Ethical issues in

Advertising
Nisha Goyal

Rakesh Singh
 Advertising
• Advertising is a form of communication
that attempts to persuade potential
customers to purchase or to consume
more of a particular brand of product or
services

• Every major medium is used to deliver

these messages, including television,
radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers,
video games, and the internet
 INTRODUCTION
• There is no doubt that advertising attracts all of us
in number of ways, but
• there are also number of controversies associated
with advertising
• Generally, these controversies are concerned
about the impact of advertising on economy,
society and ethics
 ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN
MODERN BUSINESS WORLD
Advertising is primarily a means by which sellers communicate
to prospective buyers.

What they communicate?

“The worth of their goods and services”

Contd…
ADVERTISING AND SOCIETY
• Advertisements are not just the sellers
• They reflect the society
• Whatever is used in society is reflected in advertising
e.g.
o Indian society is highly family oriented (example ads:
savings for children, daughter’s marriage)
o Indian society is people-oriented, and not self-oriented
o For the sake of our family and others, we Indians can
postpone our own gratification
o We are also fun loving (example ads: Lux, Coke,
Denim Jeans etc)
 ETHICS IN ADVERTISING
• Should not mislead the consumer
• What it promises must be there in the performance of
products
• Ad should not be indecent and obscene
• As advertising is also a social process, it must honor the
norms of social behavior, and should not offend our moral
sense
• ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) regulates
the advertising in India  has the set guidelines
 ASCI GUIDELINES
• To ensure the truthfulness and honesty of representations and
claims made by advertisements and to safeguard against
misleading advertising.
• To ensure that advertisements are not offensive to generally
accepted standards of public decency.
• To safeguard against indiscriminate use of advertising for promotion
of products which are regarded as hazardous to society or to
individuals to a degree or of a type which is unacceptable to society
in large.
• To ensure that advertisements observe fairness in competition so
that consumers need to be informed on choices in the market place
and the canons of generally accepted competitive behavior in
business are both served.
 ETHICAL ISSUES IN
ADVERTISING
Advertising is a highly visible business activity and any lapse in
ethical standards can often be risky for the company.
Some of the common examples of ethical issues in advertising are
give below:
• Vulgarity/Obscenity used to gain consumers’ attention
• Misleading information and deception
• Puffery
• Stereotypes
• Racial issues
• Controversial products (e.g. alcohol, gambling, tobacco etc)
 Comparative Advertising

• Comparative advertising is
advertising where one party
advertises his goods or services by
comparing them with the goods or
services of another party. Other
party is usually his competitor or the
market leader of that good or
service
 Comparative Advertising
Explanation:-
• Don’t make fun of your competitors
products. comparative advertising
was either negative or positive.
Negative comparative advertising
featured the advertised brand
derogating the comparison brand
(I'm OK, you're not OK). Positive
comparative advertising claimed
superiority over the comparison
brand in a no derogatory manner
(You're OK, I'm more OK).
 Social Advertisement
• It is a process fro influencing
humam behaviour on a large
scale,using marketing.
principles for the purpose of
social benefit rather than for
commercial profit.

• Social advertisiment sells a

behaviour change to a
targeted group of individuals
 Features
• non commercial

• aimed fro societal benefit

• performed by goverenment,
NGOs, or big corporate

• use of big and popular people

 Advantages

• helps in changing the attitude

of the people of the society

• helps change/improve the

reputataion of the company
 Social Causes
• Quit smoking
• Don’t smoking
• Polio
• Environment
Examples:-
• wear a life safety jacket while
boating
• pregnant woman should avoid
alcohol
• wear car seat belts which
reduces injuries in accident
• if you smoke than quit
 Puffery
• Advertising or other sales representations,
which admire the item to be sold with
opinions, or exaggerations, vaguely and
generally, stating no specific facts.”

• Using claims or descriptions to exaggerate

(“puff up”) a product’s reputation or appeal

1. New
2. Unique
3. Extra-strength
4. Super-strength
 Deception in Advertising
• Promotional techniques (such as
attraction and switch pricing)
designed to influence buyers
with false or misleading claims

• Many governments around the

world use regulations to control
false, deceptive or misleading
advertising
 Deceptive Practices
Example:-

Companies may advertise sales at

50% off. However, the company
first marks the product way up and
then marks them down 50% so that
they still make a profit
 Penalties
Case & Desist orders:-

• The FTC can make a company

pull an ad or stop a deceptive
marketing practice immediately.
This also carries an $11,000 per
day per ad penalty if a company
violates the law again.
 Civil Penalties
• consumer redress, and monetary
remedies. This could include
monetary payments of millions of
dollars, to giving refunds to
consumers who purchased the
product
Bans
• In really bad cases of
deception, a company
may be required to leave
the industry
 Taste & Advertising

• We all have our own ideas as to

what constitutes good taste.

Unfortunately, these ideas vary so

much that creating general
guidelines for good taste in
advertising is difficult.
 Stereotyping
• Stereotyping means over
simplified idea of the typical
characteristics of a person or a
thing

• Stereotyping is presenting a
group of people in an unvarying
pattern that lacks individuality.

• Gender Discrimination
• Color Discrimination
• Age Discrimination
• Religious Discrimination
 Ethical issues in Stereotyping
• This is an Ethical practice for the
businesses to advertise the
products by gender

• Business often uses the Age

discrimination in advertising the
product which is accurately
made for the specific age group

• company’s Target some of the

Religions by their product
 Unethical issues in Stereotyping
• In advertising to criticize the
gender and try to show that the
males are more powerful or
women are more intelligent
personalities

• Chocolate candy is favorite for

children or young age fellows.
targeting the old age people

• if your advertising is directly

Hitting the other religions this
practice of advertising
 Advertising to Children
• Advertising to children is the act
of marketing or advertising
products or services to children,
as defined by national legislation
and advertising standards

• Rules on advertising to children

have largely evolved in recent
years

• In the United Kingdom, Greece

and Belgium advertising to
children is restricted and in
Quebec, Sweden and Norway
advertising to children under the
age of 12 is illegal.
Means of Advertising to Children
• Traditional media, TV, radio
and print media.

• New media (internet and other

electronic media)

• Packaging, in-store
advertising, event sponsorship
and promotions can also be
means to advertise to children
 Criteria's of their protection
• not directly exhort minors to
buy a product or a service by
exploiting their inexperience or
credulity.

• not directly encourage minors

to persuade their parents to
purcase

• It shall not unreasonably show

minors in dangerous situations
 Tobacco Company Need kids
Example:-
• There are several reasons why
tobacco companies target
children and teenagers. In
order to keep profits up, new
customers need to be recruited
to replace the thousands of
smokers that die each day.
Tobacco companies know that
very few people begin smoking
as adults; therefore, their best
bets for these new customers
are kids.
Thank You