Conventions, Sporting
events, Store openings and similar promotional events, and big advertisements from
smaller companies.

In-store advertising

In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes placement of

a product in visible locations in a store, such as at eye level, at the ends of aisles and near
checkout counters, eye-catching displays promoting a specific product, and
advertisements in such places as shopping carts and in-store video displays.

Celebrity branding

This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to
gain recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products. Advertisers
often advertise their products, for example, when celebrities share their favorite products
or wear clothes by specific brands or designers. Celebrities are often involved in
advertising campaigns such as television or print adverts to advertise specific or general
products. The use of celebrities to endorse a brand can have its downsides, however. One
mistake by a celebrity can be detrimental to the public relations of a brand. For example,
 Ethics in Advertisement

following his performance of eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing,
China, swimmer Michael Phelps' contract with Kellogg's was terminated, as Kellogg's
did not want to associate with him after he was photographed smoking marijuana.

Ethics in Advertisement

From the article of Geoffrey Klempner, (2004), Human beings are world creators. One of
the worlds that human beings have created is the world of money, commodities, trade;
exchange a world full of beauty and ugliness in equal proportions, messy, flashy, exotic,
scary. No-one who has made their home in this world would see this the way an outsider
can see. The world of business -the world of buyers and sellers, bosses and workers,
producers and consumers, the world of money is nothing less than an ontological
category, a way of Being. It is not accidental to who we are. It defines the way we relate
to each other and to the world around us. But it is not the only way of being. There are
other ways, and the most fundamental of these is ethics. Ethics, as understood here, is
defined by the I thou relationship: When I engage another person in moral dialogue,
there are not two parallel processes of practical deliberation going on, his and mine, but
only one.

Advertising: For Good or Evil?

But how fair is the business game, really? On the face of it, producers and consumers
have a very different view. The marketplace is not a level playing field, and the chief
culprit is advertising. Here are three charges leveled against advertisers:

• They sell us dreams; entice us into confusing dreams with reality.

• They pander to our desires for things that are bad for us.
• They manipulate us into wanting things we don't really need.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Ethical issues of Stereotyping in Advertisement

From the article of Jones, M. (1991), Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the
advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as
possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences
a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people usually relating to their
class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.

But stereotypes can be problematic in advertisement. They can:

• reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations

• transform assumptions about particular groups of people into "realities"

• be used to justify the position of those in power

• perpetuate social prejudice and inequality

More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are
represented.

Forms of Stereotyping in Advertising

• Gender
• Psychology of buyers
• color

Gender Stereotypes in Advertising

 Ethics in Advertisement

The gender stereotyping in advertisements play the role of development and perpetuation.
Jones (1991) noted that an analysis of advertisements by Goffman (1976) found
numerous instances of subtle stereotyping including:

1. Functional ranking the tendency to depict men in executive roles and as more
functional when collaborating with women,

2. Relative size the tendency to depict men as taller as and larger than women, except
when women are clearly superior in social status,

3. Reutilization of subordination an overabundance of images of women lying on floors

and beds or as objects of men's mock assaults,

4. The feminine touch the tendency to show women cradling and caressing the surface
of objects with their fingers, and

5. Family fathers depicted as physically distant from their families or as relating

primarily to sons, and mothers depicted as relating primarily to daughters.

Jones indicated that she found it relatively easy to find examples in magazines such as
Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Newsweek, and Vogue. She also recommended combining
advertisements from the 1950s with more current advertisements to allow the
comparisons of different trends in gender stereotyping over time. We can also include
advertisements that illustrate nontraditional or innovative gender-role portrayals as well
as ads that do not incorporate gender stereotypes at all. After reviewing Goffman's types
of gender stereotyping (it is best to write them on the board) and providing several
sample advertisements.

The Psychology of Buyers: Customers Have Needs and Feelings

Consumers first and foremost are individuals. The more you see and treat customers like
individuals, the more loyal they will be to your business.
 Ethics in Advertisement

You cannot peg individuals into mass impersonal groups based on stereotypes. For
example, do not assume that all retirees are interested in gardening, all women are
interested in buying shoes, or all men are sports-crazy. These are examples of
stereotyping groups of people that can lead to disastrous results in advertising and
marketing.

Research supports that mass stereotyping groups of people does not work in the
development and marketing of business ideas. Although many corporations still try to
capitalize on stereotypes, this line of thinking simply does not work as effectively as the
old "mom and pop country store" approach to business: Getting to know your customers
as intimately as possible.

If grouping populations like cattle into marketing niches worked, why would major
corporations still continue to invest so heavily into studying consumer habits and
demographics? If this type of marketing philosophy worked well then anyone with a
great business idea could make it simply by targeting. Obviously, this is not so.

Stereotype Myths

Stereotype marketing ideologies might focus too much on one group and ignore another
equally, or even more important. For example, target only kids for video games and lose
access to millions of customers. Nearly a quarter of all video games are purchased by
consumers aged 40 and older, and 38% of all video game sales are made by women.

In fact, even when it comes to "men's" products including sports items and expensive
cars, women still spend more than men. According to a study in part conducted by
Women Certified, a women's consumer advocacy and retail training organization, women
spend $4 trillion annually, accounting for 83% of all U.S. Consumer spending or, an
astounding two-thirds of the nation's gross national product.

Senior citizens have become the fastest-growing population in the United States.
However mass marketing to seniors has remained somewhat elusive. Several pioneers in
the senior marketing industry note that age alone has little to do with the interests of
 Ethics in Advertisement

senior consumers. Those who have attempted to cash in on the senior population, simply
lumping retirees together by age, have failed and miserably so.

When it comes to advertising, "marketing" studies that offer only cold statistics may play
less of a role than you think in developing successful marketing strategies and advertising
campaigns.

Customers can be your best or worst source of advertising. Word of mouth referrals,
especially in the age of the Internet, should not be undervalued. And, since consumers are
more likely to complain than to compliment, it pays to have customer-friendly and
trustworthy complaint resolution practices in place.

It pays to see your customers as individuals, with common needs, but not as groups who,
because of stereotype images, have lemming-like behaviors when it comes to making
purchases.

Stereotyping in color

Stereotyping and projecting allow White women and women of color to maintain their
places in the status quo. It keeps us from initiating and managing systemic changes and
prevents us from recognizing racial differences as having the same legitimacy as gender
differences. Consider the changes that could occur in society if racism was given the
same energy that sexism has received the past two decades. What would happen if
consciousness of gender and race for women of color were integrated into the feminist
movement? What would happen if the intersectionality of race and gender were
acknowledged? Integrating the various aspects of oneself, the projections of “the other,”
the perceived good and bad, make for a more complex person, one who can work from
different places with different people.
 Ethics in Advertisement

Recommendations

A Ten Point Plan for Emphasizing Ethics in the Sales & Marketing Culture :

1. Create a written code of ethics specific to the sales and marketing department. If you
already have a written code of ethics, be sure it is widely communicated. While some
companies have their sales and marketing staff sign their code of ethics, in reality this is
only a preliminary step in communicating the value placed on ethics by the organization.
2. Define the parameters for managerial decision making that will form the acceptable
boundaries for managerial actions. According to Hosmer in Ethics of Management
(McGraw Hill 2003), there is a balancing act that needs to take into consideration ethics,
economics and legal concerns in the managerial decision making process.
3. Draft sales and marketing scenarios based on past experiences and use them as a basis
for discussion at staff meetings. Discussion of ethical issues without finger pointing will
help create a culture of open dialogue and stimulate ideas and valuable thought process.
4. Bring sales and marketing practitioners together during the planning phase to discuss
the pros and cons of marketing campaigns and sales activities from an ethical viewpoint.
5. Require marketing proposals and sales campaign documents to spell out the ethical
considerations of the author. Creating transparency begins with the creative process.
6. Implement a privacy policy and publish a privacy statement. Inform your clients and
prospects about how you collect their data and what you use it for. Allow prospects and
clients to opt-in and never sell or give out their information without their permission.
7. Use professional assessment tools to assist in sound hiring decisions. Professional
assessment tools are one of the necessary components in the hiring process. Others
include using scenario type, ethically based questions during the interview process and
conducting thorough background checks.
 Ethics in Advertisement

8. Establish due process for dealing with any violation of your code of ethics. Without
due process, your code of ethics could be flawed and unenforceable. Spell out in advance
how due process would be accomplished and who is responsible for the jurisdiction.
9. Reward sound judgment and recognize ethical behavior that exemplifies the culture
you wish to create. As with any type of reward and recognition, the best reinforcement of
desired behavior is timely and applicable to the moment. Personal one-to-one
acknowledgement by management is very important. Public recognition within your
organization in newsletters and at staff meetings in equally important.
10. Practice exemplary leadership. Last but not least, leadership by example is one of the
most powerful and proven methods of building a team that lives by a code. The price of
exemplary leadership is high, but affordable, and the investment you make as a leader
pays rewards that are immeasurable.
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References

Armstrong, M. B. (2002). “Ethical Issues in Accounting”. In N. E. Bowie (Ed.), The

Blackwell guide to business ethics (pp. 145–157).

Geoffrey Klempner, (2004)”ethics and advertising” The Business Arena, pp 1-2

Heller, Lleland Dr. (1990), “Advertising, Children, and Ethics.” Professional Articles.

Hyman, Michael R. (1994),”Research on advertising ethics: past, present, and future”,

John Tsalikis and Bruce Seaton (2006),” Journal of Business Ethics”, pp. 317-326

Jones, M. (1991). “Gender stereotyping in advertisements”. Teaching of Psychology, 18,

231-233.

Journal Heller, Lleland Dr. (1990), “Advertising, Children, and Ethics.” Professional
Articles.of Advertising

Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer
(2004),”what is ethics”

Nanda et.all (2009),”introduction to Business Ethics” pp 5

Rubak, Josh. (2001) “Ethics in Advertising”. Rubak.Com.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising#Digital_advertising

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_advertising

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24239373/Ethical-issues-in-Advertising

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24239373/Ethical-issues-in-Advertising#open_download

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36283451/Advertising-Ethics

http://openpdf.com/ebook/advertising-ethics-pdf.html