Ethics of Advertisement

Advertisement Ethics by Shuva Brata Basak 200
PAILAN COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT &

TECHNOLOGY
BBA[H] FINAL SEMESTER 2009
STUDY PAPER: MARKETING
AREA OF SPECIALIZATION :
ADVERTISEMENT ETHICS
(A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of bachelors in
business administration in WBUT)
Submitted by:
SHUVA BRATA BASAK
Roll No: 15650061044
Registration No: 156205041004
Acknowledgement
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I am extremely indebted to the help that I have

received in the making of this study paper. It
would have been an extremely difficult job for
me if my teachers wouldn’t have helped me in
the making of this study paper.
I am thankful to:
Mr. Apoorva Saha
Mr. P. S. Chakraborty
Mr. A. K. Roy
Mz. Saswati Roy Chel
Mr. Dipanjan Dutta
Mz. Nabanita Maity
I am also thankful to my friends & my family.
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CONTENTS
Sl No Description Page No
1. Acknowledgement 2
2. What is meant by Advertisement 4
3. What is Ethics? 5-7
4. Ethics of Advertisement : Introduction 8-9
5. Ethics & Advertising 10-17
6. Ethics of Advertising 18-21
7. Some Ethical & Moral principles 22-26
8. The Ethics of Behavioral Advertisement 27-30
9. Attention, But at What Cost! 31-38
10. Benefits of Ethical Advertising 39-42
11. Harm done by Unethical Advertising 43-48
12. Conclusion 49
13. Bibliography 50
What do you mean by advertisement?

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Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to

persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of
a particular brand of product or service. “While now central to
the contemporary global economy and the reproduction of global
production networks, it is only quite recently that advertising has
been more than a marginal influence on patterns of sales and
production. The formation of modern advertising was intimately
bound up with the emergence of new forms of monopoly
capitalism around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th
century as one element in corporate strategies to create,
organize and where possible control markets, especially for mass
produced consumer goods. Mass production necessitated mass
consumption, and this in turn required a certain homogenization
of consumer tastes for final products. At its limit, this involved
seeking to create ‘world cultural convergence’, to homogenize
consumer tastes and engineer a ‘convergence of lifestyle, culture
and behaviors among consumer segments across the world’.”
What is ethics?
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Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions

about morality, such as what the fundamental semantic,
ontological, and epistemic nature of ethics or morality is (meta-
ethics), how moral values should be determined (normative
ethics), how a moral outcome can be achieved in specific
situations (applied ethics), how moral capacity or moral agency
develops and what its nature is (moral psychology), and what
moral values people actually abide by (descriptive ethics).
The significance of ethical formulations, today, as in all times, is

in their power for shaping attitudes and constraining behaviors.
Ethics provide for a basic social need by defining the behaviors
we expect and will accept from one another. In the ideal, our
ethics allow us to live together, productively and in harmony.
But within our generation there is the appearance of a growing

disregard for the ethical standards we have been given. The
erosion of these ethical norms is a source of social anxiety,
creating distrust and moral callousness. In order to prevent
further deterioration of the underpinnings of our society, we
must act to discover and remedy the sources for our growing
moral confusion. But I also believe we must act carefully and
thoughtfully. As with any complex social problem, this ethical
crisis will resist simplistic attempts at resolution. It is a mistake
to equate a break-down in the function of the ethics with a
deterioration of public morality. Our generation is not simply
more self-centered or less moral than our predecessors. I
contend that this appearance of moral degeneration is more
accurately perceived as moral confusion.
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When we ask why individuals act unethically, we must also be

prepared to ask why it is that our ethics make it seem to be in
the individual self-interest to do so. Because our common morality
limits our freedom to behave in ways we might otherwise choose
to, it is not enough to simply proclaim the wrongness or rightness
of an act. In order for our ethical foundation to work, we must
agree individually and together on the basis for those morals. Our
ethics must provide understandings which help compel us to act
with intelligence, compassion and understanding.
I contend that many of the ethical formulations of our time lack

insight, scope and compassion. The confusion we are faced with is
the result of having ethical forms inadequate to our situation. As
we confront our crisis in ethics we must ask whether the ethical
norms we are attempting to sustain have meanings for individuals
which are empowering, meanings which, of their own force, compel
us to believe that adherence is overwhelmingly in our common and
individual self-interests.
Different people have different beliefs about what constitutes

ethical behavior. The law defines what is and is not legal, but the
distinctions between moral right and wrong are not always so
clear. In many situations lines between right and wrong are
blurred. Such situations can lead to ethical dilemmas.
When faced with ethical dilemmas, it’s important to consider

outcomes of the decision-making process. One way of dealing
ethical dilemmas is by using the four way test to evaluate
decisions. This test involves asking four questions:
1. Is my decision a truthful one?
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2. Is my decision fair to everyone affected?

3. Will it build goodwill for the organization?
4. Is the decision beneficial to all parties who have a vested
interest in the outcome?
When these four questions can truthfully be answered with a

“yes,” it is likely that the decision is an ethical one.
Another way of making sure decisions are truly ethical is by using

the publicity test. Ask yourself how you would feel if your actions
were published in your hometown newspaper. If you would be
comfortable having your parents, grade school teachers, and
other people find out what you did, chances are that your decision
is an ethical one. However, if you would not want these individuals
to learn about your actions, you probably need to rethink your
decision.
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Ethics of Advertisement: An Introduction

Advertising is the most competitive industry in America. It
facilitates both performance and price competition among
products and services. To do so it must compete for the
consumers’ limited time and attention. It must be persuasive and
credible, and as I believe and urge—ethical—to build brand
loyalty and trust. In my view not enough attention is given to
advertising ethics.
It is understandable that professionals and students of

advertising stress the Four P’s of Marketing: Product, Price,
Promotion and Place. Yet, how often are the positive and negative
consequences of advertising ethics proactively taken into
consideration? Not often enough. To the contrary, clients are
forced to deal reactively with irate consumers who have taken
offense from claims and depictions in their ads.
Take the print ad for Dolce & Gabbana that appeared in Esquire
magazine: “A woman, fully clothed in a tight dress and spiked
heels, lies on her back, hips raised as a bare-chested man holds
her down and four other men look on. The menace in the situation
is underscored by the fact the woman is blankly unsmiling and
some of the men appear to have slight sneers on their faces.”
Brandweek, February 20, 2007. Women and women’s organizations
quickly took offense. The National Organization for Woman
charged that the ad depicted “Stylized gang rape.”
It is difficult for me to see how this ad advanced Dolce &

Gabbana, which markets upscale Italian fashions to women.
Moreover, it certainly did not advance the image of the
advertising industry.
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This ad ran afoul of what I would call “taste and decency,” a most
difficult area of advertising ethics. I want to make it clear that I
do not believe in politically correct speech, and I would be the
first to combat any attempt by government to regulate in this
area. But we must be very sensitive to the ethical concerns of our
consumers.
It is up to the company and its ad agency to internally articulate

and practice advertising ethics for its brands. I believe this will
enhance brand reputation and consumer loyalty. Take the time in
advance to proactively discuss the ethical consequences of ad
claims and depictions. I know the devil is in the details. I don’t
want to suggest a burdensome process here. In future columns I
will provide my guidelines, and I would appreciate your
suggestions.
Advertising ethics in my view also includes truthfulness and

fairness, which includes the nature of the audience and the
nature of the product. Over the next few months I would like to
open a dialogue on questions regarding children’s advertising,
multicultural marketing and other challenges presented by taste
and decency. Please join in the discussion by leaving comments
below.
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Ethics and advertising

Human beings are world creators. One of the worlds that human
beings have created is the world of money, commodities, trade,
exchange. To me, it's 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 — and
being a philosopher makes me by definition an outsider — can see
this.
I regard the business arena — the world of buyers and sellers,

bosses and workers, producers and consumers, the world of
money — as 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.
(Contrast this with the case of a 'dialogue' between
politicians or traders, where each is privately deliberating how
to gain the upper hand.) In opening myself up and addressing
the other as a thou I am already committed to the practical
consequences of agreement, of doing the action which, by the
combined light of his valuational perspective and mine is seen
as the thing to be done. -- Geoffrey Klempner The Ethics of
Dialogue (1998)
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As a professional metaphysician, I am fascinated by the idea that

human beings can belong to more than one world, or move between
worlds. Anthropologists who 'go native' in order to study their
subjects more closely have an inkling of what I am talking about.
We live in the marketplace and also outside it. We can play the
various roles assigned to us in the game, or we can stand outside
our economic personae and observe ourselves from an ethical
point of view. The only difference between us and the
anthropologist is that, most of the time, we don't realize that we
are doing this. In my recent article, The Business Arena, I put
forward three propositions, as a 'prolegomenon to a philosophy
for business':
Business and commerce take place in a frame, an arena
defined by unwritten
rules.
Within the business arena, normal ethics is suspended.
The aim of a philosophy for business is to understand the
rules that define the business arena, in other words, to grasp
from an ethical perspective how business is possible.
Geoffrey Klempner The Business Arena (2004)
To claim that in the business world 'normal ethics is suspended'
is not to deny thevalidity of rules of conduct, such as fairness
and honesty. Without these universal rules, these values, the
game could not be played. However, these obligations fall far
short of the demands of ethics, as I have defined it here.
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 levelled against advertisers:
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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.
All this can be summed up in the popular sentiment that
advertisers cynically use a world of fantasy and illusion in an
attempt to control us.
Most people who express this sentiment, however, would add that
the attempt doesn't succeed. We see through the ruse. (Or, at
least, it is always other people who seem to have the wool pulled
over their eyes, never ourselves.) That's a claim to take with a
big pinch of salt.
In recent times advertising has become increasingly regulated by
codes of practice. These codes may be adequate to curb the
worst excesses of advertising. It is much harder nowadays for
advertisements to get away with telling outright lies. But they
still fall far short of answering these three indictments. That
suggests the following question: suppose that you were an
advertiser who wanted to be truly ethical and not just legal.
What would you have to do? Let's look at each of the indictments
in turn.
Selling dreams
Let me start with a personal example. What initially attracted me
to philosophy was the life of Socrates. In the same way that few,
if any Christians could live the way Christ lived, so few if any
philosophy students are capable of emulating the life of Socrates.
I knew this. I was sold the dream of philosophy. And I am glad
for that. I don't feel I was cheated. Plato, the greatest of all
salesmen for philosophy, seduced me — along with countless
thousands of students before and since — with his brilliant
dialogues depicting the life of his mentor.
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Gilbert Ryle in his book Plato's Progress (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press 1966) argues that the dialogues were performed
live. You can see audiences of Plato's dialogue Phaedo sobbing, or
swooning as Socrates calmly drinks the hemlock, with words of
reassurance for his gathered friends, facing death with courage
and dignity.
The dream is not extraneous to the product. It is part of the
complete package. The treasure that is the collected works of
Plato has added to the value of philosophy, not just through novel
arguments or its addition to the storehouse of human knowledge
but through the sheer seductive power of Plato's storytelling.
Living and breathing the
atmosphere of the dialogues we become more, we become better,
we are enhanced.
But is that also true out there in the commercial marketplace,
where humans barter their love of material goods, succumb to the
dreams that advertisers sell? It is very tempting to say no. It is
so easy to take the moralistic high ground. Yet, as I want to
argue, that would be a serious error. Anyone who is serious about
deconstructing the dream world of advertising should start by
considering the meaning of fashion and style, not as illusions that
human beings fall helplessly victim to, but as part of the
scaffolding of human culture. A world without fashion or style
would be obnoxious, alien, brutal — in the true sense
of being fit only for brutes.
Think of the clothes one wears as a kind of advertising. To say
that the appearance that clothes create is a mere illusion is to
class a well cut or well designed suit with cod pieces and false
breasts.
A philosopher might object that my example of the 'dream of
philosophy' is not fair. Philosophy is an ideal. Advertisers try to
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sell us material things. The two could not be more different. I

totally disagree. Philosophers, so quick to analyse, look at an
object as a mere bearer of physical properties, or as a tool with a
function, or, possibly, one of those rare objects that attains the
status of a 'work of art', a bearer of sheer disinterested
aesthetic value.
None of these ways of analysing an object explain why we love
things. All parents know how children lust for toys. We grow up.
We put away childish things. We do not lose that lust, we merely
look for different things to attach ourselves to, to project our
emotions onto. This is normal, not pathological behaviour.
Object-love is one of the most profound facts about our human
relation to the world. That is something Freud saw.
These are passing observations (as Wittgenstein would say)
concerning the 'natural history of mankind'. It ought to be seen
as surprising, worthy of note, in the same way as we ought to be
surprised at the capacity of the human imagination to be
captured by storytelling, by fiction. Maybe Martians are not so
lucky. Pity them.
In the commercial world, there are plenty of examples of
manufacturers who believe passionately in their product. Apple
Macintosh is the best example I can think of. Macs are good, not
only because they function well, but because they are beautiful,
stylish,
designed with loving attention to detail (most of the time, anyway
— there have been occasional, humorous exceptions when in the
face of competition cost-cutting was allowed to take precedence
over quality).
I am happy to buy into a dream I can believe in. But not one that
has been cynically created with the sole aim of making me spend
my money.
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So is this true? — 'As an advertiser, it's OK to sell a dream if

you believe in it too.'
When a consumer buys an Apple Mac, the value of the product is
not just its beauty and functionality, but the love that has been
lavished on it. The image that the advertisers have created is not
only true, but also enhances the pleasure of using the product.
But we're on risky ground here. Consider the religious cults who
send their followers on the streets seeking converts. They
believe in the dream that they are selling too. Even if the dream
selling is not done cynically, it all-too easily becomes an attempt
to brainwash, to control.
A campaign which Apple ran a couple of years ago featured 'real
people' explaining why they switched to Macs and recounting the
misery of badly designed, unreliable PCs. The campaign backfired
because PC users found it offensive, while Mac users resented
being patronised. They were rudely awakened from the dream.
Pandering
We tell a child, 'You'll feel sick if you eat that second chocolate
bar.' yet advertisers are only too willing to sell us as many
chocolate bars as we can eat — or, whatever our particular vice
may be.
In today's climate, as a would-be ethical advertiser, there's no
way you could accept a cigarette advertising account. With the
current problem of binge drinking in the UK amongst young
people, one would have to be very careful in accepting a drinks
account. I have yet to see a drinks advert whose message was,
'Enjoy our beer — but don't get drunk!'
Advertisements can set out with the laudable aim of educating
people. 'Eat our cereal because it's low in fat and high in fibre'.
This is good advice, offered, however, not in a spirit of social
conscience but as part of the sales pitch. If consumers were less
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sensitive to such appeals to improve their health and life style,

then advertisers would not waste time and money making them.
Ever-resourceful advertisers have even found ways to openly
admit that their product is bad for you. A recent advert for meat
pies portrays impressively overweight men — a construction
worker, a welder, a tyre fitter, a fireman — as everyday 'heroes'.
A potentially damaging admission is turned round into something
positive with the
clever use of humour. A real man likes his beer and pies.
This illustrates the important point that advertisements can be
very knowing — showing an awareness of the ethical issues which
marketing that particular product raises, while at the same time
deftly deflecting criticism. We are not offended because we get
the point, we smile at the irony — and we buy the product.
Manipulating
Suppose you are a deodorant manufacturer who has conceived the
idea of an ethical advertising campaign. It goes without saying
that the deodorant has got to work effectively, as claimed. It
should not contain chemicals which are bad for your health (when
the product is used according to instructions). This is more or
less where we are now, in relation to current rules on advertising.
But what does it mean for a deodorant to be effective? On a hot
day, you will be more confident in the company of other people,
because they will not be able to detect your body odour. Critics
of deodorant advertising have pointed out, however, that
although it is true that the deodorant has the power to prevent
odour, and this is a ground for extra confidence, the reason why
it is a ground for confidence is at least partly due to a belief or
attitude which has itself been inculcated by advertising. 'Body
odour' is one of the classic phrases invented by advertisers,
embodying the concept that any natural human smell is, or ought
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to be regarded as offensive. It is hard to question a belief when

it has become part of language itself. If you have B.O. that is
something bad, by definition. B.O. is unpleasant and offensive,
because being offensive is part of its concept. But that begs the
question whether all bodily odours are unpleasant, or only some.
So let's take our imaginary scenario from here: The ethical
deodorant marketing team take the brave decision to question
this assumption. The design and advertising of the product will be
based around the idea that there are pleasant as well as
unpleasant bodily odours. The chemists are asked to come up with
a product which gets rid of the unpleasant odours while not
masking the pleasant ones. After extensive research and testing,
the product is launched. The campaign is a great success. The
concept captures the public imagination, better than anyone had
dared hope. However, a new trend emerges from the on-going
market research. A significant proportion of the people
questioned express a willingness to try a product which enhances
their 'naturally pleasant' bodily smell. The chemists identify a
complex blend of chemicals, some of which are capable of
synthesis in a laboratory. The ethical marketing team now face a
difficult dilemma. How can it be wrong to market the chemically
enhanced product, if this was what people want? The argument
for not doing so is that it was the success of the first campaign
that created the demand for an added 'natural bodily smell',
where none had existed before. This is the very thing that the
ethical advertising team had sought to avoid! Against competitors
who show no such scruples, however, the ethical advertisers face
a losing battle in the marketplace.
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Ethics of Advertising
Advertising has been universally praised and condemned. It has
been cheered by those who view it as emblematic of the American
Dream - the notion that anyone with money and moxie can
promote a product to masses of consumers, along with the
promise, cherished by immigrants that an escape from brutal
poverty can be found through purchase of products and services
not available in more oppressive economies. Advertising has been
roundly condemned by those who despise its attack on our senses,
its appropriation of language for use in a misty world located
somewhere between truth and falsehood, and its relentless,
shameless exploitation of cultural icons and values to sell goods
and services.
It is a lot easier to document advertising effects than to arrive
at universally accepted conclusions about its ethics. Long before
the arrival of Old Joe Camel and the Budweiser frogs, critics
debated the ethics of advertising. Adopting a deontological
approach, critics have argued that the test of ethical
communication is whether it treats people as an end, not a means
or, more practically, whether the communicators' motives are
honorable or decent. Viewed in this way, advertising can fall
drastically short of an ethical ideal. Advertisers develop ads that
make promises they know products can't deliver. Cigarettes don't
offer hedonistic pleasure; cars don't make you rich or famous;
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and making pancakes for your kids on Saturday won't assuage

your guilt about neglecting them all week, despite the plaintive
plea of a Bisquik pancake commercial.
Advertisers want consumers to project fantasies onto products in
order to hook individuals on the image of the brand. Viewed from
a deontological perspective, advertising is not ethical because
advertisers are not truthful. If the decency of the
communicators' motives is the criterion for ethical
communication, advertising fails. Advertisers deliberately
construct fantasies to serve their clients' needs, not to aid the
customer in living a healthier, happier life.
Responding to these criticisms, defenders of advertising note
that consumers recognize that advertising creates untruths.
They do not expect ads to tell them the way things really are in
society. Almost by definition, he says, the portrayals of the good
life presented in ads carry with them the implicit understanding
that they are idealizations, not documentary reports. In effect,
advertising defenders say, Don't worry; be happy. Advertising is
capitalism's playful communication, an effort to give people an
outlet for universal human fantasies.
In the end, the verdict on advertising depends on the criteria we
use to judge it. Judged in terms of consequences on society,
advertising's effects are ambiguous. Exposure to beautiful people
or unimaginable wealth may cause dissatisfaction in some
consumers, but can lead others to reach for loftier goals. Judged
strictly on truth-telling criteria, advertising rarely makes product
claims that are demonstrably false.
However, it almost always exaggerates, puffs up products, and
links products with intangible rewards. All advertising tells lies,
however, she notes that there are little lies and there are big
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lies. Little lie: This beer tastes great. Big lie: This beer makes you
great.
In the final analysis, advertising will remain an ethically
problematic, but necessary, part of capitalist society. Needed to
differentiate and promote products that (truth be told) differ
only trivially from one another, advertising keeps the engines of
the free market economy rolling. It increases demand and allows
companies to sell products, prosper, and employ managers and
workers. On the macroeconomic level, advertising plays an
essential, critical role in contemporary capitalism. From an ethical
perspective, advertising remains an uneasy persuasion.
Advertising is such a pervasive part of American culture that is
difficult to conjure up images of products that are not influenced
by what we have seen in commercials. If you were asked to free-
associate about Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Nike, Herbal Essence, or
cars running the gamut from Mustangs to minivans, your mental
images would undoubtedly contain ideas and pictures gleaned from
commercials. It is physically difficult, if not impossible, to call to
mind an advertising-free image of products. This is because
advertising plays a critical role in shaping, reinforcing, even
changing attitudes toward products.
Little wonder that critics have charged that advertising's power
comes from subliminally embedded messages that elude conscious
awareness. Research finds that subliminal communications exert
virtually no impact on attitudes. However, the conscious belief
that a message contains a subliminal message can influence
attitudes. The subliminal notion is more hoax than reality, but it
persists because people cling to simplistic ideas about how
advertising works.
Advertising works through different pathways under low and high
involvement. When viewing ads for low-involvement products,
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consumers process information peripherally. Repetition,

associational appeals, and celebrity source endorsements are
influential. Association, whose theoretical foundations run the
gamut from classical conditioning to accessibility, is a potent
weapon in advertising campaigns.
When thinking about more personally consequential purchases,
consumers process ads centrally, taking into account the benefits
products offer and the psychological functions that products
serve. When directing ads at highly involved consumers,
advertisers use factual messages and symbolic appeals targeted
to particular attitude functions.
Although advertising is pervasive, it does not magically alter
attitudes. As social judgment theory reminds us, advertising will
not mold deep-seated attitudes toward products. It is not apt to
change attitudes on the spot. Instead, it works gradually,
influencing cognitions, enhancing positive effect, and meshing
with consumers' values, lifestyles, and even fantasies about
products.
Ever controversial, advertising has been condemned by those who
see in it a ready way to manipulate Americans into buying
products they don't need. Critics argue that advertising
inculcates a strange philosophy of life that puts great faith in the
ability of products to satisfy universal human desires. Yet even
those who criticize advertising ethics acknowledge that people
seem to have a need for the things advertisers promote.
Whether due to human nature, contemporary capitalism, or a
complex combination of both, things are in the saddle. But if some
of us want to think that things are riding us, that's fine. The rest
of us know better.
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Some Ethical & Moral Principles

The Second Vatican Council declared: "If the media are to be
correctly employed, it is essential that all who use them know the
principles of the moral order and apply them faithfully in this
domain."The moral order to which this refers is the order of the
law of human nature, binding upon all because it is "written on
their hearts" and embodies the imperatives of authentic human
fulfillment.
For Christians, moreover, the law of human nature has a deeper

dimension, a richer meaning. "Christ is the ?Beginning' who, having
taken on human nature, definitively illumines it in its constitutive
elements and in its dynamism of charity towards God and
neighbor." Here we comprehend the deepest significance of
human freedom: that it makes possible an authentic moral
response, in light of Jesus Christ, to the call "to form our
conscience, to make it the object of a continuous conversion to
what is true and to what is good."
In this context, the media of social communications have two

options, and only two. Either they help human persons to grow in
their understanding and practice of what is true and good, or
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they are destructive forces in conflict with human well being.

That is entirely true of advertising.
Against this background, then, we point to this fundamental

principle for people engaged in advertising: advertisers — that is,
those who commission, prepare or disseminate advertising — are
morally responsible for what they seek to move people to do; and
this is a responsibility also shared by publishers, broadcasting
executives, and others in the communications world, as well as by
those who give commercial or political endorsements, to the
extent that they are involved in the advertising process.
If an instance of advertising seeks to move people to choose and

act rationally in morally good ways that are of true benefit to
themselves and others, persons involved in it do what is morally
good; if it seeks to move people to do evil deeds that are self-
destructive and destructive of authentic community, they do evil.
This applies also to the means and the techniques of advertising:

it is morally wrong to use manipulative, exploitative, corrupt and
corrupting methods of persuasion and motivation. In this regard,
we note special problems associated with so-called indirect
advertising that attempts to move people to act in certain ways —
for example, purchase particular products — without their being
fully aware that they are being swayed. The techniques involved
here include showing certain products or forms of behavior in
superficially glamorous settings associated with superficially
glamorous people; in extreme cases, it may even involve the use of
subliminal messages.
Within this very general framework, we can identify several

moral principles that are particularly relevant to advertising. We
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shall speak briefly of three: truthfulness, the dignity of the

human person, and social responsibility.
1. 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. As Pope John Paul
II points out, on both the individual and social levels, truth and
freedom are inseparable; without truth as the basis, starting
point and criterion of discernment, judgment, choice and action,
there can be no authentic exercise of freedom. The Catechism of
the Catholic Church, quoting the Second Vatican Council, insists
that the content of communication be "true and — within the
limits set by justice and charity — complete"; the content should,
moreover, be communicated "honestly and properly."
To be sure, advertising, like other forms of expression, has its

own conventions and forms of stylization, and these must be
taken into account when discussing truthfulness. People take for
granted some rhetorical and symbolic exaggeration in advertising;
within the limits of recognized and accepted practice, this can be
allowable.
But it is a fundamental principle that advertising may not

deliberately seek to deceive, whether it does that by what it
says, by what it implies, or by what it fails to say. "The proper
exercise of the right to information demands that the content of
what is communicated be true and, within the limits set by justice
and charity, complete. ... Included here is the obligation to avoid
any manipulation of truth for any reason."
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2. 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."
These abuses are not merely hypothetical possibilities but

realities in much advertising today. Advertising can violate the
dignity of the human person both through its content — what is
advertised, the manner in which it is advertised — and through
the impact it seeks to make upon its audience. We have spoken
already of such things as appeals to lust, vanity, envy and greed,
and of techniques that manipulate and exploit human weakness. In
such circumstances, advertisements readily become "vehicles of a
deformed outlook on life, on the family, on religion and on
morality — an outlook that does not respect the true dignity and
destiny of the human person."
This problem is especially acute where particularly vulnerable

groups or classes of persons are concerned: children and young
people, the elderly, the poor, the culturally disadvantaged.
Much advertising directed at children apparently tries to exploit

their credulity and suggestibility, in the hope that they will put
pressure on their parents to buy products of no real benefit to
them. Advertising like this offends against the dignity and rights
of both children and parents; it intrudes upon the parent-child
relationship and seeks to manipulate it to its own base ends. Also,
some of the comparatively little advertising directed specifically
to the elderly or culturally disadvantaged seems designed to play
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upon their fears so as to persuade them to allocate some of their

limited resources to goods or services of dubious value.
3. Advertising and Social Responsibility
Social responsibility is such a broad concept that we can note

here only a few of the many issues and concerns relevant under
this heading to the question of advertising.
The ecological issue is one. Advertising that fosters a lavish life

style which wastes resources and despoils the environment
offends against important ecological concerns. "In his desire to
have and to enjoy rather than to be and grow, man consumes the
resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and
disordered way. ... Man thinks that he can make arbitrary use of
the earth, subjecting it without restraint to his will, as though it
did not have its own requisites and a prior God-given purpose,
which man can indeed develop but must not betray."
As this suggests, something more fundamental is at issue here:

authentic and integral human development. Advertising that
reduces human progress to acquiring material goods and
cultivating a lavish life style expresses a false, destructive vision
of the human person harmful to individuals and society alike.
When people fail to practice "a rigorous respect for the moral,
cultural and spiritual requirements, based on the dignity of the
person and on the proper identity of each community, beginning
with the family and religious societies," then even material
abundance and the conveniences that technology makes available
"will prove unsatisfying and in the end contemptible." Advertisers,
like people engaged in other forms of social communication, have a
serious duty to express and foster an authentic vision of human
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development in its material, cultural and spiritual dimensions.31

Communication that meets this standard is, among other things, a
true expression of solidarity. Indeed, the two things —
communication and solidarity — are inseparable, because, as the
Catechism of the Catholic Church points out, solidarity is "a
consequence of genuine and right communication and the free
circulation of ideas that further knowledge and respect for
others."
The Ethics of Behavioral Advertising

Recently, both the advertising industry and the government have
turned their attentions toward online behavioral advertising, or
behavioral targeting. Central to the Federal Trade Commission’s
focus is consumer concerns that behavioral targeting
compromises personal privacy. On the other hand, marketers are
interested in using behavioral targeting to send relevant and
cost-effective ads to online users.1 But this issue isn’t merely a
regulatory question; an ethical analysis by marketers as to the
use of behavioral targeting will build consumer trust.
Behavioral targeting segments consumers according to the

interests they express in online activities. eMarketer recently
completed an analysis on the scope of this marketing process:
Behavioral targeting segments the audience based on observed

and measured data—the pages or sites users visit, the content
they view, the search queries they enter, the ads they click on,
the information they share on social internet sites and the
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products they put in online shopping carts. This data is combined

with the time, length and frequency of visits. Recency counts a
lot too—data from two weeks ago is far less accurate at
predicting interest than from two days ago.2
An ethical analysis centers on consumers’ feelings that behavioral

targeting infringes on personal privacy. Recent consumer
research shows that, “A six in ten majority (59 percent) are not
comfortable when Web sites like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft
(MSN) use information about a person’s online activity to tailor
advertisements or content based on a person’s hobbies or
interests.” Consumer concern, according to the eMarketer
findings, is one of the factors holding back the growth of
behavioral targeting by marketers.
While there are privacy laws that protect consumers’ medical and
financial information, there are not laws that currently prohibit
online marketers from collecting and using personally identifiable
information (PII) or other possibly sensitive information,
including Internet protocol (IP) addresses. But this issue goes
beyond legalities to the ethical question of what is the right and
fair way for businesses to advertise to consumers, who bear the
benefits and burdens of behavioral targeting.3
What is the right way for businesses to treat consumers? Is it

right for marketers to give total control to consumers of the
collection and sharing of their information? Or is it right for a
business to be able to provide consumers with more relevant,
targeted information about products and services?4
We start by analyzing the consequences of these two sides to the

issue—the positive and negative impact upon consumers. This is
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the approach the government would follow in determining the

costs and benefits of laws and regulations. Giving the consumer
total control over sharing his interests and online activity with
marketers would protect his privacy in an absolute sense, but at
what cost? Opting in at every Web site or even disabling cookies
could make online commerce and transactions burdensome for the
consumer. And Web visitors routinely benefit from the product
information that stems from online behavioral targeting. Pepsi
recently launched its new low-calorie Aquafina Alive drink by
advertising on sites that were visited by users who were
interested in healthy lifestyles—a strategy made possible
because of the assistance of behavioral targeting.
Next, we can determine if there is a universal rule that could

guide our ethical analysis. To my knowledge there is no such rule
in existence. It would be difficult to administer and enforce an
absolute prohibition on the collection and sharing of all consumer
information. A better rule would be for the consumer to receive
specifics as to how his information will be shared and protected.5
The research conducted by the Harris Poll found that consumers’
level of confidence with behavioral targeting went up slightly
after being exposed to information on how their information
would be shared and protected.
In order to ensure that their marketing practices are ethical,

businesses engaging in behavioral targeting should first review
research on consumers’ attitudes and beliefs about the issue and
then develop online advertising policies that demonstrate their
commitment to protecting the privacy of their customers.
Advertising is at its best when it’s helping consumers make

informed decisions about their purchases. And behavioral
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targeting is one of the most effective ways for marketers to

reach the right audience. But this practice is contingent on the
protection of consumer privacy. Once advertisers commit to using
behavioral advertising ethically, both marketers and consumers
can benefit.
Footnotes:
1
The AAF and other industry associations have filed comments
with the Federal Trade Commission on behavioral targeting.
2
Behavioral Targeting: Marketing Trends, e-Marketer, June
2008.
3
My definition of ethics includes fairness, in terms of both the
nature of the product and the nature of the audience and the
manner in which they’re treated.
4
My analysis is aided by an ethical process refined by author
Rushworth Kidder in his book, How Good People Make Tough
Choices.
5
The Federal Trade Commission has proposed for discussion
behavioral advertising self-regulatory guidelines.
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Attention, But at What Cost?

Belvedere Vodka has introduced a new provocative print and
television campaign to compete against Grey Goose in the luxury
vodka market. “The brand is donning fishnets, getting spanked in
public and otherwise behaving lewdly in an attempt to stand out in
the increasingly crowded luxury vodka category.”
In my previous column, I defined ethical advertising to include

Taste and Decency and counseled that the client and agency
should proactively consider the ethical consequences of
advertising that could be considered offensive by the brands
customers.
Apparently in this case client and agency agreed on the shocking

portrayal of women to attack competitor Grey Goose’s “uptown”
image. Paul Ashworth, Moet’s senior VP – Belvedere, said of the
new $20 million campaign, “We want to be sexy, and we want to
be provocative.” Ewen Cameron, Berlin Cameron executive
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creative director, said the campaign is meant to make consumers

take sides: “Brands need to say, ‘are you with us or with them?’”
But did they consider the ethical consequences of a campaign

that may offend woman vodka drinkers? Women constitute 49
percent of the luxury vodka market1. Clearly they were aware of
the negative implications. From the same AdAge.com article:
“According to Mr. Ashworth, several cable networks refused to
run the original spot. Outtakes—including several shots using the
bottle as an explicitly sexual prop—will be featured on a new Web
site set to launch in early December.”
Perhaps the Spirits category is different from other brand

marketing. Arthur Shapiro, a veteran spirits industry consultant,
opines “One way to stand out at a crowded party is to put a
lampshade on your head. It doesn’t necessarily make a good
impression, but it does make one.”
This is an assumption that is often heard in the industry: “It’s

good to get the customer’s attention even if it makes them mad.”
But how can we conclude that a potential customer angered by
advertising will purchase the brand? I believe that women
searching for an upscale vodka would be more attracted to a
brand connecting to them through ethical advertising. This seems
to have been proven by Dove’s very successful Campaign for Real
Beauty, which was still risky in its depiction of women but was
also developed with them in mind.
Advertising, like human beings, lives where Reason meets Desire.

Years ago, The Coca-Cola Company invented a better product. No
consumer product had ever been so thoroughly tested with so
many consumers. This new Coke was probably much better. But
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consumers not only didn't buy it, they demonstrated against it.
Because a lot of what they loved about "real" Coke wasn't inside
the bottle. It was the idea of Coke and their experiences with it
and how those experiences were connected to so much of what we
imagine life in America should be like. Advertising isn't just about
the things we buy. It's about how we feel about things, including
ourselves. That's what makes it interesting.
1. 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?
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2. 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.
3. 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
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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).
4. Condoms
I assume these are not unfamiliar to you. Should they be

advertised? Most networks won't accept condom ads
because they might offend certain audiences. Even where
condom ads are okay, there are ethical choices to make
about what kind of product demonstration is appropriate.
And in what context? One example of context is that people
in condom ads usually wear wedding rings. Because even
though the biggest market probably lies outside the Marital
Bed, the truth about where all those condoms are really
going raises some touchy issues. If you were the Creative
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Director on the Trojans account, is that an ethical issue? Do

you show the real truth and take the consequences?
5. Children
Society imposes context on advertising ethics all the time -

especially in advertising that involves children. Here's a
commercial for children's shampoo. On behalf of Society,
can you see what's wrong with this message?
The problem isn't something in the spot - it's what's missing.

There is no adult supervision shown around the swimming pool.
The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Better
Business Bureau (BBB), which also monitors kid's programming,
requires that adults be shown supervising children when products
or activities could be risky. So L'Oreal changed the commercial to
model good parental behavior. Score one for Society. Another
commercial for Aim toothpaste showed a child who went to the
bathroom in a museum to brush her teeth. Good hygiene or not, it
had to be taken off the air when teachers complained that they'd
never, ever, let a child leave the group unattended.
Advertisers spend most of their waking hours trying to anticipate

what their audiences will want and how they'll react. We try our
best, but sometimes we miss.
6. Pharmaceutical advertising
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Information is ethically neutral. In an academic setting like this,

we welcome more information because the marketplace of ideas
enables individuals to form their own judgments - which brings us
to advertising about prescription drugs. Not long ago, only a
doctor could tell you about a new medicine. You probably never
heard of it before you walked in; you didn't know if it was the
only one in the world or one of dozens that did pretty much the
same thing. Now advertisers spend millions of dollars telling you
about their medicines. Advertising puts more information in
people's hands. Studies show that drug ads raise awareness of
some conditions so more people seek treatment. And they know
more about their options before seeing the doctor. That's good,
right?
But of course the drug companies don't advertise their cheapest

products. They promote the big moneymakers. There's more
information out there, but it comes with a heavy dose of Point-of-
View. Sometimes there are two points of view in the same
commercial. The FDA requires that, if you promote the benefits
of your medicine, you must also reveal any significant risks or side
effects. So we have them to thank for the now legendary
disclaimer for a weight-loss drug. The medicine worked miracles,
but the company was also obliged to mention it's unpleasant side
effects, with the result that the drug turned into a national joke!
Does more information elevate the national dialogue?
7. Product placement
What are the ethics of advertising that doesn't look like

advertising? In a movie chase scene, the hero and the bad guy are
going to need some kind of car to drive. In the theatre we have
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no way of knowing whether the director chose those cars because

they fulfilled his artistic vision - or because the car
manufacturer made a deal with the producer. The car people get
exciting exposure for their brand and she saves a nice piece of
change on her production budget. Audiences like realism in
movies. Made-up brands break the spell because they're obvious
fakes. But the difference between something that's just a prop
and something that's a product promotion is getting murkier all
the time, on TV shows as well as movies.
This kind of "product placement" happens in real life, too. If you

go out to a club tonight, you might see some particularly good-
looking young people using a new kind of cell phone. It lets them
shoot pictures of people to their friends across the room:
"Here's a cute guy - want to come and meet him?" Fun stuff like
that. If you're curious, maybe they've taken your picture and
they'll be happy to show you the phone and let you try it. The
phone is very cool. And the people are what advertisers call
"aspirational" because they're way cooler than you are. They're
people you want to be. They're also actors and this is a gig for
them. Their job is creating the impression that using this phone is
The Next Trend. If you ask them directly if they are actors,
they won't lie. But if you don't ask, they won't tell. This is the
reverse of the Volvo story. Volvo's demonstration was rigged, no
question, but what viewers saw on TV was the truth. With this
cell phone, the demonstration is the absolute truth, but the scene
in the club is pure theater.
(Note: This new "guerrilla" marketing campaign for Sony Ericsson

has received a great deal of negative publicity already for being
deceptive in its approach.)
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8. Subliminal advertising
There's one more thing I know you want me to talk about. If you
believe subliminal advertising exists, you don't any more because
I embedded a convincing subliminal denial in this talk. In case you
missed it, subliminal advertising is one of those "urban legends."
Try this experiment. Take a photograph of a glass of ice water or
the beverage of your choice and make a fake ad out of it. Then
invite people in your Psych department to find the subliminal
messages in your ad. They won't disappoint you.
If a bunch of students can create subliminal messages, imagine

what the pros on Madison Avenue can do.
The Benefits of Ethical Advertising

Enormous human and material resources are devoted to
advertising. Advertising is everywhere in today's world, so that,
as Pope Paul VI remarked, "No one now can escape the influence
of advertising." Even people who are not themselves exposed to
particular forms of advertising confront a society, a culture —
other people — affected for good or ill by advertising messages
and techniques of every sort.
Some critics view this state of affairs in unrelievedly negative

terms. They condemn advertising as a waste of time, talent and
money — an essentially parasitic activity. In this view, not only
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does advertising have no value of its own, but its influence is

entirely harmful and corrupting for individuals and society.
We do not agree. There is truth to the criticisms, and we shall

make criticisms of our own. But advertising also has significant
potential for good, and sometimes it is realized. Here are some of
the ways that happens.
a) Economic Benefits of Advertising
Advertising can play an important role in the process by which an

economic system guided by moral norms and responsive to the
common good contributes to human development. It is a necessary
part of the functioning of modern market economies, which today
either exist or are emerging in many parts of the world and which
— provided they conform to moral standards based upon integral
human development and the common good — currently seem to be
"the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and
effectively responding to needs" of a socio-economic kind.
In such a system, advertising can be a useful tool for sustaining

honest and ethically responsible competition that contributes to
economic growth in the service of authentic human development.
"The Church looks with favor on the growth of man's productive
capacity, and also on the ever widening network of relationships
and exchanges between persons and social groups....[F]rom this
point of view she encourages advertising, which can become a
wholesome and efficacious instrument for reciprocal help among
men."
Advertising does this, among other ways, by informing people

about the availability of rationally desirable new products and
services and improvements in existing ones, helping them to make
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informed, prudent consumer decisions, contributing to efficiency

and the lowering of prices, and stimulating economic progress
through the expansion of business and trade. All of this can
contribute to the creation of new jobs, higher incomes and a more
decent and humane way of life for all. It also helps pay for
publications, programming and productions — including those of
the Church — that bring information, entertainment and
inspiration to people around the world.
b) Benefits of Political Advertising
"The Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures

the participation of citizens in making political choices,
guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing and
holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing
them through peaceful means when appropriate."
Political advertising can make a contribution to democracy

analogous to its contribution to economic well being in a market
system guided by moral norms. As free and responsible media in a
democratic system help to counteract tendencies toward the
monopolization of power on the part of oligarchies and special
interests, so political advertising can make its contribution by
informing people about the ideas and policy proposals of parties
and candidates, including new candidates not previously known to
the public.
c) Cultural Benefits of Advertising
Because of the impact advertising has on media that depend on it

for revenue, advertisers have an opportunity to exert a positive
influence on decisions about media content. This they do by
supporting material of excellent intellectual, aesthetic and moral
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quality presented with the public interest in view, and particularly

by encouraging and making possible media presentations which are
oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go unserved.
Moreover, advertising can itself contribute to the betterment of

society by uplifting and inspiring people and motivating them to
act in ways that benefit themselves and others. Advertising can
brighten lives simply by being witty, tasteful and entertaining.
Some advertisements are instances of popular art, with a vivacity
and elan all their own.
d) Moral and Religious Benefits of Advertising
In many cases, too, benevolent social institutions, including those

of a religious nature, use advertising to communicate their
messages — messages of faith, of patriotism, of tolerance,
compassion and neighborly service, of charity toward the needy,
messages concerning health and education, constructive and
helpful messages that educate and motivate people in a variety of
beneficial ways.
For the Church, involvement in media-related activities, including

advertising, is today a necessary part of a comprehensive pastoral
strategy. This includes both the Church's own media — Catholic
press and publishing, television and radio broadcasting, film and
audiovisual production, and the rest — and also her participation
in secular media. The media "can and should be instruments in the
Church's program of re-evangelization and new evangelization in
the contemporary world." While much remains to be done, many
positive efforts of this kind already are underway. With
reference to advertising itself, Pope Paul VI once said that it is
desirable that Catholic institutions "follow with constant
attention the development of the modern techniques of
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advertising and... know how to make opportune use of them in

order to spread the Gospel message in a manner which answers
the expectations and needs of contemporary man."
Harm Done by Unethical Advertising

There is nothing intrinsically good or intrinsically evil about
advertising. It is a tool, an instrument: it can be used well, and it
can be used badly. If it can have, and sometimes does have,
beneficial results such as those just described, it also can, and
often does, have a negative, harmful impact on individuals and
society.
Communio et Progressio contains this summary statement of the

problem: "If harmful or utterly useless goods are touted to the
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public, if false assertions are made about goods for sale, if less
than admirable human tendencies are exploited, those responsible
for such advertising harm society and forfeit their good name
and credibility. More than this, unremitting pressure to buy
articles of luxury can arouse false wants that hurt both
individuals and families by making them ignore what they really
need. And those forms of advertising which, without shame,
exploit the sexual instincts simply to make money or which seek
to penetrate into the subconscious recesses of the mind in a way
that threatens the freedom of the individual ... must be shunned."
a) Economic Harms of Advertising
Advertising can betray its role as a source of information by

misrepresentation and by withholding relevant facts. Sometimes,
too, the information function of media can be subverted by
advertisers' pressure upon publications or programs not to treat
of questions that might prove embarrassing or inconvenient.
More often, though, advertising is used not simply to inform but

to persuade and motivate — to convince people to act in certain
ways: buy certain products or services, patronize certain
institutions, and the like. This is where particular abuses can
occur.
The practice of "brand"-related advertising can raise serious

problems. Often there are only negligible differences among
similar products of different brands, and advertising may
attempt to move people to act on the basis of irrational motives
("brand loyalty," status, fashion, "sex appeal," etc.) instead of
presenting differences in product quality and price as bases for
rational choice.
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Advertising also can be, and often is, a tool of the "phenomenon
of consumerism," as Pope John Paul II delineated it when he said:
"It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of
life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward ?
having' rather than ?being', and which wants to have more, not in
order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an
end in itself." Sometimes advertisers speak of it as part of their
task to "create" needs for products and services — that is, to
cause people to feel and act upon cravings for items and services
they do not need. "If ... a direct appeal is made to his instincts —
while ignoring in various ways the reality of the person as
intelligent and free — then consumer attitudes and life-styles can
be created which are objectively improper and often damaging to
his physical and spiritual health."
This is a serious abuse, an affront to human dignity and the

common good when it occurs in affluent societies. But the abuse
is still more grave when consumerist attitudes and values are
transmitted by communications media and advertising to
developing countries, where they exacerbate socio-economic
problems and harm the poor. "It is true that a judicious use of
advertising can stimulate developing countries to improve their
standard of living. But serious harm can be done them if
advertising and commercial pressure become so irresponsible that
communities seeking to rise from poverty to a reasonable
standard of living are persuaded to seek this progress by
satisfying wants that have been artificially created. The result of
this is that they waste their resources and neglect their real
needs, and genuine development falls behind."
Similarly, the task of countries attempting to develop types of

market economies that serve human needs and interests after
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decades under centralized, state-controlled systems is made

more difficult by advertising that promotes consumerist
attitudes and values offensive to human dignity and the common
good. The problem is particularly acute when, as often happens,
the dignity and welfare of society's poorer and weaker members
are at stake. It is necessary always to bear in mind that there
are "goods which by their very nature cannot and must not be
bought or sold" and to avoid "an ?idolatry' of the market" that,
aided and abetted by advertising, ignores this crucial fact.
b) Harms of Political Advertising
Political advertising can support and assist the working of the

democratic process, but it also can obstruct it. This happens
when, for example, the costs of advertising limit political
competition to wealthy candidates or groups, or require that
office-seekers compromise their integrity and independence by
over-dependence on special interests for funds.
Such obstruction of the democratic process also happens when,

instead of being a vehicle for honest expositions of candidates'
views and records, political advertising seeks to distort the views
and records of opponents and unjustly attacks their reputations.
It happens when advertising appeals more to people's emotions
and base instincts — to selfishness, bias and hostility toward
others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like — rather than
to a reasoned sense of justice and the good of all.
c) Cultural Harms of Advertising
Advertising also can have a corrupting influence upon culture and

cultural values. We have spoken of the economic harm that can be
done to developing nations by advertising that fosters
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consumerism and destructive patterns of consumption. Consider

also the cultural injury done to these nations and their peoples by
advertising whose content and methods, reflecting those
prevalent in the first world, are at war with sound traditional
values in indigenous cultures. Today this kind of "domination and
manipulation" via media rightly is "a concern of developing nations
in relation to developed ones," as well as a "concern of minorities
within particular nations."
The indirect but powerful influence exerted by advertising upon

the media of social communications that depend on revenues from
this source points to another sort of cultural concern. In the
competition to attract ever larger audiences and deliver them to
advertisers, communicators can find themselves tempted — in
fact pressured, subtly or not so subtly — to set aside high
artistic and moral standards and lapse into superficiality,
tawdriness and moral squalor.
Communicators also can find themselves tempted to ignore the

educational and social needs of certain segments of the audience
— the very young, the very old, the poor — who do not match the
demographic patterns (age, education, income, habits of buying
and consuming, etc.) of the kinds of audiences advertisers want
to reach. In this way the tone and indeed the level of moral
responsibility of the communications media in general are
lowered.
All too often, advertising contributes to the invidious

stereotyping of particular groups that places them at a
disadvantage in relation to others. This often is true of the way
advertising treats women; and the exploitation of women, both in
and by advertising, is a frequent, deplorable abuse. "How often
47
9
are they treated not as persons with an inviolable dignity but as

objects whose purpose is to satisfy others' appetite for pleasure
or for power? How often is the role of woman as wife and mother
undervalued or even ridiculed? How often is the role of women in
business or professional life depicted as a masculine caricature, a
denial of the specific gifts of feminine insight, compassion, and
understanding, which so greatly contribute to the ?civilization of
love'?"
d) Moral and Religious Harms of Advertising
Advertising can be tasteful and in conformity with high moral

standards, and occasionally even morally uplifting, but it also can
be vulgar and morally degrading. Frequently it deliberately
appeals to such motives as envy, status seeking and lust. Today,
too, some advertisers consciously seek to shock and titillate by
exploiting content of a morbid, perverse, pornographic nature.
What this Pontifical Council said several years ago about

pornography and violence in the media is no less true of certain
forms of advertising:
"As reflections of the dark side of human nature marred by sin,

pornography and the exaltation of violence are age-old realities
of the human condition. In the past quarter century, however,
they have taken on new dimensions and have become serious social
problems. At a time of widespread and unfortunate confusion
about moral norms, the communications media have made
pornography and violence accessible to a vastly expanded
audience, including young people and even children, and a problem
which at one time was confined mainly to wealthy countries has
now begun, via the communications media, to corrupt moral values
in developing nations."
48
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We note, too, certain special problems relating to advertising

that treats of religion or pertains to specific issues with a moral
dimension.
In cases of the first sort, commercial advertisers sometimes

include religious themes or use religious images or personages to
sell products. It is possible to do this in tasteful, acceptable
ways, but the practice is obnoxious and offensive when it involves
exploiting religion or treating it flippantly.
In cases of the second sort, advertising sometimes is used to

promote products and inculcate attitudes and forms of behavior
contrary to moral norms. That is the case, for instance, with the
advertising of contraceptives, abortifacients and products
harmful to health, and with government-sponsored advertising
campaigns for artificial birth control, so-called "safe sex", and
similar practices.
Conclusion
I raised the question whether it is possible to be an ethical
advertiser — in the true sense of 'ethical', and not merely in the
minimalist, legal sense of respecting the rules that govern play in
the business arena, such as honesty and fairness. I have argued
that reflection on what ethics demands makes the hurdles
impossibly high. The stark truth is that manufacturers and
advertisers are as much controlled by the fickle consumer as in
control. Rules can be set down concerning what is factually
49
9
truthful, decent and fair. It is not the advertiser's job to make

people better than they are, or want better things than they
want. That is the work for politicians and preachers, or, possibly,
philosophers. A defence of advertising against unjustified
demands is bound to be less spectacular than an attack. However,
don't forget the point of all this. My aim is to defend ethics
against pressures that would weaken or dilute its requirements in
order to fit in with a so-called 'business ethic'. Ultimately, we
are all members of the moral world, whatever games we choose to
play, whatever other worlds we may inhabit. No-one escapes
ethics.
Bibliography
1. www.google .co.in
2. www.yahoo.com
3. www.wikipedia.org
4. Chris Moore of Ogilvy & Mather
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5. Philip kotler
6. Advertising Management: Rajeev Batra, John G.
Myers & David A. Aaker: Prentice Hall India.
51

Ethics of Advertisement

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Advertisement Ethics by Shuva Brata Basak 200

PAILAN COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT &

I am extremely indebted to the help that I have

I am also thankful to my friends & my family.

2. What is meant by Advertisement 4

3. What is Ethics? 5-7

4. Ethics of Advertisement : Introduction 8-9

5. Ethics & Advertising 10-17

6. Ethics of Advertising 18-21

7. Some Ethical & Moral principles 22-26

8. The Ethics of Behavioral Advertisement 27-30

9. Attention, But at What Cost! 31-38

10. Benefits of Ethical Advertising 39-42

11. Harm done by Unethical Advertising 43-48

What do you mean by advertisement?

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to

Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions

The significance of ethical formulations, today, as in all times, is

But within our generation there is the appearance of a growing

When we ask why individuals act unethically, we must also be

I contend that many of the ethical formulations of our time lack

Different people have different beliefs about what constitutes

When faced with ethical dilemmas, it’s important to consider

1. Is my decision a truthful one?

2. Is my decision fair to everyone affected?

When these four questions can truthfully be answered with a

Another way of making sure decisions are truly ethical is by using

Ethics of Advertisement: An Introduction

It is understandable that professionals and students of

It is difficult for me to see how this ad advanced Dolce &

It is up to the company and its ad agency to internally articulate

Advertising ethics in my view also includes truthfulness and

Ethics and advertising

I regard the business arena — the world of buyers and sellers,

Ethics, as understood here, is defined by the I-thou relationship:

As a professional metaphysician, I am fascinated by the idea that

They sell us dreams, entice us into confusing dreams with

Gilbert Ryle in his book Plato's Progress (Cambridge: Cambridge

sell us material things. The two could not be more different. I

So is this true? — 'As an advertiser, it's OK to sell a dream if

sensitive to such appeals to improve their health and life style,

to be regarded as offensive. It is hard to question a belief when

and making pancakes for your kids on Saturday won't assuage

consumers process information peripherally. Repetition,

Some Ethical & Moral Principles

For Christians, moreover, the law of human nature has a deeper

In this context, the media of social communications have two

they are destructive forces in conflict with human well being.

Against this background, then, we point to this fundamental

If an instance of advertising seeks to move people to choose and

This applies also to the means and the techniques of advertising:

Within this very general framework, we can identify several

shall speak briefly of three: truthfulness, the dignity of the

Even today, some advertising is simply and deliberately untrue.

To be sure, advertising, like other forms of expression, has its

But it is a fundamental principle that advertising may not

There is an "imperative requirement" that advertising "respect

These abuses are not merely hypothetical possibilities but

This problem is especially acute where particularly vulnerable

Much advertising directed at children apparently tries to exploit

upon their fears so as to persuade them to allocate some of their

3. Advertising and Social Responsibility