ETHICS IN ADVERTISING

Made by
Gaurav Chugh
78
PGDM B

WHAT IS ETHICAL ADVERTISING?

Ethics: Moral principles and values that

govern the actions and decisions of an
individual
or
group
.

Ethics is one of the most complicated and

contentious subjects in human history. The
relationship between doing the right thing
and making money has been studied by
both academics and business leaders for
years with little concesus reached.

Ethical marketing is less of a marketing

strategy and more of a philosophy that
informs all marketing efforts.
It seeks to promote honesty, fairness, and
responsibility in all advertising.
Ethics is a notoriously difficult subject
because everyone has subjective judgments
about what is right and what is wrong.
For this reason, ethical marketing is not a
hard and fast list of rules, but a general set
of guidelines to assist companies as they
evaluate new marketing strategies.

PRINCIPLES OF ETHICAL MARKETING

All marketing communications share the common standard

of truth.
Marketing professionals abide by the highest standard of
personal ethics.
Advertising is clearly distinguished from news and
entertainment content.
Marketers should be transparent about who they pay to
endorse their products.
Consumers should be treated fairly based on the nature of
the product and the nature of the consumer (e.g. marketing
to children).
The privacy of the consumer should never be compromised.
Marketers must comply with regulations and standards
established by governmental and professional organizations.
Ethics should be discussed openly and honestly during all

CRITIQUES OF ADVERTISING

Promotes consumerism
Creates unrealistic expectations / Encourages
dissatisfaction
Manipulates people (applies knowledge of psychology)
Propagates stereotypes (gender, ethnic)
Includes offensive messages (sex, controversy, profanity)
Glamorizes unhealthy products (tobacco, alcohol, fatty
food)
Targets vulnerable groups (children, uneducated)
Makes misleading claims (implies falsehoods without
stating)
Presents meaningless product differences as meaningful

FALSE ADVERTISING
Advertising that is simply untrue.
Illegal and completely unethical
Sony Pictures made up David Manning. Newsweek
investigated and Sonys marketing department
admitted they made him up
Weight loss ads make grossly exaggerated claims
40% made at least one claim that was almost
certainly false, while 55% made a claim that was
very likely false or lacked adequate substantiation

PUFFERY
Positive, general claims that cannot be proved or
disproved because they are a matter of opinion
Legal in most countries
Advertising or other sales representations, which
praise the item to be sold with subjective
opinions, superlatives, or exaggerations, vaguely
and generally, and stating no specific facts.
Campbells Soup: Americas Favourite Food
Nothing outlasts the Energizer battery
Gillette: The best a man can get

MISLEADING ADVERTISING
Advertising that does not literally contain falsehoods,
but which causes consumers to make false inferences
Illegal if they are deemed/shown to produce
inaccurate beliefs among a significant percentage of
consumers ( reasonable consumer standard)
Strong risk of prosecution, penalties, remedial action
Examples
Strongly implied falsehoods
Critical missing information
Claim knowledge interaction

SOME ETHICAL AND MORAL PRINCIPLES

a) Truthfulness in Advertising
Even today, some advertising is simply and deliberately
untrue. Generally speaking, though, the problem of
truth in advertising is somewhat more subtle: it is not
that advertising says what is overtly false, but that it
can distort the truth by implying things that are not so
or withholding relevant facts
b) The Dignity of the Human Person
There is an "imperative requirement" that advertising
"respect the human person, his rightduty to make a
responsible choice, his interior freedom; all these goods
would be violated if man's lower inclinations were to be
exploited, or his capacity to reflect and decide
compromised."
c) Advertising and Social Responsibility
Social responsibility is such a broad concept that we

ADVERTISING AS OFFENSIVE OR IN BAD TASTE

BANNED DOLCE & GABBANA:

It is basically a
Italian
brand
of
cloths.
There is no fun of
assaulting woman in
this advertisement.
It has a negative
impact on small
children's.